Mr. Forbush and the Penguins

Alfred Viola, not everyone may know this, was a major American commercial director for several decades. If you watched television in the US for any amount of time in the last 30+ years you have assuredly seen some of his work. Keeping in mind that this film is the first feature by a commercial director, you will see the technical efficiency and streamlined storytelling of a VERY experienced filmmaker at work here. The backstory behind this production is that the studio performed some major hacking on the original Alfred Viola cut and brought in a new director to shoot a tacked-on slapstick opening, and the film suffers from this quite a bit. The first 10 minutes of the film lack style and indeed cohesion of any kind, but once we reach the glacier and John Hurt is left alone with his penguins, it is like a breath of fresh air. This is a beautiful piece of cinema history and although the DVD transfer is of extremely low quality, it is good to know that this piece has not been lost forever. A wonderful forgotten film of the 1970s.

According to Bryan Forbes' autobiography as well as David Nathan's biography of John Hurt, the story behind this film is as interesting as the film itself.

When the producers saw the finished material, it was decided that the opening in London should be completely re-shot, with a different director - Roy Boulting instead of Alfred Viola - and a different leading lady - Hayley Mills (Boulting's wife at the time), instead of an unnamed RADA actress who reportedly did not photograph well. According to Boulting, the reason was that "It presented a ridiculous picture of a character who lived in a swinging London that never ever existed and who was totally artificial, totally unreal and totally unsympathetic." Even though Hurt seems to have agreed at least in part, he was very unhappy about the prospect - understandably so, after the ordeal of the long and difficult location shooting in the Antarctica. Producer Bryan Forbes persuaded him not to quit.

Hurt's feelings about the animals were quite different from his character's. "The penguins were a real pain in the arse. They have all the faults of the human race without the redeeming gift of occasional intelligence. I preferred the predators, greatly admired the skuas. They farm the penguins, taking only a certain percentage of the eggs. The other skuas fish and battle for existence on the mountains in extreme conditions. If you killed off the predators the penguin colonies would become so huge they would probably become extinct. That would be a bad thing for the skuas. There's only one good thing to say about penguins and that is that they taste delicious - fishy, but nice." The film team actually had a few penguins for dinner - with HP sauce.

Several years later, Richard Burton happened to see this film, and it motivated him to suggest Hurt for 1984.

I enjoyed the film more than I expected. I am not a sentimental animal lover, and for scientific subjects, I prefer to watch a documentary or read a book. What I enjoyed about this film is Hurt's tour de force performance, the great location footage (by Arne Sucksdorff), but also the humour and style of the opening (as a fan of British swinging sixties films in general). The machine Forbush builds for his futile fight against the skuas reminded me of the Acme contraptions in the COYOTE AND ROADRUNNER cartoons.

I find it interesting that - probably male - commentators write that Hurt is not convincing as a ladies' man. Judging from the number of - probably female - commentators who fell in love with him in this film (and others such as IN SEARCH OF GREGORY), Hurt's quirky sex appeal seems to have been underused. Pity, but typical, because most of the decision makers in the industry are male.

Look at the cast and crew list and you will see this is a film of the highest pedigree. Sometimes you get the impression that there are several films happening here and the multiplicity of directors may be a clue to the reason of this.

The title may confuse, but yes they are real penguins!

I suspect that this is one of those films that gave the deskbound money men at the studio many nightmares.

It is many, many years since I saw this film, but unlike so many others I have seen, I have not forgotten the title or the substance of the film itself. I thought the way that Mr Forbush became so protective of the penguins and their eggs was wholly understandable and it was a hard lesson for him (and us, for that matter) to learn that he was the intruder in that landscape and he had to leave the penguins to protect their own eggs from the skuas. I just love watching penguins, so I got a good dose of that too. As a character study on what living a solitary life can do, I found it quite fascinating. It was not exactly an 'action' movie, but I found it very thought provoking and it sucked me right in from the start and kept me emotionally involved till the end. Well worth a look if you get the chance.

The director was sacked, the leading lady was sacked and the film was held back from a US release for 10 years. Food for thought perhaps, before devoting time to seeing this (relatively) early John Hurt vehicle. He plays a self-absorbed biology student sent for an extended solo research project on penguins in the Antarctic. It's really not spoiling to add that at the conclusion of the exercise, he returns to his London home, a changed man.

Even though the penguin footage is some 50 years old, most viewers will still enjoy, perhaps even marvel at the birds' varied and comical behaviour at their rookery. They are eternally fascinating creatures and here we see them both at play and in a battle to survive (in some respects) with the large skua-gulls, which tend to prey on penguin eggs and hatchlings.

The trouble with the film is the awkward framing template cobbled together to give Mr Forbush a back story. Make no mistake, Richard Forbush is very much a fictitious character based on no one, certainly no scientist. As a university student, the last thing that appears to be on his mind, is his studies. Instead we see him primarily engaged in the hapless pursuit of the Hayley Mills character, Tara St John Luke (if you don't mind). This is a complete nothing role for the very capable Mills, who was brought in by her producer husband Roy Boulting, who sacked the previous leading lady, after she'd virtually completed the part. We get multiple scenes of Tara sitting in a London flat with her current boy friend, listening to tapes sent to her by Forbush ... as you do. Whoa! Be still my beating heart! While he was at it, Boulting decided to sack director Al Viola and replace him, with himself. Go figure!

Hurt does his best, with what for much of the movie is a pretty unsympathetic, unrealistic part. Don't even begin to think he plays a David Attenborough or Jane Goodall type scientist. No, he's of the vintage that manage to build (albeit cleverly) a Roman ballista, in the Antarctic, to attack the poor old gulls, who after all, are just out for a feed too.

The more successful movies of this type (E.G. Gorillas in the Mist, Born Free, Never Cry Wolf) are usually based to some extent on real scientists' lives and experiences, which serve as natural framing devices to accompany the animal content. In this film the very lame human's story pales in dramatic comparison to the birds' real life adventures and the whole movie is hobbled permanently as a result.