March of the Penguins

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You can't blame Warner Bros. for releasing their 2005 Oscar-winning documentary "March of the Penguins" in high definition at the same time they released their 2006 Oscar-winning animated feature film "Happy Feet." After all, penguins belong together. What's more, they (the birds and the movies) look even better in HD-DVD than they did in standard-def. So, both films are welcome additions to an HD-DVD library.

One can understand the public loving "Happy Feet." It was about singing, dancing, talking penguins. But "March of the Penguins" was a sleeper hit, an unexpected success. I mean, who'd have thought so unlikely a film as a real-life documentary about these amazing birds would be so popular?

If you've never heard of the film, it's likely you don't live anywhere near a movie theater, a newspaper, a television, or other people. The film about Antarctic emperor penguins took the public's fancy at a time when it seemed that only space ships and superheroes were making money. Emperor penguins competing with Tom Cruise, Darth Vader, and Batman? No, it didn't make nearly as much money as those pictures, but it did take in about ten times more money (over $75,000,000) at the box office than it took to make it, something almost unheard of in the world of documentary filmmaking, at least in the world of nonpolitical ones.

Is it possible for a documentary to be completely objective? Probably not. Every documentarian has a point of view to express, as we all found out with Al Gore and Michael Moore. In the case of "March of the Penguins" the filmmaker, Luc Jacquet, clearly takes the side of the bird. By the time the movie is over, the audience feels more like living with penguins than with other humans.

The first thing that may strike the viewer about the film is its soundtrack music, which is most-often quiet, tranquil, and haunting, getting more robust as the opportunity arises. Then one is struck by the grandeur of Antarctica, where temperatures can reach a blazing fifty-eight degrees when the sun is out. After that the audience can savor the narration (in the English version) of actor Morgan Freeman, whose voice should be enshrined somewhere and used as an example to all young speakers. Finally, we meet the emperor penguins, nearly a thousand of them, as they begin their annual migration inland to a centuries' old breeding ground. The journey to and fro is as remarkable a story as any in nature.

Freeman says "...this is a story of survival, a tale of life over death. But it's more than that, really. This is a story about love." In March of every year these flightless birds walk in droves for almost seventy miles to mate and then to care for their offspring. The long line of penguins across the Antarctic snow looks like a procession of waiters (or pall bearers), and makes for an eerie sight.

"Their destination," says Freeman, "is always the same," but their path is often different because of the shifting ice. How they find their way, no one knows. How do any birds know where they're going when flying south for the winter? The penguins alternately walk on their stubby legs (the shortness of will serve them well in keeping their eggs warm and safe beneath them) and glide on their bellies.

They return to the same place every year, the very place of their birth. It is, of course, a white-tie-and-tails affair. Once they arrive, they look for a suitable partner, and when they find one, it's a sweet scene. Within a week, most of them have found the mate they are looking for. The new couple will stay together for the next eight months, ending in renewed life.

It's an incredible journey, but it's far from finished. Once an egg has been laid, the fathers take over the duties of tending to it while the mothers trek back to the sea, another seventy-mile march, for nourishment. When the mothers return, it's the fathers' turn to head for the sea. All of this takes weeks at a time in the harshest possible weather. Not every adult or egg or baby penguin survives. Freeman notes that some of the older penguins will simply "fall asleep and disappear." Nor are the hazards of freezing temperatures the only things the animals must worry about, as starvation and predators (seals and other birds) are also of concern.

And you thought the life of a penguin was easy?

The film is filled with one extraordinary sight after another: The penguins in line; the penguins huddled together for warmth; the penguins tending their eggs beneath their perfectly adapted lower torsos; the landscape at eighty below, with winds gusting up to a hundred miles an hour. Then, when the little ones arrive, they are precious, with the reuniting of the families a most-touching spectacle. Incidentally, they recognize each other by sound, not by sight. Each penguin may look almost identical to every other penguin, but their calls are highly individual.

"March of the Penguins" describes in vivid and moving detail the inspiring ordeal these birds endure. But there are moments of humor, too, as when two females try to dive at once through the same small hole in the ice. It looks like a scene from an old Laurel and Hardy movie.

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