"If the people are sufficiently ensnared by tribalistic politics, certain events might be interpreted in ways that, in retrospect, might look ridiculous. Following the 88th Academy Awards, it became fashionable to warn about Hollywood, one of the most left-wing cultural institutions in America, suddenly turning rightwards. There were two reasons for rabid partisans to come to this conclusion. One was the snubbing of the groundbreaking gay drama Brokeback Mountain in favour of Crash. The other was the French film March of the Penguins winning the Oscar for Best Feature Documentary.
American conservatives and right-wingers, who often tended to view Hollywood as "perverted", "ultra-liberal" and "subversive" towards traditional values, found enormous enthusiasm for that film. Conservative film critics, as well as social commentators, have described March of the Penguins as a celebration of family and other traditions that Hollywood, at least in their view, so shamelessly tried to undermine. To make matters even more interesting (and even more dear to the hearts of American right-wingers), March of the Penguins actually achieved success at the American box office, something quite rare for foreign documentaries, and widely better results than many acclaimed "Oscar" favourites.
The phenomenon of March of the Penguins is all the more interesting because, in its essence, it is a nature documentary not too different from those that cable and satellite television viewers can watch every day on the Discovery Channel or National Geographic. The film was shot by French biologist and documentarian Luc Jacquet over a year near the French research station on the coast of Adélie Land in Antarctica. The plot follows a year in the life of a colony of Aptenodytes forsteri, or emperor penguins.
Every year in the Antarctic autumn, sexually mature emperor penguins leave their natural ocean habitat to embark on a 90 km journey inland. The purpose of this journey is mating, and afterwards caring for the egg and chick, during which each parent must endure hunger, cold and strong polar winds.
The film is full of fascinating scenes accompanied by quite interesting and original music by Émilie Simon. However, instead of a classic documentary narration, Jacquet in its original French version uses actors who portray the penguins and describe their feelings.
This will be a great disappointment, as the film often sinks into an almost self-parodic pathos. Many serious biologists have criticised the film for this, arguing that the penguins have been given too many human traits for commercial reasons. However, American and other conservatives have come to love the film precisely because the penguins, their monogamous sex life and the indescribable efforts invested in caring for their offspring, are interpreted as the ideal of the traditional family that every person must strive for.
The audience in the United States is more familiar with the version with conventional narration by Morgan Freeman and music by Alex Wurman.
A year later, the Oscar for Best Feature Documentary was given to An Inconvenient Truth, signalling that Hollywood, if it had ever strayed, was back firmly in the left-wing camp. March of the Penguins was destined to be remembered not as a major trend-setter, but merely a solidly-made nature documentary about a fascinating subject. In 2017, Luc Jacquet directed another documentary titled March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step, which is considered a sequel."
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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