March of the Penguins (USA/France) (Canal +/Warner Independent Pictures) (2005) ***1/2Year: 2005iMDB
Director: Luc Jacquet Cast: Morgan Freeman (Narrator)
How can you not love a documentary about penguins? They're the definition of cute and watching a movie that is filmed in its entirety at temperatures of -80 degrees and lower is bound to at least inspire respect.
But there's a lot more to learn about penguins and their life which turns out to be more than fascinating. A tale of patience, selflessness and devotion as the couples go through the deadly winter protecting their egg and then their offspring with a self and group-discipline that should leave a lot of us humans thinking...
However, despite having all the right ingredients, March of the Penguins left me with a somewhat dissatisfied feel. It seemed that the director tried too hard to overplay the tale of love, emphasizing endlessly some elements, while at the same time overlooking or just passingly mentioning others that contribute equally to understanding the penguins nature: what happens to the couples that break their eggs? why did they seem to be so vulnerable to an attack by a single bird, while the hundreds of penguins could've easily chased it away? etc.
Luc Jacquet avoids making a pure documentary and tries to turn it into a movie, emphasizing the love and drama. However, in my opinion, he would have been better off just using the amazing raw material that he had as a pure documentary, since every viewer would have been able to pick up on the drama and devotion.
Posted by TheCasualCritic on September 6, 2005 10:43 AM | TrackBack