Duma is a wondrous film directed by Carroll Ballard about a boy and his pet cheetah (Duma means cheetah in Swahili). If you didn't catch it, small wonder. Despite the success of March of the Penguins, the studio and distributor didn't have much faith in their product.
The movie suffered badly from a botched Warner Bros. marketing campaign, but because some film critics championed the movie, notably Roger Ebert and local critic Scott Foundas for Variety, this movie briefly opened at theaters in larger cities such as Los Angeles. The movie lacks CGI, car chases, sex and cloying precociousness, and instead has people exchanging minimal, natural sounding conversations against gorgeously shot scenery.
Ballard, who started out as a cinematographer, first directed the stunningly beautiful 1979 The Black Stallion. His storytelling ability takes full advantage of natural locations, doesn't force animals to be human-like. After the Walter Farley's classic tale, he directed the 1983 eco-tale Never Cry Wolf set in the frozen wastelands of the Yukon and the heartwarming 1996 Fly Away Home about a father and daughter who teach a flock of geese to fly using ultralight planes.
The original Duma was the pet of a boy much smaller and younger than the 12-year-old Alex Michaletos who plays Xan in the film. After Duma's death, when Xan was seven, Xan and his mother, professional wildlife photographer Carol Cawthra Hopcraft, put together a scrapbook. Carol transcribed Xan's sentiments about the cheetah and this became their 1997 book, "How It Was With Dooms: A True Story from Africa."
The movie not only makes Xan much older, but also changes almost everything else. Don't be fooled by the Warner Bros. cartoonish poster art. Karen Janszen and Mark St. Germain's screenplay isn't mawkish, silly or slapstick.
Xan and his father, Peter (Campbell Scott), almost run over an orphaned cub. Although Xan adopts the cub he names Duma, his father warns him that some day, he will have to return the animal to the wild. Yet just as Peter is planning a trip to release Duma back into the wild at the point where they found him, Peter dies. Xan's mother (Hope Davis) decides to move back to the city and have Duma taken to a preserve. Xan and Duma find their first day in civilization a complete disaster and run away. Xan's determined to take Duma back just as he and his father planned. On the way, he meets a poor black man, Rip (Eamonn Walker) whose intentions are questionable.
Article comments
1 - Phillip Winn
Thanks to DVD, we can *all* see this movie!
2 - Mark Sahm
Somewhere out there, someone watching this movie will think they can have a cheetah for a pet too... and not get their ass mauled. Most likely in Florida.
3 - Purple Tigress
Actually, there is a long history of cheetahs being kept as pets. About 4,000 years. Unlike lions, tigers and jaguars they are almost dog-like except that they do not have the instinct for pack hierachy.
Like other sight hunters, they are dangerous in open fields where there are small children or animals. However, this is the same caution one takes with coursing hounds such as borzois, Irish wolfhounds and Afghans.
The movie does have instances when the cheetah warns Xan from getting too close because of food. I must say that food jealousy also exists in dogs and can also trigger an attack on a person.
As an endangered species, a cheetah would be hard to acquire in the US. Not impossible, but hard. The boy who played the part of Xan did have cheetahs on the farm he grew up on but he was in Africa. Such farms may enable the species to survive.
4 - sky
i think that duma was the sweetest and cutest and beatifulist and most wonderful movie i have ever seen in my whole life one sweet thing was how xan and duma where so close together and xan was caring for duma like he was his little brother and the last part was so sweet and it was sad how xan and duma had left each other after they had been so close together that would probly be sad if duma was my pet and i had to let him go after so long. anyway thanks for making it! sky ps:mashalka was so cute i got the same animal and named it mashalka hes right her now! "HELLO" hes so cute! sky
5 - Faith
What kind of animal is Mashalka?