Escape From Extinction Rewilding (2024) review
There’s a certain cold irony in watching Escape from Extinction Rewilding just days after Hurricane Helene tore through North Carolina. Environmental issues continue to pop up at an alarming rate and the alarm bells are ringing louder than ever from experts.
Despite the doom and gloom forecasts, Escape from Extinction Rewilding takes a different approach — one of hope and encouragement that it’s not too late for mankind to turn the tide. One means of aiding that effort. Defending the planet’s wildlife.
While the opening suggests that the documentary is going to prove divisive depending on viewer’s political stance with comments like “choosing facts over fear,” “solutions over slogans” and “science over special interests,” director Matthew R. Brady and writer Alex Vincent Blumberg make this a must-see for all concerned about the environment. No matter what side of the political aisle they reside.
It doesn’t hurt to have multi-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep serve as the narrator either. Streep’s soothing voice makes for a perfect guide on the measures environmentalists are taking to bring various species from the brink of extinction.
As one expert states, “We’re fighting a war to keep these animals alive.” Rewilding is the process that basically allows nature to regenerate with focused efforts to restore the area’s wildlife.
Brady makes the presentation visually appealing with framed infographics and speakers chatting while lines calmingly maneuver in the background. CGI maps and other renders are very effective in showing the geographic makeup of an area.
Escape from Extinction Rewilding is laid out in an easy-to-follow fashion. Blumberg discusses a particular region, and the wildlife challenges it faced and how stakeholders addressed it.
The first, discussing Rwanda, is one of the more impressive examples of rewilding. After massive violence led to 800,000 killed in 100 days, hundreds of thousands of Rwandans were displaced in 1994. This forced officials to shrink the Akagera National Park down to 1/3 of its original size to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of displaced citizens.
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That had a dramatic impact on the park’s wildlife. Rhino horns were seized as an easy illegal means of money while lions were killed in retaliation for killing livestock. Conservation experts took measures to find a solution for the citizens and the wildlife, but it required buy-in from the citizens who would benefit from a healthy park.
This breakdown of the symbiotic nature of the wildlife and the people was fascinating. Gorilla trek rangers now feel the need to protect their charges instead of turning their heads for a payday from poachers. Their mindset is by taking care of their natural resources everyone benefits. That mentality tracks as Streep explains how tourist dollars have become the major source of foreign dollars.
Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo formed a treaty to collaborate on conservation to move gorillas out of the critically endangered list. A planned park expansion with a buffer zone to prevent humans would lead to 20% increase in revenue and $70 million put back into local communities.
Measures to restore the park’s wildlife including bringing in 12 lions and five black rhinos from other regions is also impressive. The youngest of the black rhinos was a scene-stealer with a great shot of her playing with a cat and happily bouncing in snow. Brady gets nice and tight shots of the animals and the crisp cameras bring out all the color, textures, hair strands, feathers, etc. of the non-speaking stars.
Brady doesn’t have to spend much time making any specific group the “bad guys.” It’s enough seeing the animals in various states of happiness and bonding to make most viewers saddened or angry at the thought of someone killing them for a quick buck.
Turning to other areas of the globe, Brady showcases the Loro Parque in Spain, a major rewilding success story for its efforts with the blue-throated macaws. From the air to the sea, the film shifts to the effort to restore kelp forests and sea grass in the Pacific Northwest and Florida coasts. Shots of sea otters lazily stretching and manatees gliding underwater make for charming and amusing sights.
A welcome aspect of the story is discussed with the notion that not every well-meaning effort is helpful to the wildlife. Those measures can lead to the need for additional steps to fix the original “solution.” This was the backdrop of the Eastern Barred Bandicoot in Victoria, which needed the aid of dogs to ward off foxes originally introduced to help protect the bandicoots. The effort has been a big success as the bandicoots have now moved up on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List Categories two spots from critically endangered to vulnerable.
Dangers to conservation/environmental advocates is a major concern. According to Global Citizen Report almost 2,000 were killed over the last decade or one every other day from 2012 and 2022.
As tends to be the case with most documentaries due to the focus on one specific premise, the final half hour starts to feel a bit like information overload. To some degree, it’s simply because there’s so many examples and this is the ideal format to spotlight them.
Escape from Extinction Rewilding really could be a dedicated TV series for a streaming network. And the encouraging, uplifting nature of the documentary really could make for a welcome educational aide in classrooms or novice environmentalists. The film ends on a hopeful note that the situation isn’t impossible to course correct with helpful suggestions on how any viewer could start making an impactful change today.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Photo Credit: MRB Productions