From the folks who brought the dynamic documentary MAN ON WIRE comes a new tale. This one revolves around a chimp made famous when he began speaking to people. No this isn't a PLANET OF THE APES sequel and I don't mean he speaks, but he does communicate through sign language.
Nim, as he is named, becomes part of an experiment begun at Columbia University by Prof. Herbert Terrace. What Terrace wanted to do was show that a baby chimp raised as a human being would be able to learn to communicate as we humans do. Taken from his mother within weeks of being born, Nim is given to a grad student with a family and is indeed raised as if he were one of her children.
Interviews with those involved as well as stock footage and photographs give us the chance to witness what went on. Nim becomes the focus of the family and does learn sign language, something which the family in question hadn't made a part of their life until this experiment. Nim also shows jealousy and rage with the male head of the household while being protective of the female in charge.
More students are brought in to help teach Nim sign language and the mother in question demonstrates her own bits of jealousy during interviews when she says that one was attempting to take over as mother. It feels as if she's lost the idea that this is an experiment and actually adopted the chimp.
Different teachers are brought in throughout the experiment but eventually Nim's chimpanzee nature takes hold and he displays signs of violence, biting through the cheek of one teacher. While he has grown fond of two students who are the last to teach him (and who fell in love while doing so) the end is in sight. Fearing a lawsuit should he attack again, Terrace brings the project to an end and ships Nim back to his original home, a gathering of cells for chimps run by another professor who just studies chimp behavior.
This is not the world Nim was raised in. This is a world where chimps behave like chimps, never putting on clothes or asking for things they want. As the days progress, Nim falls into a sorry state.
Terrace on the other hand becomes a celebrity of sorts. When Nim was still part of the project he wrote a book on the research and was a guest on several talk shows discussing Nim's ability to communicate. The reality was that it was the students who had contact almost daily with Nim and Terrace's contact was very limited. When he called the project to a halt it was a cold moment but easily done since he had no clue what Nim was really like.
Another student becomes involved in working with Nim at his new home and eventually begins communicating with the chimp once again. They become friends of sort with Nim almost always wanting to play. But fate steps in once more and with decreased funding the professor in charge ships out the chimps on hand, including Nim, to medical research facilities. Here chimps are caged, drugged and have test run on them to see their reactions to various items from medicine to cosmetics. One professor here who seems to take on the role of villain eventually comes to the aid of these animals. But can Nim ever truly be saved?
The movie takes a straight forward approach not just trying to paint a portrait of an animal as a near human but showing that it does indeed possess the animal traits it was born with. Nim may have learned to communicate (which Terrace writes off as just asking for things it wants...watch and you decide if Nim can communicate) but he still has the strength of a wild chimp and the possibility of doing damage is there. But in watching as Nim learns, as he "talks" and as he shows the ability to understand those around him the question of using animals for testing is raised.
I've not taken a firm stance on the issue in the past, but after watching this film it makes me wonder if it's worth it to put animals through what we do in testing. I've never thought it was a good idea to do so for such things as cosmetics. Now I find myself questioning if it should be done for medical research as well. It's easy to say that cures have been found and formulated that have helped humans, but do we truly have the right to treat animals this way? And knowing that they can indeed have emotions and communicative abilities how human is it to do so?
I've seen films that are completely propagandistic take on the subjects they claim to be open minded about. This film doesn't feel that way. This film feels like its looking at all sides of the issue. It is interesting from start to finish and will lead you many a discussion on the topic of test animals. But more importantly it will tell people of the story of Nim and that's a story worth telling.
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