Forbidden Territory: Stanley's Search for Livingstone

We tuned in to Forbidden Territory on a night when we were surfing through free movies on OnDemand. We know little or nothing about the Livingstone-Stanley saga, so decided to give it a try. I don't recall ever seeing a movie production by National Geographic, so this was going to be new to us as well. We were very pleasantly surprised. The production values were topnotch, acting was fine, sets and cinematography very good. We enjoyed the story and ended by feeling that we learned something new. I nearly always check out "historical" stories and found several items confirmed by Wikipedia. There is even a portrait on Stanley's page done by his former fiancée, Alice Barney.

What pleased us most of all was the treatment of Livingstone's missionary work. We normally cringe when Hollywood gets hold of material with any sort of Christian theme, knowing that inevitably the Christian is portrayed as (in the words of Steve Taylor) "a loony or committing a crime." Not so here. There were no diatribes on the wrongfulness of wanting to bring Christianity and civilization to Africa. No not-so-subtle hints about how white men were going to destroy the indigenous culture and the environment. Thank you, National Geographic, for this little gem.

Fine performances from Quinn and Hawthorne, and an hilarious cameo from Edward Fox, make this film work. I also learnt things about Stanley and Livingstone that I didn't know before. But the piece plays a little too much like a history lesson, and is rather too reverential towards its subjects, especially Livingstone. Well, if not excitingly, shot in London and Africa.

Pity the makers didn't realize that David Livingstone was a Scot and not an Englishman; or perhaps even worse - that they don't know the difference! Otherwise, it was a film that my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed. It is the sort of film that has everything, a good story line, some excellent acting (especially from Edward Fox ) a bit of excitement - indeed quite a bit of excitement - and a fair bit of history. I am not sure just how close it is to actual fact but it is very enjoyable just the same. I am troubled by the ignorance of such a basic fact (the nationality of one of the principal characters) and that does raise doubts in my mind as to the accuracy of the rest but even if you were to view it all as fiction it is still well worth watching.