Jungle Book (1942) - film review

In India, a party of British tourists listen in rapture as an old local storyteller recounts a tale from his youth.  Years ago, he lived in a village that was attacked by the tiger Shere Khan.  A man was killed and his infant son left behind, to be found by wolves which reared him as one of their own.  The child, named Mowgli by his wolf mother, grows into a wild man-cub and, one day, he is discovered by the villagers.  The boy’s mother recognises him as her long lost child and teaches him to speak her language, although the other villagers are mistrustful and are ready to expel Mowgli from their community.  The boy takes a liking to Mahala, the pretty daughter of the villager Buldeo.  One day, Mowgli takes his new friend into the jungle and shows her the remains of an abandoned city, in which an ancient cobra watches over a ruined palace filled with precious jewels and gold coins.  Mahala takes one of the coins back to the village.  When her father sees the coin, he tries to coerce Mowgli into taking him to the lost city.  The jungle boy refuses, knowing that death will come to those who take the forbidden treasure.  Besides, he has his own task to perform – to hunt down and kill Shere Khan...

Rudyard Kipling’s classic novel is brought to life in this sumptuous visual feast, courtesy of the Korda brothers and the technical wizardry of Hollywood at its best in the early 1940s.  Superior even to the better known Disney animation, this film brilliantly evokes the world of Kipling’s imagination and experience, with lush colour cinematography and convincing recreations of the Indian jungle providing the texture and backdrop to a beguiling childhood fantasy. 

Who better to play the part of the feral child Mowgli than Sabu, the charismatic young Indian actor who was discovered by producer Alexander Korda?   By this stage, Sabu had become an internationally renowned star, having featured in three of Korda’s films, including the classic The Thief of Bagdad (1940), yet he had lost none of his unspoiled boyish charm.   Sabu appears as at home in the jungles of India as the wild animals that he befriends and you can easily believe that Kipling had him in mind when he created the character of Mowgli.

Through some clever editing and seamless special effects, each of the animal protagonists in the story is given a memorable personality, from the sadistic predator Shere Khan to the prissily vain python Kaa and the silkily smooth panther Bagheera.  Meanwhile, the humans are portrayed as ignoble, self-interested savages who are unwelcome intruders in the jungle paradise that Mowgli inhabits.  Viewed today, the film has an obvious conservationist, anti-capitalist slant and appeals to us to respect the natural world and not waste our lives in pursuit of material wealth.  (The bare necessities are enough - oops, wrong film.)   The Korda brothers’ Jungle Book is a piece of pure cinema magic that continues to enchant and delight audiences of all ages.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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