National Geographic: Predators at War

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Starring: National Geographic
Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Type: DVD
Studio: National Geographic Video
Release Date: 2005-03-15
Follow Africa's five mega-predators as they struggle for survival in a cruel season of deprivation on South Africa's Mala Mala Reserve. To survive they must compete for the same resources using every physical and psychological weapon in their respective arsenals. Who will emerge as top predator? What will it take to survive? From the perspective of the very creatures now pitted against one another Predators at War reveals the ultimate inside look at animal survival through groundbreaking images innovative story-telling and the visual language of war.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. UPC: 727994751014

Excellent documentary marred by gimmicks
This is not a video about normal interactions between predators. Rather, this is a video about predators under stress. Drought has hit the Mala Mala game reserve, and two rainy seasons have passed with little or no rain. Food is scarce, and the competition between the predators is becoming more and more fierce.

The normal enmity between lions and hyenas, never quiet in the best of times, is intensified. Both lions and hyenas steal prey cached in trees by leopards, hyenas leaping from the ground, and lions climbing to dangerous heights. Lightly built cheetahs, who normally abandon their prey at the slightest opposition, instead defend it. Wild dogs and vultures also vie for their share. Increased competition means more confrontation - and more violence.

Third generation game warden Kim Wolhuter captures the action on film. There is no lack of dramatic moments, whether during hunts, or during the sometimes fatal fights over carcasses that follow. The video does not flinch from showing the details - details which, while sometimes gruesome, nonetheless illuminate the underlying ecological dynamic. Wolhuter's occasional commentary helps explain how the drought is affecting the animals' behavior, making them more aggressive and less predictable.

Unfortunately, the producers saw fit to jazz up an already good video with questionable metaphors and sometimes inappropriate special effects. The narration pushes military similes too far - lions, while powerful, are not armored like tanks. The visualization of the animals' musculature is useful, but the visualizations of the animals as mechanical robots is at best gimmicky. The special effects used for the lion's roar could be misleading, and the sequence on hyenas hearing the sounds of a lion kill seem to have no bearing on reality.

If you're already familiar with how these predators normally behave, and you can filter out the sometimes overdone narration and special effects, this video is worth buying. If you just want some gory entertainment, it may even be perfect. On the other hand, if you think the gimmicks will bother you, you may want to look for an alternative. If you don't mind VHS, National Geographic: Africa's Stolen River documents another drought in another part of Africa without the gimmicks. If this is your first video on African wildlife, you might want to consider National Geographic Video: Africa's Animal Oasis on VHS, or the Joubert's classic National Geographic: Eternal Enemies - Lions and Hyenas on DVD.

what im looking for
This was a very informational movie that depicted real life situations for the animals targeted in the film. There was no sugar coating and everything was real. Many of the animal videos and shows that come out are boring with repetitive information and are often quite boring to watch. This video kept you watching with the many different things that kept occuring. I loved this video it was much more like what I watched as a child.

too bloody and boring
I downloaded this documentary to my XBox Live and watched it recently. What stroke me is the focus of operator on animal carcasses and bloody fights between animals in dry season. Authors seems to take pleasure not only in shooting lioness, trapped up the tree, but also follow her downfall and then show her dead body hanging from the branch for extended amount of time. They picture harsh life of Africa from the most savage point of view, portraying predators carrying parts of their prey, and taking visible pride in doing so. The main human character (who, apparently, shot a lot of footage) is not humane at all, and he even said it at some point, something like "you have to distance yourself from it". Footage of him driving around in an old truck takes too much time of the film and scenes where he talks are really boring. Special effects (which they needlessly have put in many instances) are way below modern standards.
While the documentary has some nice shots (cheetah or leopard hunt scenes, especially) total amount of them is 5 minutes maximum.
I would definitely NOT RECOMMEND this show to any animal lover, it just not worth it. Especially, nobody would love to see dead lion cub.

Agree with dutch_oven
I think this is a very poor product, comparing to any BBC series like "Life of the mammals" or even compared to some NG films that I've seen before.

Content is focused on dismembered bodies (I still remember the head (!) of a lion cub hanging on what was left of his neck). While predators indeed kill prey and each other, normally a naturalist-type documentary would try to show the most interesting scenes and not the most cruel and disgusting, while this one seems to only be interested in separated heads, paws etc, like there is nothing else they could show about animals.

Again, what I did not like about this series was not the fact that some cruel scenes were included, but that it was focused on them and featured them as the most important part.

Commentary has nothing to do with natural history but more reminds of stupid (in my opinion) shows like "Survivor" etc.

The film is trying to create a false, intimidating image of rare and beautiful predators by artificially combining information taken out of context, and thus by NO means should be advertised as a film on natural history. It also is definitely not suitable for children and at the same time will be boring for most of the adults.

Dizzy...
The content of this video would have been very interesting to watch if it were not for the director trying to add action to a naturally occuring event such as predators attacking prey...It jumps from clip to clip much too rapidly and it is difficult to watch...unless you like to be dizzy...

I gave it 3 stars because the content is good...But the clips needed to slow down a little so you would have more time to see what was going on.