Project Nim | DVD Review

The debate in the US whether wild animals should be allowed to be kept in captivity, both as pets or as test subjects, has raged on for years. Director James Marsh, the creator of Man On Wire, has crafted a film that presents a unique case against keeping animals in captivity with Nim, a chimpanzee that was taken from his mother shortly after birth, and became the subject of a test to see whether or not chimps had the capacity to learn and successfully use sign language. The award-winning, Sundance Film Festival preemed Project Nim tells the chimp’s story with grace, and a keen observance of the fine lines that separate humans from wild animals.

In 1973, Nim was ripped from his mother, and placed in the Lafarge family home to live amongst humans by Professor Herbert Terrace, of Columbia University, with hopes of true communication between species. Nim’s teacher Laura-Ann Petitto visited him during the week, but it quickly became clear that the chaotic hippy household was not conducive to the project. With help from Columbia, he was then moved to a University owned ranch where he lived with several linguist teachers in a mansion to advance his learning program. As time went by Nim’s vocabulary grew immensely, but as he aged the safety of those participating in the project became more and more questionable. The project was shut down, but the now intellectualized chimp was left with nowhere to go that fit his needs. He was used to hanging out with people, eating human food, and playing in the spacious outdoors that surrounded his immense house, but he was unfortunately placed in a series of caged environments, often with other chimps whom he didn’t know how to socialize with.

The film tries its best to remain objective in its presentation of the story by interviewing almost everyone that was directly connected with the story, but by choosing this subject in the first place it’s obvious Marsh along with a few of Nim’s teachers would like to see these practices outlawed. This may be the main issue at hand, but the film is existential, often broaching the topic of nature vs. nurture, and the excitement of the potential to communicate outside the human species. It’s evident that Nim left a major impact on those that worked with him, not just because of his ability to sign, but because of his beaming personality, and fondness for physical human touch that was exposed in the process. Vintage photographs and video footage paired with sincere new interviews and recreated scenes tell his story with passion. It’s clear that nearly everyone involved had good intentions about Nim, but humans make mistakes, and unfortunately one after another was made here that deeply effected the quality of life of this unlucky chimp.

Lionsgate has decided to abstain from an HD release for the film, but the 1.78:1 DVD transfer showed no signs of fallacy. The old Super 8 films are perfectly blended with foggy recreated footage and stylized interviews making for a slick production that shines on screen. Any damage found is surely from the original source material rather than the digital presentation. The 5.1 Dolby Digital EX audio track is never pushed, but all dialogue sounds natural and the appropriate score sounds warm. The disc itself comes packaged in a standard DVD case.

Audio Commentary with Director James Marsh
While sipping on a stiff drink, Marsh speaks openly about many aspects of the production. These range from personal experiences with interviewees to the many facts about chimp training he learned in the process. He often falls into the habit of describing what is happening on screen, but he quickly realizes this and expands from there.

“Making Nim” Featurette
Far exceeding what you’d normally find as a documentary extra feature, this 33-minute “making of” piece is a thorough feature that runs through each stage of production with Marsh sitting in the interviewee hot seat. The featurette matches the production values of the feature with stylized interviews and on screen graphics. An abundance of time is spent on the recreated scenes and the film’s running thematic elements. If you liked the film, this comes highly recommended.

“Bob’s Journey” Featurette
This 11-minute piece features Nim’s friend and biggest supporter, Bob Ingersoll, as he finally experiences the long due acknowledgement for his advocacy for chimps. Supporting the film Bob traveled the film festival circuit in support of the film, and even met one of the few fellow world renowned chimp advocates. Like the “making of” featurette, the piece contains above average production values for a DVD extra.

Theatrical Trailer
For whatever reason, this trailer outputs at the incorrect aspect ratio, so the image is vertically smooshed with black bars on the top and bottom of the image. The trailer itself is a perfect condensation of the film, giving key plot points, while conveying the wonder and horror of Nim’s extraordinary life.

James Marsh once again uses his story telling brilliance to construct an emotional portrait of a chimp that informs us more about ourselves as humans than its subject. Sleek editing and a wealth of archival footage unveil a sad, and thought provoking tale of humans overstepping their reach in the name of science without regard to the well being of other living creatures. Project Nim was one of the best films of 2011, and it has received a commendable DVD release from Lionsgate.

Movie rating – 4

Disc Rating – 3