March of the Penguins 2005 Review

Bottom-Line: If this movie doesn't put life into perspective for you nothing will.  And here is a little tip: every time your life needs a little jolt of perspective, watch this movie!

Nature is cold, calculating, and unforgiving.  Even we humans entrenched deep within our insulated lives (should) have come to that realization; live is not fair, nor was it meant to be.  Life is what it is and each creature on the planet has to do what it needs to survive and promulgate the species often time at the expense of the living.  This lesson is born out in the much lauded March of the Penguins (2005), which saw huge box office success in the waning moments of 2005.

My wife and I kept scheduling a time to go see March of the Penguins (French title La Marche De L'Empereur) on the big screen, but something always came up, so we ended up watching it on DVD instead.  But even though the viewing are was much smaller (32" television), the impact of the documentary was the same; by the end of the movie you couldn't help but feel sorry for the majestic Emperor Penguins and their almost joyless task of giving birth to the next generation in the intense cold of Antarctica. 

Directed by Luc Jacquet and narrated by Morgan Freeman, March of the Penguins follows one year in the lives of a group of emperor penguins in Antarctica.  The movie starts in the Spring as the penguins stuffed from feeding leap from the icy water, find a mate, and trek over snow and ice covered land some 80 miles to place of their birth to try to hatch a chick.  The area is somewhat protected from the harshness of winter by high valley walls, which is one of the reasons the penguins make the yearly journey there.  The other reason is the area is away from the thin ice of the coast, and also far away from the penguins' biggest predator, the mammoth sea loin.    

After the penguins find a mate, the pair work together to produce and then protect a single egg. Once laid, the egg is passed from the female to the male in an intricate dance that doesn't always succeed.  If the egg is successfully passed the female penguins walk some 80 miles back to the ocean feed their starving and exhausted bodies.  But they will be back hopefully with enough (regurgitated) food for the hatchlings.

After a four month gestation period the newly formed penguin chicks emerge from their shells, decidedly pink, vulnerable and hungry.   If all goes as planned, about the time the chicks hatch, the mothers return to feed the hatchlings, and spell the fathers who then return to the ocean to feed; bear in mind the males have not eaten for almost six months and by this time they are starving to death.  After they feed, they return and the family bonds for a short time before both mother and father leave the chicks on their own and return to the ocean.  The new emperors are left to find their way in the world, and whole cycle repeats in late spring, thus a species survives. 

My Viewpoint

March of the Penguins is a movie to watch with the kiddies if possible; perhaps it will help them gain a new perspective on live, if only for a moment.  It will help them, and us, see that our lives are not so bad in comparison.