"That's a nice-a donut."
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
March of the Penguins (2005)
Adding to what could very easily be called The Year of the Documentary (or at the very least, culminating the great trend that started within the past couple years with such other documentaries as The Fog of War, Capturing the Friedman's, Fahrenheit 9/11, and Super Size Me among others) is March of the Penguins, which earlier this year shot up the charts to become the second-highest grossing doc of all time. Its success was one of the biggest entertainment stories of the year, especially considering the fact that it is really nothing more than a feature-length, cute and fuzzy National Geographic movie.
Directed by Frenchman Luc Jacquet, Penguins tells the incredible story of Antarctica's emperor penguins who spend nine months every single year, solely devoted to the massive job of breeding and caregiving. The shots and story of these tuxedoed birds are sometimes overwhelming. We live with the penguins through their long 70-mile march to the breeding grounds (which ends up coming off as a large every-man-for-himself orgy) where the males and females meet and mingle before pairing off for the year. If they are successful then each couple must spend the next months doing nothing but standing around, trying to the eggs (and each other) warm. At one point, they will trade places as the females head back home to get something to eat and the males will care for the egg (hence making all human males look really bad). Amidst temperatures that can reach 80 degrees below zero and 100 mile per hour winds, it is an environment that few species would ever choose to live in. Yet, as the movie points out, long ago the penguins chose to live and stay there. Eventually the lucky ones are born, but the task is far from over.
The movie is rated G in the U.S., for general audiences, and it is certainly a family movie that nearly everyone can enjoy. But there is plenty of heartache and tragedy. Among the distressing images are baby eggs that didn't make it through the harsh winter, vicious seals having lunch, the distant looks of sadness on the poor penguin's faces when death strikes. Heck, if this were about a strange group of funny-looking people doing these things, it would definitely get no lighter than an R rating!
Its glaring weakness is that it fails to show or discuss any of the many technical and scientific details. For instance, nothing is mentioned about the filming techniques: how was this marvelous feat accomplished? Was somebody actually staying there with a camera in the distance, or were a number of stationary cameras somehow left in place and the film was picked up later? Or another way? And though I can understand the desire to leave out more fact-based details on the penguins and their habits, things ended up feeling a little light and voyeuristic at times.
The story of the emperor penguins is so interesting though, and the images so wonderful, that it is easy to ignore or just not care about the details. The movie moves along at a breezy pace, and ends after just over 80 short minutes. There is nothing groundbreaking involved, and most of the information could be learned from watching any number of nature programs on television, but it achieves the basic goal of any movie: to engross the viewer and make them care. Of course, having Morgan Freedman narrate sure helps.
The Verdict: B.
Michael Bentley 9:39 AM
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