TV Reviews : HBO’s ‘Chimps’: A Plea for Humane Treatment

Jane Goodall’s 30-year study of chimpanzees in the wild has been chronicled on TV by herself and others.

Hence, much of “Chimps: So Like Us” (at 8 tonight on HBO) is a rehash, retracing Goodall’s earlier trips to the Gombe National Park in Tanzania to study three generations of chimps and their families.

Produced and directed by Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon, the half hour offers some wonderful pictures of chimps in the wild doing what they always do, from grooming to eating termites to fighting for leadership. Goodall is on the scene providing commentary, and there is a tender sequence showing her feeding and nourishing back to health the vanquished and badly injured Goblin, who has been deposed as leader of the group by a younger chimp.

What sets this program apart from other wildlife specials, however, is Goodall’s carefully measured plea here for humane treatment of chimps being used in medical research. She stops just short of advocating an end to involving chimps in such research. Yet footage of her visiting and holding some of these animals that are enclosed in “barren tiny cages” in preparation for research is not only heartbreaking, but also a powerful statement that stands on its own.