Not many production companies can match themselves in terms of high-quality nature documentaries against the BBC, who brought us Earth, and, more recently, Life. Those extended documentaries were epic beyond comparison, and with The Great Rift: Africa's Greatest Story they have brought us a production of equal quality, only more geographically honed. Instead of the entire planet, The Great Rift plants a brave camera crew in exactly that: the Great Rift, located in the heart of Africa. Few stones are left unturned in the valleys, crevasses, volcanoes, caves, lakes, streams, and forests that make up the diverse landscape of the Great Rift.
The series is separated into three hour-long episodes, and it could easily be argued that there should be more. The surface gets more than scratched by the filmmakers, but the one inevitable drawback of any nature documentary that is made well is that it isn't made long enough. This fact is easily understood by anyone who is a fan of nature docs; so much great footage is probably left on the cutting-room floor, and all we can do is hope it makes it into the extras. The sad fact here is that there are no extras, and we are at the full mercy of the editor and his 60-minute time limit.
The three episodes are themed and titled as such: “Fire,” “Water,” and “Grass.” Each of them at least go over briefly about what the Great Rift is and how it was formed: by a plume of lava that pushed up on the middle of Africa and essentially formed cracks at the edges of the plume which eventually created great big volcanoes and valleys and all sorts of geographical wonders. Really though, it's just a big valley with some zoological favorites inhabiting it. The filmmakers introduce us to some of these creatures and teach us how they interact with each of their unique habitats.
In “Fire,” the narrator (very British and proper, of course) delves into the creation of the Great Rift a little more than the other two episodes. Get your geology hats on for this one, as most of this episode is spent on the volcanoes and the mountain ranges and how they were created and how their creation led to the valleys and other diverse evolution of the flora and fauna. There are some very basic but very understandable and ample CG animations that accompany these descriptions from the narrator that make a lot of it easy to absorb.
At the end of the episodes, there is a brief behind-the-scenes moment called “Inside the Great Rift” where a portion of the episode is shown from the crew's point of view. In “Fire,” we are shown how exactly the arduous task of filming a troop of a baboons scaling some walls deep inside a cave in the middle of the night with zero light. It's difficult for both the baboons and the crew, as you can imagine. One sound and the baboons might completely flip out and ruin the shot and leave the cave. Or worse, fall to their deaths. Or worse, fall off the cliff but still survive enough to eat the crew.
In “Water,” the topics are geared more toward the underwater life that the Great Rift boasts, and the interesting food chain that been developing for thousands of years. We even get introduced to a species of fish that, upon being alerted by a possible predator, immediately gulps up all its baby fish that are swimming nearby and houses them in her mouth until the coast is clear. Also discussed is the copious amount of rainfall and how it provides the necessary vegetation for the gorillas. We also get to see a lot of hippos, which is pretty cool. Cannot argue with hippos.
The “Inside the Great Rift” at the end of this episode is focused on a couple of the crew—a director and camera man—and their difficulty dealing with some of the worst conditions they were faced with. There are several different kinds of brutal landscapes that await any outsider daring enough to make the trek. Also, we get to see the high-tech underwater camera equipment used to film all the of the life below the sea.
“Grass” goes over some of the vegetation in depth, and its various effects it has on the wildlife. The vegetation itself competes with each other; acacia trees and grass compete for land in the Great Rift. Both plants have their strengths and weaknesses, as well as animals that feed upon them. The grass of course is grazed upon by many herbivores like water buffalo, while the acacias are eaten by giraffes and elephants and the like. By far the best part of this episode is the segment at night where we see a lioness and her cubs stalk a herd of water buffalo from literally ten feet away. The animals are unable to see each other due to a moonless night, and so the tension is pretty palpable as both sets of animals feel and listen their way around.
“Inside the Great Rift” shows us the challenge the film crew had of filming a group of sleeping chimpanzees. It sounds easy enough except that the chimps sleep in trees, as high as forty meters off the ground. And since it's dark, climbing that high while also staying silent and carrying camera equipment isn't totally simple.
BBC seems to only know how to produce quality entertainment and documentaries are well within that realm. Although more extra content would have seriously bolstered this already-great miniseries, it would be difficult to ever be fully satisfied with the quantity of footage.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
None included.
"The Great Rift: Africa's Greatest Story" is on sale August 24, 2010 and is not rated. Documentary. Directed by Mike Gunton. Written by N/A. Starring Hugh Quarshie.
