Do any animals, other than humans, have the ability to learn language? What are the ethical implications of taking a creature, right after birth, from its mother in order to find out? And what is the best way to try to teach an animal language? Most of these questions were explored, in some depth, by Project Nim — but not “Project Nim.” The documentary about a chimpanzee raised by humans doesn’t address these issues in any satisfactory way. That doesn’t mean it’s not a fascinating film. It asks one big, engaging question: Why on earth did anyone ever give hippies a measure of authority?
“Project Nim” doesn’t even explain how its subject got his name. Nim Chimpsky was a play on Noam Chomsky, the linguist who argues that only humans are wired to use language. Researchers have set out to prove him wrong, and Project Nim was one attempt. The chimp was taken two weeks after birth in 1973 and given to Stephanie LaFarge and raised in her brownstone on the Upper West Side.
| On screen |
| ‘Project Nim’ |
| 4 out of 5 stars |
| Stars: Nim Chimpsky, Stephanie LaFarge, Herbert S. Terrace, Laura-Ann Petitto |
| Director: James Marsh |
| Rated: PG-13 for some strong language, drug content, thematic elements, and disturbing images |
| Running time: 93 minutes |
LaFarge was a former student of the project leader, Columbia University professor Herbert Terrace. But she’d never studied chimps and this free spirit had an eccentric view of how best to raise one. “The kinds of things she was exposing Nim to were atypical,” Terrace says. That’s an understatement. She had just had a baby and nursed Nim himself for two months. She smoked marijuana with him. Her husband didn’t like the animal — though we don’t know what happened with him or the marriage. LaFarge’s daughter Jenny says, “We were trying to teach him sign language when no one in the house was fluent in sign language.” Stephanie’s attachment to Nim borders on the creepy, as when she says how “sensual” it was for him to explore her body.
Then we finally discover that LaFarge and Terrace used to be lovers. “It was the ’70s,” Stephanie declares simply.
It certainly was.
As Nim grew, he became more powerful and more aware of his power. He began attacking those who loved him. “You can’t give human nurturing to an animal that could kill you,” one of his teachers says. Nim viciously lashed out at Petitto, who decides to leave the compound.
We don’t know how Nim felt or why he reacted to various situations the way he did. His use of language was minimal, and some argue he never truly learned language at all. “Project Nim,” then, becomes the story of the people who raised them. It’s an all too familiar human story: irresponsible people put in charge of the life of an innocent.
