I remember reading up on this a while back. I came to the conclusion that its actually a real attack occuring. I think where the confusion comes in is that its been heavily edited for dramatic purposes to be used in a "mondo" film back in the 70s. Back then filmmakers often disguised shock features(including nudity, horror) as educational documentaries to get past the censors.
But apparently the original attack footage is about 40mins longer and too gruesome to be shown undiluted so they chopped it up to make it more bearable...and more dramatic. Thats why it seems fake. Also, it apparently occured in 1974 when game wardens didnt carry guns and people probably didnt actually know that the cars would deter the animals if you drove at them. They were a lot more naive about such things 40 years ago.
There doesnt seem to be conclusive proof either way and a lack of info regards people involved. But names may have been changed. But if its fake its incredibly real as his body jerks in pain at certain points and I dont know how you'd fake that with lions out in the wild. Using one lion would be dangerous enough. Not sure you can even train several lions to fake an attack and the body doesnt look like a dummy.
