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This is a well-made documentary with excellent footage, a complementary musical score, and a well-organized narrative that gives viewers a full portrait of a woman who, in 1960, went alone into the heart of Africa at the age of 26 and remained there for decades studying chimpanzees.

Louis Leakey chose Goodall's vocation for her. As his secretary she did not think she had the proper qualifications to study chimps, but he knew otherwise. He sent her to Gombe National Park in Tanzania. The details of Goodall's life given in this video describe not only why Goodall chose such an unusual life but how she has been able to do it, giving the viewer a reason to care about her and in turn about the chimps.

By observing the chimp societies for three decades, she discovered that they used tools, and though she originally thought they were more gentle than humans, she learned they had a dark side too. In 1975 four of her students were kidnapped by armed rebels from Zaire and were held for 10 weeks. Goodall was harshly criticized for caring more about her research than about her students. Confronting the controversy on film makes for fascinating dialogue as Goodall defends herself.

In Jane Goodall: My Life with the Chimpanzees, viewers will learn as much about this incredibly outspoken woman as about the chimps. Her crusade to save them in the wild (at the time of the filming there were only 160 chimps left in Gombe National Park) is extremely important, as is her campaign to improve the situations of chimps in zoos or in laboratories living in horrible conditions. A visit to the chimp cages in a U.S. lab is done with utmost taste but is still mind-blowing. With a smile and mimicking a chimp's hello, Goodall gently forces us all to question the ethics of animal testing. --Cristina Del Sesto

Product Description
In the summer of 1960, 26-year-old Jane Goodall set out for Africa. Her mission was to find and observe an elusive tribe of chimpanzees. Today, almost three decades later, Jane has grown from a stranger to the chimp's loyal friend and strongest ally. Her lifelong dedication to the study of chimpanzees has helped to identify them as man's closest relative. In JANE GOODALL: MY LIFE WITH THE CHIMPANZEES, this extraordinary woman shares her personal story of the triumphs and trials that come with leading a life in the wild.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews   7 of 8 people found the following review helpful: "If I ever go to Heaven, I hope it is like the forests of Gombe.", July 29, 2005 By  Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews       In one of National Geographic's most famous videos, Jane Goodall's pioneering studies of the chimpanzees in the Gombe forest of Tanzania come to life in living color. Goodall began her work in 1957, when she was a 23-year-old protégée of Dr. Louis Leakey, volunteering to become the first person to study chimpanzees for an extended period of time. Eventually, she would spend thirty years living in a tent and enduring difficult conditions, studying three generations of the same chimpanzee family. Photographed by Hugo Van Lawick, Goodall's husband for eleven years, the video shows major discoveries, photographed as they actually occurred for the first time-a chimpanzee pushing a long piece of grass into a termite mound so he could capture and eat termites (the first known use of tools), a chimpanzee mother allowing her baby to approach and touch Goodall, and the first time Goodall observed a devastating chimpanzee war and the cannibalism that followed. Throughout, Goodall stresses the closeness of chimpanzees to humans in feelings and needs, but they never become her "friends," not even the favorite David Greybeard and the loving "Flo"--these are animals, she recognizes, and though they sometimes resemble the best in mankind, they can also resemble the worst. When her own son, known as Grub, is born, Goodall models her care of him after that of Flo, the best of the chimpanzee mothers, but she also protects him by stashing him inside a wire cage when he is outside so that his cries will not be interpreted as those of a wounded animal. Chimpanzees are often carnivorous, and Goodall and Van Lawick take no chances. Continuing the story until 1990, when the video was produced, Goodall describes her current activism on behalf of chimpanzees used in biological laboratories, urging researchers to look for alternatives wherever possible, and if chimpanzees MUST be used because of their biological closeness to mankind, to improve their care--getting rid of tiny cages, providing them with companionship, breaking up the monotony of their day. She has worked with African governments to help preserve habitat, and has made countless speeches to children and adults to inspire others to help preserve this slowly dying species. Goodall says, "We all matter.