Review: One Lucky Elephant (2011)
Mark R. Leeper
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: In this documentary the elephant Flora
became tired and bored with performing at Circus
Flora. Owner and caregiver David Balding was
faced with the question of finding a situation in
which his beloved elephant would be happy for what
could be forty years. This was much harder than
keeping, caring for, and training the circus
elephant the previous sixteen years. The animal
cannot return to the wild and there is little
provision in the United States keeping an elephant
happy. In the end this documentary questions the
entire institution of keeping wild animals in
circuses and zoos. It is a statement on the
relationship of humans and animals. Rating:
low +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10
When dealing with a person and trying to find what that person
wants you have two good tools. You have what the person says and
how he/she behaves. When dealing with an animal, even an
intelligent and social animal like an elephant, there is no
language communication and the animal's behavior is difficult to
interpret because it crosses species lines. When Circus Flora's
elephant Flora got to about age eighteen it was clear that she no
longer was getting much pleasure from performing for audiences. If
an elephant becomes unhappy that is a bad enough situation, but
with ten thousand pounds of mass and that much strength the massive
animal can become very dangerous. And a sufficiently disturbed
elephant may give no human-detectable signs of anger one minute and
can be a killer the next. Director and co-writer Lisa Leeman
brings her documentary cameras to follow Flora's owner-and-trainer
David Balding who is facing the most difficult decisions of his
life trying to find where Flora will be happy. As an example, when
Flora is placed in an elephant sanctuary the woman running it asked
Balding not to visit Flora. Balding and his wife see what is
happening is like having a daughter in boarding school who would be
cheered to see her loved ones periodically. At the sanctuary the
assumption is that Flora is suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder from the horrific loss of her real mother and visits from
the Baldings would bring up feelings of abandonment. There is no
good way to ask the elephant.
The film covers Balding's nine-year search for a home where he
hoped Flora would be happy--and the hope that such a place even
exists. At every step Balding understands that in the end he might
know if he has failed and Flora is unhappy, but he can never know
if he has succeeded and given her peace of mind.
Balding goes from one plan to the next. Initially, he hopes to
resettle Flora in Botswana. This may be the best of alternatives--
to return Flora to Africa and the wild. But the political sands
shift making the Botswana plan impossible. And as the search goes
on from 2000 to 2008 with Flora becoming more disturbed and
frequently unhappier. Flora is placed in a zoo while David
searches for a more permanent home, but then she attacks one of the
zoo staff. In the end we can never know if Flora is happy. For
all we know she might have preferred going back to the circus,
though that option is not discussed.
The title of this film is both straightforward and ironic. One
could hardly call "lucky" an elephant who saw her mother killed by
humans and who was brought literally in chains to a part of the
world very different from her home and is kept in imprisonment and
loneliness for the rest of her life. As much pleasure as she had
ever gotten from performing before people, the best that could be
hoped for is to be able to interpret from her behavior that she was
not always very unhappy in performing. But now at the end of that
"career" it is giving her no pleasure. If Flora had really been
"lucky" she and her mother would have lived in the wild to an old
age. But perhaps was "lucky" in some senses. Humans can be very
selfish and uncaring toward animals, but at least Flora had David
Balding who loved her and sincerely tried to do what Flora would
want, even if that was only choosing the best of some bad
alternatives. To the extent Flora was lucky, it was having the
devotion of Balding. Flora does seem to end in stable
circumstances, but her fate is questionable as giving a happy
ending to the film. One of the members of the Circus Flora
suggests that wild animals should be left in the wild. The
statement is given little emphasis, but in the end that is probably
the message of the film. The film lists five countries that have
banned uisng wild animals in circuses and the film makes a subtle
but powerful statement that that really is the best policy.
ONE LUCKY ELEPHANT is a true and very real account of a man-animal
relationship. It is the type of film that might well return to the
viewer every time the viewer sees animals in a circus or zoo. I
rate ONE LUCKY ELEPHANT a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10.
Film Credits: <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1053902/>
Mark R. Leeper
mle...@optonline.net
Copyright 2011 Mark R. Leeper
ONE LUCKY ELEPHANT
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: In this documentary the elephant Flora
became tired and bored with performing at Circus
Flora. Owner and caregiver David Balding was
faced with the question of finding a situation in
which his beloved elephant would be happy for what
could be forty years. This was much harder than
keeping, caring for, and training the circus
elephant the previous sixteen years. The animal
cannot return to the wild and there is little
provision in the United States keeping an elephant
happy. In the end this documentary questions the
entire institution of keeping wild animals in
circuses and zoos. It is a statement on the
relationship of humans and animals. Rating:
low +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10
When dealing with a person and trying to find what that person
wants you have two good tools. You have what the person says and
how he/she behaves. When dealing with an animal, even an
intelligent and social animal like an elephant, there is no
language communication and the animal's behavior is difficult to
interpret because it crosses species lines. When Circus Flora's
elephant Flora got to about age eighteen it was clear that she no
longer was getting much pleasure from performing for audiences. If
an elephant becomes unhappy that is a bad enough situation, but
with ten thousand pounds of mass and that much strength the massive
animal can become very dangerous. And a sufficiently disturbed
elephant may give no human-detectable signs of anger one minute and
can be a killer the next. Director and co-writer Lisa Leeman
brings her documentary cameras to follow Flora's owner-and-trainer
David Balding who is facing the most difficult decisions of his
life trying to find where Flora will be happy. As an example, when
Flora is placed in an elephant sanctuary the woman running it asked
Balding not to visit Flora. Balding and his wife see what is
happening is like having a daughter in boarding school who would be
cheered to see her loved ones periodically. At the sanctuary the
assumption is that Flora is suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder from the horrific loss of her real mother and visits from
the Baldings would bring up feelings of abandonment. There is no
good way to ask the elephant.
The film covers Balding's nine-year search for a home where he
hoped Flora would be happy--and the hope that such a place even
exists. At every step Balding understands that in the end he might
know if he has failed and Flora is unhappy, but he can never know
if he has succeeded and given her peace of mind.
Balding goes from one plan to the next. Initially, he hopes to
resettle Flora in Botswana. This may be the best of alternatives--
to return Flora to Africa and the wild. But the political sands
shift making the Botswana plan impossible. And as the search goes
on from 2000 to 2008 with Flora becoming more disturbed and
frequently unhappier. Flora is placed in a zoo while David
searches for a more permanent home, but then she attacks one of the
zoo staff. In the end we can never know if Flora is happy. For
all we know she might have preferred going back to the circus,
though that option is not discussed.
The title of this film is both straightforward and ironic. One
could hardly call "lucky" an elephant who saw her mother killed by
humans and who was brought literally in chains to a part of the
world very different from her home and is kept in imprisonment and
loneliness for the rest of her life. As much pleasure as she had
ever gotten from performing before people, the best that could be
hoped for is to be able to interpret from her behavior that she was
not always very unhappy in performing. But now at the end of that
"career" it is giving her no pleasure. If Flora had really been
"lucky" she and her mother would have lived in the wild to an old
age. But perhaps was "lucky" in some senses. Humans can be very
selfish and uncaring toward animals, but at least Flora had David
Balding who loved her and sincerely tried to do what Flora would
want, even if that was only choosing the best of some bad
alternatives. To the extent Flora was lucky, it was having the
devotion of Balding. Flora does seem to end in stable
circumstances, but her fate is questionable as giving a happy
ending to the film. One of the members of the Circus Flora
suggests that wild animals should be left in the wild. The
statement is given little emphasis, but in the end that is probably
the message of the film. The film lists five countries that have
banned uisng wild animals in circuses and the film makes a subtle
but powerful statement that that really is the best policy.
ONE LUCKY ELEPHANT is a true and very real account of a man-animal
relationship. It is the type of film that might well return to the
viewer every time the viewer sees animals in a circus or zoo. I
rate ONE LUCKY ELEPHANT a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10.
Film Credits: <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1053902/>
Mark R. Leeper
mle...@optonline.net
Copyright 2011 Mark R. Leeper