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March of the Penguins (French: La Marche de l'empereur; literally: "The Emperor's Journey") is an Academy Award-winning documentary film by Luc Jacquet, co-produced by the National Geographic Society and Warner Independent Pictures.

The film depicts the yearly journeys of the Emperor Penguins of Antarctica. In the fall, all the penguins of breeding age (five years old and over) leave the ocean, their normal habitat, to walk inland to their ancestral breeding grounds. There, the penguins participate in a courtship that, if successful, results in the creation of new life. For the chick to survive, both parents must make multiple arduous journeys between the ocean and the breeding grounds over the ensuing months.

It took one year to shoot the movie, around the French scientific base Dumont d'Urville in Adélie Land.

The English language release was narrated by American actor Morgan Freeman, the Dutch version by Urbanus. The French language release had narration "dubbed" as if it was spoken by the penguins by Charles Berling, Romane Bohringer and Jules Sitruk. The French version also uses an original soundtrack by Émilie Simon, whereas the English language version replaces it with a score by Alex Wurman.

Story

The Emperor Penguin's breeding ground has some advantages. It is on pack ice that is solid year round, so that there is no danger of the ice becoming too soft to support the colony, or chicks falling into the water before they develop a waterproof coat. It is in a protected area, which shields the colony from winds that can reach 300 km/h.

At the beginning of Antarctic summer, the breeding ground is only a few hundred meters away from the open water where the penguins can feed. However, by the end of summer, the breeding ground is over 100 km away from the nearest open water, and predators like the leopard seal that prey on the young. Nevertheless, all the penguins of breeding age attempt to reach the breeding ground, walking most of the way, although occasionally sliding on their bellies. The penguins are serially monogamous: monogamous within each year. This is functional: the female lays a single egg, and the cooperation of both parents is needed if the chick is to survive. After the female lays the egg, she must transfer it to the male without it touching the ground. If the egg is exposed for more than a few seconds, the intense cold will destroy it. The male must tend to the egg because the female must return to the sea, now even further away, both to feed herself and to obtain extra food for feeding her chick when she returns. She has not eaten in two months and by the time she leaves the hatching area, she will have lost a third of her body weight.

For an additional two months, the males huddle together with their precious egg and each other for warmth, never daring to drop it. They endure temperatures approaching -62 °C (-80 °F), and their only source of water is snow that falls on the breeding ground. When the chicks hatch, the males have only a small meal to feed them, and if the female does not return, they must abandon their chick and return to the sea to feed themselves. By the time they return, they have lost half their weight and have not eaten for four months.

The death of a chick is tragic, but it does allow the parents to return to the sea to feed for the rest of the breeding season. At times, the young are abandoned by one parent, and they must rely on the return of the other parent, who can recognize the chick only from its unique call. Many parents die on the trip, or at the hands of predators, dooming their chicks back at the breeding ground.

The parents must then tend to the chick for an additional four months, shuttling back and forth to the sea in order to provide food for their young. As spring progresses, the trip gets easier and easier, until finally the parents can leave the chicks to fend for themselves.

Critical and box office reaction

Originally released in France in January 2005, this documentary earned a 4-star rating from AlloCiné, and was beaten only by The Aviator during its opening week.

The film was released on DVD in France on July 26, 2005. Its extras address some of the criticisms the movie had attracted, most notably by reframing the film within its scientific context and adding facts to what would otherwise be just a family movie. This Zone 2 release featured no English audio tracks or subtitles.

The original French version was released in Quebec, but when the film was released in the rest of North America on June 24, 2005, it drew praise from most critics who found it both informative and charming. The movie-going public apparently agreed with that assessment, as the film distinguished itself as one of the most successful films of the season on a per-theatre basis. It received an enviable 95% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes and became the second-most successful documentary released in North America, after Fahrenheit 9/11, grossing over $77 million in the United States and Canada * (although Fahrenheit 9/11 couldn't top the surprising 95% "fresh" rating, with Fahrenheit 9/11's rating of 84% "fresh").

The unusually strong success of March of the Penguins in the United States is itself a subject of some speculation. Nature documentaries are not uncommon, but most do not perform as well in the marketplace or garner as much recognition in the film industry. The decision to release this movie in theaters as opposed to television is unusual, although not unprecedented, particularly for French documentaries (e.g. Microcosmos, Winged Migration). Morgan Freeman's narration is partly credited with the movie's success, yet dramatic and/or celebrity narration is a common feature of many excellent documentaries on sources such as the Discovery Channel or the National Geographic Channel (e.g. Edward Norton hosted National Geographic's Strange Days on Planet Earth). Like all successful films, the success of March of the Penguins is likely due to a combination of many factors, including not only its release method and dramatic narration, but also the general appeal of its subject, the artistry with which it was filmed and edited, marketing and perhaps simple timing. Whatever the reasons, the movie has emotionally engaged audiences more successfully than most other such films. French production company Bonne Pioche and director Luc Jaquet won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature at the 2006 Academy Awards; even before that, its box office revenues were disproportionately high for the genre. Indeed, it was more successful than any of the films nominated for Best Picture.

The original score for the French version, by Émilie Simon, drew praises and awards, winning Film score of the Year at the national Victoires de la musique in 2006. The score for the English language version of the film, by Alex Wurman, was also a commercial success in the United States.

Political and social commentary

In a response to commentary that the penguins were proof of intelligent design, George Will commented, why would an intelligent designer have penguins raise chicks in minus 80 degree Fahrenheit temperatures? Many commentators including Matt Walker and Andrew Sullivan * have concluded that trying to compare human behavior with animal behavior is a mistake.

Some of the controversy over this may be media driven. Rich Lowry of National Review reported that the BBC "have been harassing me for days over March of the Penguins. Apparently the film is just now coming to Britain. They are doing a piece on the 'controversy' over the film. I made the mistake of having one conversation with this—perfectly pleasant and polite, I should say—woman at the BBC about it, since I love the movie, but I have been showered with messages from her since then. Today she was calling about what, I'm not sure. I think to see if I would say on air that penguins are God's instruments to pull America back from the hell-fire, or something like that. As politely as I could I told her, 'Lady, they're just birds.'" *

When the San Diego Union Tribune brought the topic up, saying "Much has been made by certain critics about how March of the Penguins serves as a metaphor for family values – the devotion to a mate, devotion to offspring, monogamy, self-denial," director Luc Jacquet responded "I condemn this position. I find it intellectually dishonest to impose this viewpoint on something that's part of nature. It's amusing, but if you take the monogamy argument, from one season to the next, the divorce rate, if you will, is between 80 to 90 percent... the monogamy only lasts for the duration of one reproductive cycle. You have to let penguins be penguins and humans be humans." *

Awards

See also

Further reading

External links

2005 Sundance Film Festival | 2005 films | Antarctica | Documentary films | French films | Penguins

Die Reise der Pinguine | Pingviinide marss | La Marche de l'empereur | La Marche de l'empereur (documentaire) | मार्च ऑफ़ द पेंग्विंन्स | March of the Penguins | La marcia dei pinguini | 皇帝ペンギン | Pingvinenes marsj | Marsz pingwinów | La Marche de l'empereur

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "March of the Penguins".

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