Winged Migration 2003
I had high hopes for this as a big budget nature movie. It took four years to make and the cinematography is great, with lots of shots taken right next to birds in flight. I’ve seen this in some other nature specials, notably The Secret Life of Birds, and you’ve probably seen it in stories about ultra-lights escorting migratory birds. So I wanted more than that and wasn’t rewarded. In fact, because they let the scenery do the talking for the most part you get very little information other than what you see. They show maybe a couple of facts about what type of bird you might be seeing and how far they migrate, plus you get an occasional voice over that offers little more than a comment on the beauty you see in front of you anyway and totals up to maybe another paragraph. I just wanted more information.
I didn’t watch the whole movie. My girlfriend got upset with some scenes where birds were shot by hunters about an hour into it. Nature is upsetting and cute little critters die, are eaten, shot, whatever, all the time. In the balance of nature, all animals are on the brink of survival, their population constantly in check. But I don’t need to be hit over the head with it and I think the scenes of birds being shot were unnecessary. Earlier in the movie danger is hinted at, even death, but not shown. But then it starts cropping up over and over again as birds fly through one of the nastiest industrial areas you could imagine and, walking around, one gets stuck in some oily goo as the rest of its flock takes wing again. Then we see some birds land near decoys, honking at these bizarre motionless relatives of theirs (and getting some laughs from the audience). I was on my way out of the theater when the guns started going off. A review I read later mentioned a scene where an injured bird is shown being attacked by crabs. We all know these things happen, but I don’t see the point in showing this anymore than I need to see birds defecating. It’s just a nasty part of life that doesn’t need to be exposed in entertainment.
So while this is a good nature movie, I don’t think it’s particularly informative. If it was trying to preach about the evil of polluters and hunters, then it is preaching to the choir since Exxon executives are unlikely to see this and hunters aren’t going to be swayed seeing hunters do what they do. The shots of the birds in flight are good and you get to see some European and Asian geese and cranes that you may not have seen before, but I’ve seen Nova or Nature episodes that I thought were just as good.
And while I respect that Garden Hills shows artier movies, there are a lot of scenes where you notice the stains and streaks on the movie screen. This place needs an upgrade.
This movie is crying to be made in IMAX where it would be limited to 45 minutes and could leave out the carnage. Also I think it would be a great DVD because a DVD should have a “making of” documentary about what it took to make the movie, which is bound to be just as interesting (maybe more interesting). A director’s voice over would be welcome though probably also disillusioning as I’m sure nature specials take a lot of shortcuts (for instance birds on the side of a mountain seem to wake up and become alert as we hear the rumbling of an avalanche and appear to fly away just in time, but this was obviously contrived unless they lost the camera crew).
I’ll give this a C which is pretty high for a movie I walked out on.