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In
the US in particular, however,
they went wild for it. Critics
over there were almost unanimous
in their praise for this
beautifully-shot look at the
annual migration of Emperor
Penguins to their traditional
breeding grounds, lauding it as
a bold new step in documentary
filmmaking while simultaneously
falling in love with these
funny-looking flightless birds
for their (apparently) strangely
human attitudes to life and
love.
A
lot of this is thanks to
director Luc Jacquet’s
deliberate, if subtle, attempts
to make his subjects more human
in appearance. The focus on
mating, if done by Sir David,
would likely have a few wry
asides about how these penguins
tend to mate for life in a
natural world equivalent to
marriage, but it would be kept
away from the main focus. Here,
this parallel is hard to avoid
making.
Thanks
in part to the American
Evangelical Right’s obsession
with marriage and the family as
the solution to all society’s
ills, for the English-language
version, expertly narrated by
Morgan Freeman, this “love”
angle has been played up even
more. After all, if monogamy and
dedication to one’s offspring
can be found in nature, it must
be God’s will, right?
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