Born Free is a 1966 British drama film starring Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers as Joy and George Adamson, a real-life couple who raised Elsa the Lioness, an orphaned lion cub, to adulthood, and released her into the wilderness of Kenya. The movie was produced by Open Road Films Ltd. and Columbia Pictures. The screenplay, written by blacklisted Hollywood writer Lester Cole (under the pseudonym "Gerald L.C. Copley"), was based upon Joy Adamson's 1960 non-fiction book Born Free. The film was directed by James Hill and produced by Sam Jaffe and Paul Radin. Born Free, and its musical score by John Barry, won numerous awards.
When George Adamson is forced to kill a lioness out of self-defense, he brings home the 3 orphaned cubs she had been trying to protect. The Adamsons tend to the three orphaned lion cubs to young lionhood, and, when the time comes, the two largest are sent to the Rotterdam Zoo, while Elsa the Lioness (the smallest of the litter) remains with Joy. When Elsa is held responsible for stampeding a herd of elephants through a village, John Kendall, Adamson's boss gives the couple three months to either rehabilitate Elsa to the wild, or send her to a zoo. Joy opposes sending Elsa to a zoo, and spends much time attempting to re-introduce Elsa to the life of a wild lion in a distant reserve. At last, Joy succeeds, and with mixed feelings and a breaking heart, she returns her friend to the wild. The Adamsons then depart for their home in England; a year later, they return to Kenya for a week, hoping to find Elsa. They do, and happily discover she hasn't forgotten them, and is the mother of three cubs.
Fast on a rough road riding
High through the mountains climbing
Twistin', turnin', further from my home
Young like a new moon rising
Fierce through the rain and lightning
Wandering out into this great unknown
And I don't want no one to cry
But tell 'em if I don't survive
I was born free
I was born free
I was born free
Born free
Free like a river raging
Strong as the wind I'm facing
Chasing dreams and racing Father Time
Deep like the grandest canyon
Wild like an untamed stallion
If you can't see my heart, you must be blind
You can knock me down and watch me bleed
But you can't keep no chains on me
I was born free
I was born free
I was born free
Born free
Calm, facin' danger
Lost, like an unknown stranger
Grateful for my time with no regrets
Close to my destination
Tired, frail and aching
Waiting patiently for the sun to set
And when it's done, believe that I
Will yell it from that mountain high
I was born free
I was born free
I was born free
Born free
And I will bow to the shining sea
And celebrate God's grace on thee
I was born free
I was born free
I was born free