Gorillas in the Mist

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Gorillas in the Mist (1988), which has similar themes to another film analyzed on this blog, Instinct, begins with Dian Fossey (Sigourney Weaver) arriving late for a lecture on the possible extinction of the Mountain Gorilla in central Africa. Poachers have dwindled the population of the animal, an example of short-sighted human selfishness that endangers the environment for all. The lecturer, Dr. Louis Leakey (Iain Cuthbertson), says interest in these gorillas is important because we should want to know who we are and “what it was that made” us “that way,” since we evolved from these creatures. He believes it is important to see how they adapted to their environment to give us a clue as to how humans did so.

Fossey wrote to Leakey six times asking about working in Africa and shows up here to physically get in touch with the man to plead her case. Since she is a physical therapist who works with handicapped children who don’t like anyone getting near them, she believes she is qualified to use her skills to approach and study the gorillas. She convinces him with her passionate plea that she can take a census of the animals for six months in the wild.

The mission is complicated by civil war where she is going. The residents there tell Leakey that a woman living alone in the jungle must be “mad,” which shows a sexist attitude prevalent for the time. One of the men, Sembagare (John Omirah Miluwi) becomes her tracker. A priest taught him how to speak English. That fact also explains why he wears a St. Christopher’s medal, the patron saint of travelers. The implication here is that maybe a spiritual element is necessary to embark on Fossey’s mission.

She has traveled thirty-five hours, and Leakey wants her to leave immediately for a four-hour drive to her destination. She even must figure out how to drive a four-wheel-drive stick-shift Land Rover immediately. She wants to at least take a shower. He says she doesn’t need one here. This scene shows the immediate need to transition to a much more primitive world. But she says she left her job and fiancée. She even had her appendix removed since a previous adventurer suffered from appendicitis, so she wanted to be preventive. That dedication she argues is enough to have at least her luggage containing her personal items accompany her. She says, “if they don’t go, I don’t go.” Again, her persistence convinces Leakey. However, he flies off to Tanzania to do his work, leaving her to figure out how she can accomplish her goals, including writing weekly reports and contributing to National Geographic. There is no easing into her new job, and she must use all her personal skills to succeed.

The terrain she passes through shows us the remote, rugged, and primal territory where she must live and do her work. The contrast to the Western version of civilization is stark. Leaving their vehicle behind she and her guide and porters must go into the jungle up a steep hill. Sembagare says she can rest since even buffalo must stop on their journey. She is driven by her dedication and possibly her arrogance, so she refuses to quit hiking.

She finally rests when they arrive at the cabin where she will stay. She learns of the death of Sembagare’s family which occurred when his tribe was “wiped out.” The film stresses the ferocious nature of her surroundings here.

The film depicts another problem Fossey encounters in a humorous way. She travels four hours with Sembagare supposedly looking for gorilla night nests so they can take a census. Fossey thinks her tracker knows what to do but it turns out he doesn’t and says he was waiting for her to show him!

Six weeks have passed and they have not seen any gorillas, which adds to Fossey’s frustration and fatigue. One day she slips in gorilla excrement which points to the animals being close by. The implication is that sometimes one must go through unsavory hurdles to reach the desired goal. It pays off here as Fossey spots a gorilla and her response is ecstatic.

They find a troop of gorillas but the process of approaching them poses another challenge. The leader spots them and charges, causing Fossey to roll down a hill after she runs. When Sembagare asks what her book on gorillas advises in such a situation, she says it’s not to run, the exact opposite of what is instinctual. So, one must even question one’s first impulse in this alien environment.

An even more frightening incident occurs next. The local military tosses her written work out of her shelter. They say that they don’t want white people there. It is most likely because outsiders pose a risk to their authoritarian control, so they call Fossey a spy and want her out of the country. She is defiant as always as the soldiers roughly put her in a jeep. The opposing forces in the civil war fire their rifles near the vehicle. She is caught in the middle of the opposing factions. There are camera shots from her perspective showing the horrific acts of the soldiers. We are seeing events through her eyes. Her noble goals of helping save the almost extinct gorillas come up against the darker aspects of humans.

We get information by way of Fossey vocalizing her letters to Leakey. Thrown out of the country and losing her research information, she at least reunites with Sembagare on her way to find Roz Carr (Julie Harris), who Leakey said would help her. She says she will resign and go back to her fiancée. Playing it safe is not really in her nature. Carr loves the African people but recognizes the suffering there is constant. It raises the question, why is that so, and perhaps the fault is due to both domestic and foreign reasons.

When Fossey views majestic mountains nearby she believes mountain gorillas would live there. Carr says the peaks are on the other side of the border. Fossey’s meaningful words are, “gorillas don’t know borders.” Animals don’t restrict freedom, only humans do that. She realizes she shouldn’t have sent her resignation letter. However, Carr may have insight into Fossey’s passion, so she still has the letter.

Fossey now is in Rwanda where there is no civil war. However, her aggressive side is apparent since she now has a gun and is ready to battle anyone who tries to deter her from her mission. She has porters and Sembagare but she approaches the gorillas alone to lessen any feelings of threat on the part of the animals. The use of voiced letters back and forth to Leakey help to express thoughts even though they can’t have an in-person dialogue. He warns her of getting too close, but she is able to approach close enough that the gorillas jump over her and the young ones climb on her as if wanting to play. The leader, the silverback, watches attentively, allowing Fossey access while still staying vigilant. The terrible news is that the number of gorillas has decreased even worse than expected.

Fossey mimics hand and facial movements of the gorillas and they become fascinated by her, which allows her to get close to them. Then a tribe of natives who are threatening appear because they believe Fossey has disturbed the gravesite of one of their members. The leader touches Fossey’s hair and decides that its reddish color makes her a witch, so they depart most likely out of fear. Fossey uses the witch idea to scare the Batwa away from interfering with her. The acceptance by the animals contrasts with the hostile approach of the humans.

At the marketplace, a woman tries to sell Fossey a gorilla hand. Fossey is outraged and chases the woman, who escapes. Fossey realizes that despite the claim that the animals are safe in the area, the facts show otherwise. There are several animal traps placed there by the Batwa, a hunter group. Fossey dismantles many of these traps in defiance of the local hunters.

As she records gorilla sounds and imitates their noises and movements, she becomes more apelike, which distances her from the worse aspects of humans. Bob Campbell (Bryan Brown) shows up, a photographer for National Geographic, and says he thought he heard a real animal before entering her cabin. Fossey is not thrilled about having a photographer there, probably for fear of scaring the gorillas. He goes with her and Sembagare to look for the gorillas. Campbell says that the Batwa are hired by doctors, who always have copies of National Geographic in their offices. He says the Batwa just want to earn a living so they can eat. It’s those who hire them that get animal parts as souvenirs.

The silverback, whom Fossey has named Digit because of webbed fingers, charges Campbell as he photographs. Fossey tells Campbell to look submissive and pretend to eat leaves. She approaches Digit, and puts her hand next to the gorilla, who holds her hand. It is a moving moment that Campbell’s face reflects.

Fossey and Campbell have chemistry and become romantically involved. She knew from the first night he was married because he shook the rain off his parka before coming in, suggesting that a single man wouldn’t care about getting the inside area wet. He asks if his being married matters. She answers, “apparently not.” Could her defiance of human social codes derive from her becoming more attached to the animal world?

As the gorillas become used to Campbell’s presence, they allow him more access, and he feels happy. The scene shows how these relatives of people can connect to humans, maybe even better than how people accept one another.

The next scene shows the ugliness of humans as poachers attack and kill four of the gorillas Fossey was studying to capture a baby to sell to a zoo. She captures a child who is part of the poachers’ group and uses superstitious fear, a primitive human feeling, since she is dealing with baser instincts. She dons a mask and hair of a witch and frightens information out of the child. She this learns where the poachers were taking the chimp.

She finds the chimp whining in a box in the van of the person who paid for the poaching. She saves the animal and confronts the culprit, Claude Van Veeten (Konstantin Alexesandrov). He is at a swank dining spot which stresses how the rich can sometimes use their power to harm the powerless. He has a letter from the government that allows him to acquire the baby gorilla. She is defiant while he threatens to have Fossey arrested. The scene shows an unholy alliance between the affluent and the government.

Fossey makes a deal with a government official to acquire anti-poaching rangers to help protect, as she says, “her gorillas.” But she must eventually give up the chimp. It shows her protectiveness, but maybe also her possessiveness regarding the animals. She nurses the chimp back to help, showing her maternal instinct.

Campbell returns from his excursion and tells her that her campaign to save the gorillas has become well known. He also asked his wife for a divorce. She says she is scared. His humorous response is, “You’re scared? I’m about to marry a girl who’s liable to have gorillas for bridesmaids.” It’s the funniest line in the film, but it stresses how committed Fossey has become to the animals. She is traumatized on the day she does have to release the chimp. She later learns that the chimp died one year later. She says it’s good for the chimp, implying it’s worse to live a captive life among humans.

Her dedication to the gorillas outweighs her need for human connection. Campbell has work offers to be a photographer elsewhere and wants her to come with him on those jobs. However, Fossey can’t conceive of leaving her new family even for a day, so they part ways. She cries with her new family, sharing her loss with the gorillas.

At this point, Leakey has passed away. She has research assistants now and has not had a poaching in ten months. An unknow gorilla confronts her and her group aggressively. Fossey is so knowledgeable at this point that she tells them to stay still while she glares threateningly at the gorilla. She wards off the threat and says it was, “Just a bluff.” She has become one with the jungle.

The tranquility does not last while human greediness exists. The group that the gorilla Digit rules is attacked by poachers and they kill Digit, taking his head and his hands, as he defends his family. The guards capture two poachers. Fossey scares one poacher by staging a mock hanging. She has the poachers arrested. Her new researchers do not have the stomach for what Fossey is doing as she becomes more aggressive, more animal-like.

She raids the camp of poachers with her rangers and Sembagare. She sniffs around like a feral animal and then in an outrage burns the camp. She fires the research assistants who have sex by stating that place is not a “summer camp.” She tells them to get off “my mountain.” She is engulfed in rage and acts as if she oversees that part of the jungle.

She finds Digit’s troop which brings her immense joy to know that they have survived, even the pregnant gorilla, who has now given birth. And the members of the troop remember her and accept her the way a family should greet one of its members. She threatens the man hiring the poachers, Claude Van Veeten (Konstantin Alexesandrov) by saying if he sends more men to kill and capture gorillas, she’ll cut off his hand and use it as an ashtray, referring to what some of the buyers of gorilla body parts have done.

Sembagare warns her that she is making dangerous enemies, including those in the Rwandan government. She scares off tourists, telling them they can catch typhus, and she actually shot over their heads at one point. Sembagare says that means less money spent in the country. She says that she received a new work permit that extends her time there by three years. Of course, that makes her more of a target for those who want her gone.

At night, the time when cowardly evil deeds take place, the camera moves, imitating a threatening presence, and we only see the shadow of the attacker which makes the evil more general. Fossey is vulnerable, thinking she is safe in her bed, holding a picture of her beloved chimp as she falls asleep. The shadow of a machete reflects the deadly downward movement of the blade. Afterwards, we see Fossey’s blood dripping on the photo, both she and her animal child joined in death.

Fossey is buried next to her beloved Digit. The camera shows their family of gorillas enjoying their jungle home. The end notes state that Fossey saved many gorillas from poachers and her actions led to the repopulation of the species.