Le peuple migrateur

It probably took a lot of time and effort to put this together. I wasn't bored for a minute. Some people get the big picture some people don't. I thought it was a rare treat to see things like this for a moment. To get outside of oneself and experience life in different terms made me feel good. It was peaceful and entertaining. I enjoyed the naration somewhat but felt it detracted from the film because it took away from the esoteric nature of the film as did the unnatural injection of unnatural elements. This untouched bit of nature needed very little narration. I admire anyone who is so dedicated to a project that they can truly expose nature in plain air. Winged migration was a great bit of craftsmanship.

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.

Each shot of this pheonominal documentary has been painstakingly worked on for over four years and it shows in one of the most beautiful and moving cinematic experiences I've ever witnessed. This is a documentary that celebrates and illustrates the beauty in life through a new set of eyes that we've never used before. For those of us who can't be globe trotters, for those of us who admire the tremendous live show that nature puts on for us every day, and for those of us who have always dreamed of flying, this is the movie to sit back and take in this wonderful experience. Some of the images are so beautiful to witness, they may move you to tears out of sheer beauty. How many scripted movies can do that?

This should have won Best Documentary.

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.

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)