A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: The March of the Penguins (La marche de l'empereur)

Date Viewed: 7/31/05

Details:

Narrator: Morgan Freeman

Director: Luc Jacquet

Score: 1/2

The Review: Blue and white: that's the sense of Antarctica you get from the opening scenes of this documentary. Water, sky, snow and ice: shades of blue and white. A voiceover considers this the harshest, driest, coldest and windiest place on the planet. And then a penguin pops out of the water, slides for a bit on its belly, and the audience lightens up. Critters -- this may be fun!

Co-sponsored by National Geographic, and with substantial evidence of that journal's photographic sense visible throughout, this film follows the life cycle of the emperor penguin from their emergence from the sea in autumn to their return in the early summer. The remarkable aspect of emperor biology is that their breeding ground is over 70 miles from the sea, and multiple treks back and forth are necessary during the Antarctic winter: hence the title. Although the posters talk about love, I think evolutionary bull-headedness is far more in evidence.

The documentary is deliberately paced, occasionally slow, and probably over-long. While this episode could not have been easily crammed into a hour's TV special (with its 50 minute program window), it did not need to consume a full 80-plus minutes. The imagery is at times brilliant and wonderful, especially some of the composition and framing of activity against distance ice floes or icy ridges; some of these shots are worthy of individual photographic frames on a museum wall.

One of the real wonders is the film crew that spent a good chunk of an entire Antarctic year to capture multiple seasons and journeys. Winter on this continent is decidedly non-trivial, and their persistence is to be lauded.

(31-Jul-05)

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