Le peuple migrateur

Forget `Ode to a Skylark.' `Winged Migration' - adhering to the proposition that a picture is indeed worth a thousand words - offers a soaring, visually astonishing tribute to all the cranes, geese, swans and assorted other birds that have, since time immemorial, made long and dangerous airborne treks from one corner of the globe to another. Like no nature special you've ever seen, directors Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats and Jacques Perrin and no fewer than fifteen credited cinematographers create a visual poem to these feathered marvels by taking us right into the thick of the action, somehow managing to get their cameras to fly, in beautifully coordinated fashion, right alongside the birds at amazing speeds and altitudes. Seeing is believing in the case of this film, and even after seeing it, you still may not believe it. That's how eye-popping and visually dazzling an experience this film is.

With only minimal narration (some of it spoken and some of it subtitled), the filmmakers provide some helpful information regarding the particular species we are seeing and its migratory patterns. But the film is far more of an aesthetic visual experience than an educational one. For long stretches of the movie, the birds merely fly along in majestic silence or backed up by haunting symphonic mood music (much of it reminiscent of the work in `Koyaanisqatsi').

In addition to the birds themselves and their amazing feats, the cinematography captures, with blindingly crystal clarity, the awesome beauty of the various landscapes through which these extraordinary creatures travel (there's even a shot of the birds flying past the Twin Towers). Watching this film is truly like being transported to another world. Nature has probably never looked this good on film.

Watching Jacques Perrin's Winged Migration I felt incredibly cheated. I felt cheated out of the fact that I didn't get the chance to see this remarkable film at my locale theatre where the images would be displayed in a much larger venue.

Winged Migration is an astonishing achievement. With the help of 450 individuals, including 17 pilots and 14 cinematographers, directors Jacques Perrin, Michael Debats and Jacques Cluzaud, bring to life the migrating habits of a variety of birds throughout the world.

We learn of the red-crowned crane that flies 600 miles from the far east to the Siberian taiga, the sandhill crane that flies 2000 miles from the Central American Plains to the Arctic circle, and the bald eagle that flies 1800 miles from the American West to Alaska, just to name a few. But it is how we learn from these creatures that is pure cinematic symphony. The three directors took 4 years to film Winged Migration and used everything from gliders, planes, helicopters and balloons to get close enough to the flying birds that you would actually think you are one of them. The scene of the Canadian Geese migrating is photographed so magnificently through the Grand Canyon that we can see the reflection of the formation on the stilled morning waters without the simplest distraction of man.

Winged Migration is filled with such imagery. Not soon will I forget the greater sage grouse in Idaho where the birds have expanding chests and have tail-feathers that look as sharp as a porcupine's quills. Nor will I soon forget the scenes where millions of king penguins take over a coastal island or the countless birds diving into the water with such rapid fire like a multiple torpedo hit.

What is really amazing however, is how the filmmakers were able to show the birds in such a format as to give them personalities. We see the arrogance of the Canadian Goose, the fighting nature of the red breasted goose, the relentless tenacity of the captured Amazon parrot and the grieving king penguins after one of their young are eaten.

For all its glorious visuals, it is man that brings to the screen the most unnatural and catastrophic of images. Threshers on a farm destroy a habitat, hunters hide in the reeds and shoot down overhead geese and pollution and sludge take the life of a migrating red breast. It is hard to believe that the same species that could get close enough to these birds to follow them hundreds of miles, is also one of their greatest enemies.

Winged Migration should be seen on the large screen, but even on the tiniest of home entertainment units, you cannot help but marvel at the life cycle, the fight for survival and incredible long journey's these creatures embark upon twice a year. Three stars.

I was quite pleased with this movie until I watched the "behind the scenes" featurette on the DVD. It turns out that most of the extraordinary close-ups of winged flight that make the movie memorable are NOT of wild migrating birds. Rather, the filmakers raised and domesticated all sorts of birds through a process known as "imprinting" so they would be comfortable flying next to the noisy photography planes. Then they took their birds all over the world to dramatic backdrops like the Sahara and Monument Vally. They also used these domesticated birds for the dramatic set pieces revolving around birds trapped in sludge, stuck in a blizzard, escaping cages, or wandering the desert. Not only are these set pieces heavy-handed and overly dramatic, but the fact that the birds are not even wild and were placed in these situations really undermines the credibility of the film.

7 out of 10 (minus 1 point for the use of domesticated birds and minus 2 for putting ridiculously staged drama scenes in an otherwise beautiful nature film)

A film that's difficult to classify: part nature film, part documentary, part drama. And *completely* beautiful. The makers of this film used every imaginable flying and suspending machine in order to film birds wherever they went. From ultra-light planes to hot air balloons, to hang gliders the camera operators managed to capture what must be the most amazing shots of flying ever filmed. The crew travelled the world to follow birds in migration (and some in their native habitat).

My kids (ages 11 to 15) were transfixed.

To those who say this film lacks "action", I can only express my deep regret that they are so earth-bound as to be unable to let go and soar with some of nature's most wonderful creatures.

When documentaries fail to show humans and human events it's almost enough to put the audience to sleep by default (except of course, those who get excited at the mere suggestion of shows like "Nova" or educational programmes sponsored by the Mutual of Omaha).

WINGED MIGRATION doesn't essentially need or looks to inform us what we probably know already: that birds migrate, and in doing so, ensure their own species. But what it does show us is a continuous yet striking montage of birds of different species flying among oceans, mountains, skies, land... we see them through their points of view, while throughout there is the barest suggestion of a plot here and there as inevitably one bird either gets lost in flight, lands in a ship, gets caught in toxic waste (of which it may not escape alive as the others, obeying that instinctual law of moving on, depart), gets disoriented and injured and becomes food for hungry crabs, or even captured by humans to become pets. Beautiful, sometimes moving images that shows us a quiet cycle of life, death, and reproduction, which will stay with the viewer long after the credits have rolled.