CriticSociety- film reviews

Review

March of the Penguins

Director

Luc Jacquet

Year

2005

Rating

Reviewed by

José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris

Review date

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

I love penguins. I do. I also love dogs and dolphins, but who cares, right? I’m just trying to give you an idea of the kind of person I am and where I come from as I write this review. I feel penguins are fantastic animals. They always look as if they didn’t care about anything in the world, and the way they walk... just cool. That said, I know next to nothing about them and this documentary was incredibly enlightening to me. I know there are different kinds of penguins. But what can I say... now I love them even more!

The movie follows an entire “season” in the life of Emperor penguins in Antarctica, one of the coldest and most dangerous places in the world. I don’t really want to go into detail about what it is that these penguins do, but I’ll just say that their life spins around the desire to get a mate and procreate. This may sound easy as it reads, yet it is anything but. You have to consider that penguins need to hatch their eggs in a place where the ice won’t break, and that place happens to be quite far away from the ocean, which is where penguins feed. Add temperature, predators and age, and the equation becomes more complicated.

Why is this documentary better than any respectable TV show about animals? It’s simple: its heart. After you’ve learnt what these penguins do in order to have and protect their chicks you will never see these animals the same way. I could swear they behave like humans, even better. The feelings they have are so alive and so deep that I wanted to cry every time the narrator said anything resembling “but some of them won’t make it.” This is a movie that gets you deep. And the fact that a bunch of animals which we can’t even recognize from each other can exude such compassion says a lot about them and the filmmakers who documented their quest.

After the doc was over I just wanted to see one thing: the behind-the scenes of it all. How director Luc Jacquet and his entire crew managed to shoot such a beautiful and penetrating story in those conditions marvels me. It really does feel as if the penguins were his actors and it was all staged. But it isn’t, it’s all real; real life at its finest and crudest and most touching.

The film has great cinematography by Laurent Chalet and Jerome Maison, accompanied by a haunting Alex Wurman score (for its US version) and the always spot-on narration by none other than Morgan Freeman, speaking the words written by Jordan Roberts.

Bravo!

CriticSociety en Twitter | CriticSociety en Facebook

Share on Facebook | Share on Twitter

Other reviews of March of the Penguins (2005): Groucho

Review

March of the Penguins

Director

Luc Jacquet

Year

2005

Rating

Reviewed by

Gon Curiel a.k.a. Groucho

Review date

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

I had wondered what all the hype surrounding March of the Penguins was about, in terms of what elevated this film from any other documentary starring animals, even those on TV. It’s a fact that nature is amazing, and that some animals act in ways that are simply awesome; it’s great how survival drives any species to do unimaginable things, and how everything works out, at least when only nature is involved, not men; but how could this be different?

I don’t want to demerit the filmmakers and scientists involved; the work of observing the emperor penguins, getting to know the way they behave throughout the year, and then actually going to Antarctica to film them, is uncanny. But the story, the particular way of these penguins when facing the adversity that evolution and nature has brought them, is just breath-taking. Is it film material? Oh yeah. A compelling drama complete with struggle, conflict, and resolution. There’s also sadness, even death involved. And most importantly, it seems like the main motivator is love. This is a love story, states the narrator. And it certainly feels that way.

The emperor penguin is a fine race; the only survivor of Antarctica, the only species that said no to the possibility of going elsewhere. A rare bird, the penguin, in general, so fascinating, so hilarious and —now I know— so loving; all this unwillingly though – it does what it has to do, but to human appreciation, it’s all that and more.

You have to see it to believe it, because there are many species in the world that demonstrate love, an instinct that drives them to protect their own, but this is just too much. Hardly had I seen so much devotion in any animal as the one proved here. Because there’s not only the will, but also so many skills to develop, such a long way to walk, so many obstacles, and the hardship brought by weather. The film states Antarctica is the harshest spot on Earth, and I wouldn’t hesitate to call it that after what I saw.

It’s best when experienced on film, but let me tell you in a few words what it’s all about. The emperor penguins receive an increasingly mean treatment from nature. In order to achieve their mating process, they need to walk several miles in a group of thousands, to a ground that’s hard enough to ensure that they won’t lose their eggs by having them fall through thin ice. They find mates, most of them, in monogamous fashion, and I could swear each falls in love with the chosen one. Then they wait, and an egg comes. Taking care of that egg becomes the most important thing in the world for the penguins, both individually and collectively. The male is the one that takes care of it, while the female goes back to the sea to find food for herself and her chick. The males don’t eat or drink for months. They receive the chick, then the female comes back, and it’s the male’s turn to go. All this, of course, supposing nature doesn’t get in the way, in terms of weather, preys, and old age. But it does get in the way, all the time, so things aren’t easy, or rather, they’re much harder.

The narration of the American version is done by Morgan Freeman, the number one movie narrator of present times. He’s the right one, his calm, wise voice making point after point concerning the penguins. The view is very romantic, almost unreal, but it matches the images and I guess that’s also something that gives this film the edge.

Kudos to director Luc Jacquet, cinematographers Laurent Chalet and Jérôme Maison, and everyone else from the team of people that went all the way to Antarctica, studied the penguins, and then shot the whole process. It’s just unbelievable, considering the deadly weather, the darkness, and countless more obstacles that they surely had to face.

An impressive movie with an unbelievable story, this one’s a go-getter that shouldn’t be missed.

Gon C Curiel en Twitter | CriticSociety en Twitter | CriticSociety en Facebook

Share on Facebook | Share on Twitter

Other reviews of March of the Penguins (2005): Morris