Educational Media Reviews Online

“…how the hell did they do that?”
Rory McGuinness

The specter of death’s certainty reflected in Horace McCoy’s dark 1935 novel and film, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, is absent in this film despite the takeoff on the title. Instead it celebrates the struggle to capture life in all its marvelous forms regardless of the cost.

The central point of this documentary of a year in the field is the difficult, sometimes tedious, often dangerous, and incredibly time-consuming process of capturing wildlife on film. The marvelous scenes that go along with this “reality show” are a lovely bonus. Rebecca Scott documents her partner, photographer Rory McGuinness, their then 3-year old daughter Bella, and photographer’s assistant Matt Cadwallader as they all go about the incredibly hard work of living in the bush and filming the wild and wildlife. Anyone who has tried to capture the antics of the family pet on home video will appreciate the inventive methodologies they devise to capture elusive creatures practicing their normal behavior, and the student aspiring to film the natural world will better understand the often painful process.

An intimate and charming stage is immediately set as the film opens on time-lapsed cloud vistas fading to a sunset over a prairie where birds fly above as Bella dances and sings below. The pace and scenes follow the daily life of a year long working safari. Many shots are candid clips of the normal chatter that accompanies the extraordinary tasks of adventurers journeying through Australia’s Kakadu National Park, down the South Alligator River, and into the homeland of the Aboriginal Gagadju people.

We share not only the delightful romping of Bella and the incredible satisfaction of capturing that perfect wildlife scene, but also the disappointments and failures: slogging through waist-high swamp and mud; arduous hours spent erecting scaffolding to capture a young eagle’s first flight from the nest, only to miss the event when they take a day’s break; the exercise of sheer will as they push through the debilitating fatigue and pain of the flu-like, mosquito-spread Ross River Virus; and the embarrassing and painful loss of $100,000 worth of carefully maintained camera equipment through a careless moment in the boat. We also learn about Matt’s aspiration to be a photographer and not just an assistant, and Rory’s candid comparison of his skills to more famous documentarians. Such scenes give the viewer a compelling connection to wildlife photographers everywhere whose many hours and days of “sitting on your bum” are always transparent in the 30 minutes of film spliced from miles of videotape that seem effortless when shown on the National Geographic channel.

Sometimes photographers have to use captive animals to get the shots they need, either because the animals are too elusive or they just can’t manipulate the camera a certain way. In one instance, the hatching of crocodile eggs and the croc mother’s transport of the hatchlings in her mouth is engineered by hiding a microphone and speaker in a captive croc’s nest. In another the vulnerability of goslings is shown by tying a captive croc’s snout shut and observing the natural behavior in a way that preserves the goslings’ lives, and in yet another an Australian Aborigine dance scene is performed by a professional dance troupe, not the actual tribe.

The viewer is treated along the way to breathtaking vistas of this ancient wilderness and the unique people and other animals found in this part of Australia. Although the tongue-in-cheek title of the film makes it seem like crocodiles are the main photographic prey, Antilopine Kangaroos, geese, termite mounds, waterfalls, and birds also make their appearance. We watch a dingo chase through a flock of geese, and follow baby goslings as they grow up during the year of filming and then are released into the wild.

The film quality is fairly good considering most of the candid scenes are not set up beforehand. The sound is occasionally muffled during the unscripted and impromptu conversations. Niko Schauble’s haunting music score is appropriately included only during the scenic vistas so it doesn’t distract from the dialogue. The credits are not to be missed as spectacular wilderness video clips serve as a background.

The editors did miss some text on the film’s opening title screen which proclaims “They Shoot Corcodiles...” but we know what they mean. Navigation is through five numbered but untitled chapters. The opening screen on insertion displays a menu with the title and chapter buttons 1-5 plus a “Play” button. However, the DVD navigation menu shows chapters 1-6 -– chapter 2 being equivalent to the menu button chapter 1. Once the DVD is playing, the viewer cannot return to the main menu without reinserting the DVD for automatic start.

Not to be confused with one of Steve Irwin’s Crocodile Hunter episodes of the same title which also turned the camera on the cameramen who endure all the same hardships.

Highly recommended for junior high, high school, and college collections, public library collections, and particularly in film school and university anthropological and biological science collections where field work is part of the career.