Man Among Cheetahs

Release Date: December 11, 2017

Watch Date: May 18, 2025

“Wildlife filmmaker Bob Poole sets out to follow a formidable and highly capable cheetah mother who is determined to keep her cubs alive. Along the way, he has to negotiate the risks and realities of filming in the African wilderness, while trying to keep up with the fastest animal on four legs.”

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This was actually a kind of sweet documentary which kept our son riveted and put our daughter to sleep (a next to impossible task so I am all for any movie that can relax her enough to accomplish that goal).

No baby animals die, I’ll say that up front. At least not the ones that we’re following. And I think that’s important. I mean, it’s important to show life as it happens, but some people really can’t manage documentaries that show baby animal death, and I completely understand that, so I think it’s important to lay that out early to anyone who reads this and might want to watch it.

I don’t know how much it truly accomplishes as far as education? We’re watching a mother cheetah raise her babies, which is a hard task for any parent, but I suppose extra hard for a cheetah. I, at least, am not on the endangered species list. At least not that I’m aware of, and even if it feels that way sometimes.

To be transparent it has been nearly a month since I watched this film, thank you carpal tunnel for delaying so much of my writing, so I can’t really remember too much of it. But the cheetahs were cute, and I remember being interested in the information they provided about the animal preserve, and the tribes around the area.

It’s not a documentary that’s going to challenge you, and I don’t think it’s going to teach you very much, but it is pleasant. And sometimes that’s all you can ask for from a nature documentary.