It takes a rookerie....

March of the Penguins: A review by Dan Cohen

March of the Penguins, (directed by Luc Jacque and written by Jacque and Michel Fessler), is a truly beautiful film. It depicts survival under extraordinary conditions in a manner we have rarely seen.
I can promise you that after you see March of the Penguins, you will never think about penguins the same way again. Your respect for these amazing birds will take on a whole new dimension.
The jist of the story is very simple. The whole community of emperor penguins walk 70 miles back and forth several times between the water they usually live in and their mating grounds through what narrator Morgan Freeman calls, "the harshest conditions on earth.". Temperatures can drop as low as -140 degrees Fahrenheit on the Antarctic ice.
After a mating dance, the female lays one large egg. The egg is then immediately rolled on top of the male's feet, where it is incubated or kept warm by a thick fold of skin that hangs from his belly. The males survive through this ordeal by standing huddled in groups for up to 9 weeks. During this time the female returns, over the 70 miles, to the open sea for food, which she then brings back to feed the babies. During the time the male cares for the egg, he may lose about half his body weight because he does not eat.
This shows how a genuine community, a "rookerie," can bring a new generation into being, even under extremely adverse conditions. The male and female penguins share the child rearing and survival tasks equally throughout this period. Unfortunately a dubious narration has been appended to this beautifully crafted film. (I assume by Warner Independent Films)
It shows little understanding of the circle of life. It is, if you'll pardon the expression, "penguin chauvinist." For example, when a bird enters the scene and tries to capture a baby penguin, the bird is described as a "predator." But when the penguins go into the water and do the same thing to the fish they are merely satisfying their hunger and doing what they need to do to survive.In other words, it intends for you to identify with the stars, the penguins
By all means, go to see The March of the Penguins, it's a wonderful film despite the kind of dumb narration.
One more caveat, don't let the Warner Bros. TV commercials fool you into thinking it's a cute penguin film for young children. It isn't. But I think you'll love it as much as we did.
(photo: Warner Independent Pictures)