Yes, Joe Exotic is mentioned, but only in passing. Carole and Howard Baskin show up too, but mainly as they lobby Congress to pass legislation regulating the big cat trade. The events here play out alongside those seen in the hit series, with some of the same overlapping people. In this case, Tiger King is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and The Conservation Game is Hamlet. The farce is good for a few laughs, but the tragedy has more staying power.
Driving much of the drama here is getting to the bottom of the central question: what did the celebrity animal handlers know when they acquired and disposed of their animals? This is often while claiming on TV that the cubs would go on living long and happy lives in a zoo, sanctuary, or equivalent facility. Harrison is the profoundly decent and dogged hero of this story, tracking down the likes of Hanna, Salmoni, Smith, and Miller at their homes and workplaces when they refuse to answer questions over email or telephone. At a minimum, they universally refuse to help, though most go farther, stonewalling, shifting blame, gaslighting, or outright lying.
“…does a good job maintaining the drama while keeping things moving.”
Given the nature of exposés, the subjects are usually not participating by choice. Harrison’s conversations with them are shot at a distance or sometimes recapped when he gets back into the car. Partly this is because if they had gone in with cameras and microphones exposed, they wouldn’t have gotten anything at all. And some of the necessary parts of the story involve talking to lawyers and politicians — the kinds of things that can bring any narrative to a halt. Still, Webber does a good job maintaining the drama while keeping things moving. He uses stock footage, music, and text on the screen to good effect so that it never becomes a monotony of talking heads.
Through it all, our central investigator remains calm, respectful, and focused on the task at hand, even when follow-up conversations show he’s seething with rage. But it isn’t all anger and fury — Harrison’s clearly heartbroken at catching one of his childhood idols up to such wrongdoing. While the animals are ostensibly the subject matter of The Conservation Game, the film elucidates the extremes of humanity — from the depraved to the heroic — that will stick with you long after the credits roll.
The Conservation Game had its world premiere at the 2021 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
"…the farce is good for a few laughs, but the tragedy has more staying power."
