Self-described as director Barbet Schroeder’s first English film, the 1978 documentary Koko: A Talking Gorilla tells in reserved fashion the fascinating story of 5-year-old Koko, a primate taught to communicate in American Sign Language.
,<br />
<b>but also demonstrated that her use of the signs wasn’t based around<br />
inviolate holds</b>. She could, in fact, recombine words in novel fashion<br />
to form new compound names — <b>pointing to a ring and calling it a<br />
“finger bracelet,” for instance</b>.</p>
<p>Whether or not you’re deeply into animals, the footage here is<br />
absolutely fascinating, and persuasive enough to lead one to conclude<br />
that humanity isn’t purely “different in kind.” <b>In Koko’s<br />
inquisitiveness, moodiness and occasional petulance, one sees the<br />
basest elements of human adolescence.</b> Also interesting is her<br />
introduction to another gorilla, a younger male named Michael. While<br />
rife with unanswered, slippery-slope questions about different elements<br />
of Koko’s socialization (the slapdash research environment isn’t<br />
exactly what you’d call locked-down), there’s something undeniably engaging on a very basic level about the movie. </p>
<p>Though he includes bits of an interview with one of the zoo’s<br />
directors, <b>a sympathetic Schroeder obviously takes the side of<br />
Patterson and his subject</b> in a largely glossed-over dissection of a<br />
battle for Koko’s future disposition. Schroeder does this by <b>including<br />
in the movie’s sparse narration various questioning voiceovers about<br />
the nature of a person</b>. This vouching doesn’t really rankle, though,<br />
because Schroeder doesn’t demonize those that disagree or have doubts<br />
about such “humanization” of a primate, and because the film is so<br />
hands-off and almost under-produced in general, <b>much more a relaxed<br />
filmic study than an impassioned screed</b>. </p>
<p>Criterion typically does a smash-up job on the presentation of its<br />
DVDs, and this title is no different, as the movie arrives in a new,<br />
restored digital transfer that cleanly showcases its 1.33:1 full screen<br />
image. Only once or twice does the material’s age show in<br />
end-of-mag-roll flashes; grain is extremely rare, giving us a great<br />
look at Koko up close. The audio comes courtesy of a monaural<br />
soundtrack, and an alternate French language track with optional<br />
English subtitles. <b>A 16-page insert booklet includes two essays</b> — one<br />
by Marguerite Duras dating to the time of the film’s release, and a new<br />
one from Gary Indiana that centers on Schroeder’s relationship with<br />
Koko and where she falls in his documentary canon, which also includes<br />
Idi Amin. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, <b>the only disc extra is an 11-minute interview with<br />
Schroeder</b>. In this chat, he recounts the project’s roots, and also how<br />
he initially saw it as the groundwork for a narrative feature to be<br />
scripted by Sam Shepard and produced by Saul Zaentz. The problem is<br />
that <b>neither he nor the rest of the disc takes into account the<br />
viewers’ forward-looking interest in the story</b>. Where are the updates?<br />
Where are Koko and Michael now, and what information has Dr. Penny<br />
Patterson’s research yielded? To exclude any information of this sort<br />
is nearly unforgivable. <b>B (Movie) C- (Disc)</b></p>
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Self-described as director Barbet Schroeder’s first English film, the 1978 documentary Koko: A Talking Gorilla tells in reserved fashion the fascinating story of 5-year-old Koko, a primate taught to communicate in American Sign Language.