Monday, September 19, 2005

March of the Penguins- Lessons learnt


Had watched "March of the Penguins" this weekend. A well-regarded documentary film that was narrated by Morgan Freeman, this 1 hour 45 minute no human being featured movie is all about the life of penguins shot in cold Antarctica.

The movie starts off with a zoom in on to the emperor penguin's life's journey and goes into vivid detail about how the penguins march to their ancestral breeding ground, find a mate for breeding and survive amidst the harshest imaginable weather conditions in this world.

Once the female knows that she has an egg, she needs to transfer the egg to her male counterpart before she walks the 70 mile ice path to reach the ocean where she has to feed herself in order to survive and also to feed her baby. The part where the male and female reherse with painful accuracy the egg transfer from the female to male is truly a moving moment to watch. Once, the tired mother uses all of 3-4 months to make her long walk, the father survives nature's brutal test on snow storms and protects his egg by starving himself for those 3-4 months.

Once the female returns, the brief union of the surviving penguin family is truly a symbol of togetherness. It is now the male's turn to take the 70 mile trek to feed himself while the female protects and bonds with her new born. Finally, the movie ends with the baby penguins growing up by themselves after a few years and finally undertaking their ancestral march.

No descriptive or narrative reviews would do full justice to this well made documentary film that is worth watching. The harsh winters and bitter cold of Antarctica cannot be fully understood without it on screen. It is truly a lesson on survival, togetherness, teamwork, love, sacrifice, sharing responsibilities, a test of strength and growing up.

The March of Penguins- A March into Realities and Hardships that man can only empathisize with. Hats off to National Geographic and Warner Brothers for coming up with this wonderful theme and message to the human race.

7 comments:

tt_giant said...

I heard rave reviews about this one. Will see if its available on netflix.

mitr_bayarea said...

yes, its a nice film to watch....

Raju said...

Missed the movie so far. Gotta watch it soon. Many friends told me it was good.

mitr_bayarea said...

katpadi murali: Interesting.....would the book seem as engrossing or depictive as the movie?

GP:yeah, its worth a one-time watch.

Balaji said...

its made ~70 million already @ the box-office and ppl r saying it may reach fahrenheit 9/11's take!

ttg, nope. not available on netflix. dvd release date hasn't been announced yet :(

mitr_bayarea said...

balaji- wow, that sounds like a great success, somehow the movie doesn't rub off on you as being commercial or that successful. My significant other was saying that even though the movie was good, he would rather have waited for the DVD to come.

ada-paavi!!!! said...

heard its a nice movie, indiala getting hold if the movie is very hard!!