Themes: Obsessive Quests, Fighting the System, Monkeys
Main Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Bryan Brown, Julie Harris, John Omirah Miluwi, Iain Cuthbertson
Release Year: 1988
Country: US
Run Time: 130 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Gorillas in the Mist is based on the autobiographical 1983 book by naturalist Dian Fossey. Before the book could be brought before the cameras, Fossey had been mysteriously killed; her death provides a logical, if somewhat ghoulish climax to the film. A Kentucky girl, Fossey (Sigourney Weaver) is inspired by famed anthropologist Louis Leakey (Ian Cuthbertson) to devote her life to the study of primates. Travelling into deepest Africa, Fossey becomes fascinated with the lives and habits of the rare mountain gorillas of the Ugandan wilderness. Studying them at close quarters, Fossey develops a means of communicating with the gorillas, and in so doing becomes obsessed with the beasts' well-being. She is so devoted to "her" mountain that she loses the opportunity for a romance with a National Geographic photographer (Bryan Brown). Appalled by the poaching of the gorillas for their skins, Fossey complains to the Ugandan government, which dismisses her by explaining that poaching is the only means by which some of the Ugandan natives can themselves survive. She refuses to accept this, and becomes a militant animal-rights activist, burning down the poachers' villages and even staging a mock execution of one of the offenders. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Constantin Alexandrov - Van Vecten; Waigwa Wachira - Mukara; David Lansbury - Larry; Maggie O'Neill - Kim; Peter Anthony Elliott - Mime Artist; Helen Fraser - Mme. Van Vecten; Iain Glen - Brendon; Gordon Masten - Photographer; Konga Mbandu - Rushemba; Peter Nduati - Batwa Chief; Michael J. Reynolds - Howard Dowd; John Alexander - Mime Artist
Credit
Ken Court - Art Director, Rick Baker - Associate Producer, Mary Selway - Casting, Marion Dougherty - Casting, Rona Brown - Consultant/advisor, Terence A. Clegg - Co-producer, Arnold Glimcher - Co-producer, Judy Kessler - Co-producer, Robert Nixon - Co-producer, Catherine Leterrier - Costume Designer, Tim Lewis - First Assistant Director, Chris Brock - First Assistant Director, Michael Apted - Director, Simon Trevor - Second Unit Director, Stuart Baird - Editor, Peter Guber - Executive Producer, Jon Peters - Executive Producer, Maurice Jarre - Composer (Music Score), Christine Beveridge - Makeup, Rick Baker - Makeup Special Effects, Ken Court - Production Designer, John Graysmark - Production Designer, Alan Root - Cinematographer, John Seale - Cinematographer, Peter Guber - Producer, Jon Peters - Producer, Simon Wakefield - Set Designer, David Harris - Special Effects, Peter Handford - Sound/Sound Designer, Anna Hamilton Phelan - Screen Story, Tab Murphy - Screenwriter, Anna Hamilton Phelan - Screenwriter, Simon Trevor - Second Unit Director Of Photography, Robin Clarke - Music Editor, Harold T.P. Hayes - Short Story Author
