Advertisement

Movies & TV Movies & TV Reviews

Jane Goodall doc is stunning to look at

JANE (Brett Morgen). 90 minutes. Opens Friday (November 10). See listing. Rating: NNN


Early in Brett Morgen’s documentary about Jane Goodall, the British primatologist is seen riding a boat toward Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park to the orchestral swells of composer Philip Glass. In calm and unequivocal narration, Goodall explains that she always dreamed as a man – free from the restrictions the world imposes on women – and she references Hollywood characters like Doctor Dolittle and Tarzan.

“Unbiased by theory” (she had no formal training), Goodall is frequently framed against a vast landscape while exploring the park’s verdant greenery in search of elusive chimpanzees.

Thus, Jane is as much about positioning Goodall as a feminist movie hero – with all the lush visual and aural delights that entails – as it is documenting her revolutionary observations of chimp behaviour.

What sets the doc apart from other filmic treatments is the astonishing trove of previously unseen 16 mm footage shot by Goodall’s former husband, shot in the early 1960s by famed wildlife cameraman Hugo van Lawick during the key period in her research.

Morgen is known for archive-heavy documentaries on the Rolling Stones and Kurt Cobain, and while Goodall’s fastidiousness and calm dictates a more meditative pace in comparison, the first half still manages to be a mind-melding acid trip of vivid sound design and electric green landscapes punctured by bright neon bugs, flora and fauna.

As Goodall observes chimps’ parental behaviour, brutality and ability to use tools, she sees fear, joy, sorrow and jealousy – observations that come to not only reflect humanity as whole, but her own life after she begins a romance with van Lawick and gives birth to their son.

The latter half deals with Goodall’s attempts to balance family obligations and work. She reluctantly gives up her post in Gombe and travels with van Lawick to the Serengeti, where the photographer captures scenes so stunning that Morgen uses some shots more than once.

Only Goodall – the film is loosely based on her book In The Shadow Of Man – is interviewed in Jane, and she has clearly told her story many times. Once wondrous details are familiar, and her account is matter of fact. This is very much Goodall’s narrative and she remains firmly in control. Morgen contrasts her straightforwardness with a mix of sweeping, Hollywoodesque mythologizing and more rote documentary techniques, like cross-cutting montage of news footage and clips.

On one hand, exalting Goodall feels right, especially for the way she endured (and even capitalized on) sexist media coverage to keep her research going, and how she held onto a career in the face of social pressures.

But the lone-white-hero-entering-the-empty-African-wilderness image is dated and tired, especially given that the mythologies Goodall so adored as a child – namely Tarzan – now seem Eurocentric and racist. 

African people are rarely seen in the film, and the refugees that were flooding across the border from civil-war-racked Belgian Congo when Goodall first arrived in Gombe are not mentioned. 

Jane seems to exist in an idyllic vacuum only interrupted when the chimps turn violent. Morgen doesn’t challenge or question the lone hero narrative, but reinforces it with stylistic choices – like the old-school Philip Glass score – that make this film so beautiful to drink in.

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.

Recently Posted