Ready to Rent Ready to Rent (December 09, 2005)

March of the Penguins

Warner Home Video VHS & DVD

1hr 25mins

Director: Luc Jacquet

From the rigorous tests of finding the perfect mate to the division of home finances to the eventual pregnancy with its outrageous hospital bills, humans might think they have a hard time repopulating their species. But that's nothing compared to the Emperor penguins of Antarctica who survive subzero temperatures and walk back and forth 70-or-so miles several times a year with mouthfuls of food all to produce a new batch of baby penguins. That's the story, all lovingly told, in director Luc Jacquet's "March of the Penguins."

Jacquet's documentary was a curious phenomenon of sorts when it was released back in the summer. It is a documentary that appealed to both adults and kids alike, which made it commercially successful without shirking away from some of nature's darker aspects of survival. It is also a well put together piece of filmmaking. Events unfold in a very fluid and compelling way, all told through Morgan Freeman's wry, paternal narration.

The scene is the South Pole where vast flocks of the Emperor penguins, as we discover, march in unison from the sea to their birthing grounds (that are 70 miles inland for this particular group) where a strange ritual occurs: They select an individual mate for that season and, in what looks like an act of intense, stoic cuddling, an egg is conceived. The Emperors stay with their mate for the entire birth and infant cycle (biologists forgive me for my layman's terms) and what is endured is actually quite remarkable.

After the fun part is over, the half-starved female, much to the dismay of the mothers in the audience, marches back to the sea leaving the male to take care of the egg. He tucks it under a flap of his belly to keep it from freezing solid. As the season progresses toward winter, the male penguins have to endure subzero temperatures by gathering into a large huddled mass, alternating a spot in the middle of the furry vortex. Meanwhile, the females fish for themselves and their young, and avoid being eaten by seals. The pairs keep up this agonizing, domestic ritual, trading roles several times, during the course of six months.

What really makes "March of the Penguins" work is the nature of the penguins themselves, who, in a shameful act of anthropomorphism on the audience's part, come across as plush versions of Charlton Heston. They are cute, yes, but more so director Jacquet constantly reminds the audience that they are resilient products of their harsh natural world. The environment itself, shot in grainy digital by Laurent Chalet and JŽr™me Maison, evokes the awe and terror of the polar landscape with its descent into constant night (there is a phantasmagorical shot of the round-the-clock Aurora Borealis) and across a vast expanse of white that dwarfs its inhabitants. Joe Ramirez

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