Bring ’em Back Alive 401 exploitation and anthropogenic species annihilation, one is hard pressed to understand how Buck’s cinematic image enhanced his reputation. Nonetheless, for two decades, he was a star of his own making, the popular face of animal capture in the United States.14 VIII. Durrell’s Behind-the-Scenes Circus Durrell, recognizing the importance of film as documentation, first tried filming himself, but later, working with film crews, quickly cottoned on to its falsity. Instead of concealing it, he incorporated it into his literary narrative as another source of humor and extended his family ethos to include the film crew. Thus, his later books, like Buck’s, harp on the inconveniences of traveling with a director and camera crew and dealing with their requirements. He avoids Buck’s dilemma of replicating in film what had already been depicted in books, with the famous exception of the Corfu Trilogy, which was reprised with human, rather than nonhuman, actors.15 Writing after each filmed expedition, Durrell recounts the absurd lengths he and film crews go to in order to capture a few seconds of viable animal action. They use many of the same “staging” techniques that Buck used, but rather than shooting scenes of animal violence, they usually depict animal amiability and playfulness.16 Durrell indulges with great relish in full disclosure of the process (with signature hyperbole and striking metaphors), offering a more complex, informative, and entertaining account than the visual version. 14 Although Buck was largely forgotten after World War II, Bring ’em Back Alive was resurrected in 1982 in a 17-part television series starring a much more handsome Bruce Boxleitner. Animal capture, however, plays a smaller role because the Buck character was too busy fending off Japanese and German enemies in 1939 Singapore. 15 The 2016-2019 television series The Durrells, loosely based on his books, was extremely popular. 16 Some of the same fraudulent (and harmful) techniques that Buck was accused of using have been practiced by BBC, Disney and National Geographic, as revealed in the investigative documentary Cruel Camera, first in 1982 and again, still relevant, in 2007.
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