The Natural History of the Chicken

Channel surfing one night, I ran across what appeared to be a PBS program on chickens. While PBS programs tend to be different from the usual TV fare, this was way outside the norm. I stopped to see what this program really was, and within a few minutes, was hooked.

What followed was an hour of sheer amusement. Really, this "documentary" is more about people than it is about chickens. And quite unusual people too! The next day around the office "water cooler", I found myself talking about chickens and the people who love them. Next thing I knew, I was trying to convince everyone that Mike the Headless Chicken really did exist once, a dispute that finally had to be resolved via internet research. I'm afraid the water-cooler will never be the same.

If you take delight in the obscure, find humor in the quirky, watch this movie. It will be time well spent.

Now - to track down one of this director's other movies: "Cane Toads: An Unnatural History". Sure to be a riot!

You know if it says PBS it will have quality, as far as documentaries go--but who would have thought an hour's worth of chicken fact, trivia, and homespun truth could be so entertaining! Having grown up around friends and neighbors who raised chickens in their backyards I know how amusing these feathered comedians can be. Yet, there is also something dignified about them as well. This documentary covers the whole scenario of where chickens are in the hearts of Americans. They are livestock, they are pets, they are sideshow wonderment,and they are noisy nuisances. They are also big business. Clever editing, reenactments, and filming techniques make this a keeper. We tend to watch it in winter, right around when the snow is lingering too long on the ground. Watching Cotton the Chicken taking a swim, or the drama of Valerie's rescue is enough to bring anyone out of the winter glums.

As a documentary editor and film-maker (Tesla: Master of Lightning, Korean War Stories) I know how hard putting a piece like this together can be. I make a good portion of my living from publicly funded television, but this, even more than the checks I've recieved from my bosses, made me say, "Thank God for PBS." In this day and age, a piece of work this odd, beautiful, and though-provoking could only have been made possible by public television.

Congratulations to all involved with "The Natural History of the Chicken."

This is a documentary that says as much about people as it does about chickens (and it's certainly not a "natural history" lesson of the fowl). Seemingly random in the quirky episodes he relates, Mark Lewis shows us a range of human behavior, from those who understand and appreciate chickens for their personalities, to the nameless corporations who run factory farms, the footage from which is appalling, though the film is far from comprehensive about anything.

There's a woman in Maine who gave CPR to save a frozen chicken's life, but there are also a couple of farmers from the 1940's who had a rooster live after its head was chopped off, then cruelly kept it alive for months so that they could monetize it in travelling sideshows. There's a woman who sees her chicken as her soulmate and goes swimming with it, but there's also the guy who was raising 100 roosters for cockfighting, an enterprise that was scuttled because they drove their neighbors crazy with their incessant crowing. Maybe my favorite human in this was the guy who could imitate a rooster to a tee, including its mating ritual.

There is also a degree of information here about the chicken, or at least, through the various scenes we understand they have a degree of intelligence and compassion that is usually conveniently overlooked to reduce guilt in those that eat them. This is another film that makes me happy I'm a vegetarian, though the film is not pushing this agenda, and if anything, the idea of "God's natural order," and free-range, organic farming seem to be its ideals. The final story, with a farmer relating the story of Liza, a Japanese silky bantam who desperately wanting to have chicks and then was willing to sacrifice herself in the face of a hawk attack for them, is certainly stirring.

A pal with a sense of humour sent me a tape of this documentary, without a label to indicate the contents. Well, I popped the tape in the player and sat there, totally entranced by the sights and sounds! Brilliantly photographed and directed, full of good humour, captivating people and chooks, it literally kept me sitting on the edge of my seat until the credits appeared.

Without a doubt, this is the best animal documentary I've seen in the past 20 years. Seemingly chooks are more difficult to train than any other member of the animal kingdom. The feathered actors in this documentary seemed far more intelligent than many human actors I've seen in the current crop of big name movies.

Great fun for all the family.