JANE – Review

Jane Goodall in JANE. Photo by Hugo van Lawick. © National Geographic

In 1957, famed anthropologist Louis Leakey chose three young women to study the great apes in the wild, as a way to understand early man. To study, gorillas, he picked Dian Fossey, for orangutans, he picked Birute Galdikas, and to study chimpanzees, he chose Jane Goodall.

It was Jane Goodall who first captured the public imagination, in part through a National Geographic film highlighting the groundbreaking work of this blonde, slim, pretty young English woman living among with chimps. While news reports spoke breathlessly about the bravery of this young English woman alone in the wild, the fact was that living in African and studying animals had been Jane Goodall’s childhood dream. And she wasn’t alone: she took her intrepid middle-aged mother with her.

These are among the startling surprises revealed in the delightful documentary JANE, which is sure to boost your admiration for her hard work and for her cleverness. The documentary combines long-lost footage of young Jane Goodall, shot by National Geographic photographer Hugo van Lawick, her future husband, and narrated by the present-day Jane with a soaring score by Phillip Glass. Directed by Brett Morgen (KURT COBAIN: MONTAGE OF HECK, THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE), JANE has more to reveal about this familiar figure and her work than you suspect. You may think you know Jane Goodall but this documentary reveals there is far more to her story than you think.

The documentary features film footage shot by van Lawick of Goodall in Gombe, Tanzania, in the early 1960s, early in her work but after her initial ground-breaking discoveries about chimpanzees. Van Lawick’s footage, long believed lost but recently found in storage, is beautiful to look at, showing a lush green landscape and a 26-year-old Goodall hiking through it in search of chimps. The color footage is intercut with black and white stills, and contemporary shots of present-day Goodall. Goodall herself tells of growing up dreaming of doing the things men were allowed to do and which were forbidden to women, of loving the outside,animals and climbing trees, reading Tarzan and dreaming of Africa. Her family didn’t have the money to send her to college but she worked and saved so she could go to Africa.

It is clear from Goodall’s telling that she was born for this job, living in the Gombe forest studying chimpanzees. Leakey chose Goodall and the others for his ape studies because he wanted researchers who had not been to college and so were free of the preconceived notions about how research should be done and about apes common at the time. He also was looking for people with endless patience, as Goodall recounts.

Unaware of the usual rules for wildlife study, Jane Goodall set about to get the chimps used to her presence, gave them names instead of numbers and was open to recognizing their emotional, social and intellectual capacity. At the time, it was thought that only man made and used tools. Jane Goodall’s careful observations and meticulous documentation lead to the astounding discovery of that apes altered twigs and used them to retrieve termites from holes, an example of tool use and pre-tool making. The discovery astonished the scientific community and brought Goodall and her research world-wide attention.

The interview footage with the now 83-year-old Jane Goodall is as fascinating as watching the 26-year-old researcher climb trees and play with baby chimps. The film tells Goodall’s personal story, her romance and marriage to Hugo van Lawick (which made her a baroness), their establishment of a research station and training for new researchers, and so forth. Along the way, Goodall earned the degree that would give her standing in scientific community to publish her astonishing work. The film also describes Goodall’s canny use of the public fascination with her good-looks and unlikely story to raise funds for her work.

The combination of her work and little-known personal side makes JANE a must-see for anyone ever interested in the work of Jane Goodall and chimpanzees. The beautiful vintage footage and Phillip Glass’ striving, uplifting score make the film a pleasant journey as well as a delightful, insightful one.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars