I'd held off watching it because I bloody love chimps and I knew it would be devastating. Today I caved and now I am a wreck. Great film though. Fascinating in the way it subtly shows how the various 'carers' and scientists that were involved in his early years were driven by the same primal instincts of jealousy, lust, hierarchy etc that they were trying to 'nurture' out of Nim. Also that apparently young scientists in the 70s' first instinct was to give everything weed. But for all its importance as a cautionary tale of the callous, arrogant side of scientific research, and its skill as a documentary, the main thing that got to me was having to see what a chimp looks like when he's been totally humiliated and betrayed in a way he's been forced to comprehend all too clearly. Happy Tuesday.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01p0gtf/Project_Nim/