Now Everybody's Going to Be Doing It [Into the Dragon's Lair]
Some of you ponder leaving your workaday lives. Perhaps you lament a lack of satisfaction or achievement or pride. Who among you would do as Roger Horrocks did? He left his corporate world and literally dove into the world of wild crocodiles.
Roger craved a return to living in the wilderness. He soon chanced upon Didier Noirot, formerly an underwater photographer for Jacques Cousteau. In Didier, Roger found an inspiring mentor. The crocodile thing was Didier’s idea. He wanted to “make something nice because no one likes crocodiles.”
The film “Into the Dragon’s Lair” takes you to a maze of waterways in the Okavango Delta of Botswana. It takes you into African waters where a fifteen-foot-long croc swims face to face with Didier, before toodling away.
The film begins with words superimposed above the papyrus clogged delta, “This film in no way encourages others to attempt to interact with Nile Crocodiles. It is considered highly dangerous.” Ya think?
These confident nature explorers feel “if we respect animals and their environment we can enter their environment.” Their boatman says that in 30 years of guiding people through crocodile country, no one has ever wanted to dive amongst crocodiles, much less explore their hidden dens on the riverbed.
The duo does many dives. They brush with many crocs. They leave the water quickly when hippos are around, even though hippos don’t view people as prey. It is a known fact that crocs do.
The location and the personalities and the photography are engaging, but what carries you open mouthed through “Into the Dragon’s Lair” is the fundamental tension. It will give you something to talk about around the water cooler at work.
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