Australian Council on Children & the Media

This project is supported by a
grant from the Government of South Australia.

Project Nim

This topic contains:

overall comments and recommendations
details about Project Nim's classification and consumer advice lines
a review of Project Nim completed by The Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 29 September 2011.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 14	Not recommended due to distressing themes, violence and course language
Children 14-15	Parental guidance recommended due to distressing themes, violence and course language

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines.

Name of movie	Project Nim
Rating	M
Consumer advice lines	Mature themes and coarse language
Length	94 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie Project Nim contains the following information:

a synopsis of the story
themes
use of violence
material that may scare children
product placement
sexual references
nudity and sexual activity
use of substances
coarse language
the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Project Nim is a documentary which details the true life story of Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee who was at the centre of a controversial 1970s experiment to see if a chimpanzee raised as a human child could develop human language.

Herbert Terrace, a behavioural psychologist from Columbia University, was the director of Project Nim and is seen throughout the movie as instrumental to the decisions that were made for Nim and his future welfare. The movie begins at the commencement of Herbert’s experiment with the removal of Nim from his biological mother. Nim is sent to an ex-student of Herbert’s, Stephanie LeFarge, who is a mother of three children and step-mother to four. Stephanie rears Nim as her own child for a number of years. She breast-feeds, loves, nurtures and educates him until Herbert becomes concerned that Nim’s time with Stephanie and her family is not following appropriate scientific parameters.

Herbert moves Nim to a mansion in the country where he employs a number of dedicated sign language teachers and carers to take over the care of Nim.. Nim continues to astound the science world with his growing acquisition of language but his burgeoning adolescence sees him become more territorial, more sexualised and more aggressive towards his carers and teachers. After a violent attack on one of Nim’s closest teachers, Laura-Ann Petitto, his future becomes uncertain.

Five years after Nim was removed from his natural surrounds, Herbert returns him to his birth place, a university research facility. While there Nim meets pyschology masters graduate, Bob Angelini, who takes an active interest in his happiness and welfare.

Themes

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Cruelty to animals; parent-child separation; human relationships with animals; experimenting on animals

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

A number of scenes refer to Nim’s developing aggression towards his carers. Carers tell of incidents where Nim became territorial or angry and attacked the carers. In one incident almost Nim ripped a carer’s face off and another incident tells of a time when Nim attacked a carer by banging her head repeatedly against the floor. These are not shown.
Another scene talks of Nim swiping at a poodle and killing her. The scene shows blood against the wall.
When Stephanie returns to see Nim almost 10 years after she first cared for him, Nim is angry and attacks her when she enters his cage. Images support the story but the attack is not seen directly. The scene ends with Stephanie lying on the ground, but she is unharmed.
While Nim is at the experimental medical laboratory he is seen stretched out on a counter, with legs and arms held down by leather straps. The lab technicians inject him with medications.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there is a constant emotional intensity in the film and a number of scenes that could disturb children under the age of eight, including the following:

There are a number of scenes where Nim and other chimpanzes are seen emotionally distressed. Because of the chimps’ human characteristics these scenes are very upsetting as we see the chimps’ emotional reactions to being separated from their mother and carers, being left in cages and alone. The chimps are heard screaming and look sad and withdrawn at times.
Nim is separated on a number of occasions from the carers that he had developed strong attachments to. This begins with his mother’s very traumatised response to Nim being removed from her and continues with scenes such as Nim being taken from Stephanie, Laura leaving Nim, the research team leaving Nim in the research facility, Nim and others being taken to the experimental lab, and finally being caged on a farm alone and depressed. These are very difficult scenes to watch due to Nim’s very upset reactions and are likely to be very traumatic for children of this age group.

Aged eight to thirteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Children in this age group are also very likely to be disturbed by the above-mentioned scenes.

Over the age of thirteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Younger children in this age group are also likely to be disturbed by the above-mentioned scenes.

Product placement

None of concern

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

The researchers discuss their own personal relationships with one another. On a number of occasions they state that they had ‘sexual relationships’ with one another.
The movie explores Nim’s own sexuality and refers on a few occasions to his masturbating. Nim is seen ‘humping’ a cat and his carers.
Stephanie breast-feeds Nim for a few months as a small chimpanzee. She discusses his ‘exploration’ of her body as he begins to get older. Nim is seen feeling and exploring Stephanie’s body during one scene.

Nudity and sexual activity