To me, this movie is perfection.

Great Film overall

Better Late Then Never

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Who amongst us has not dreamt of flying under our own power? Despite a century of airplanes there is still nothing akin to winging off into the blue, crannying through small openings in trees, scaling sheer cliff faces. Never before has the idea of real bird-like flight been so perfectly expressed on film as it has in director Jacques Perrin's masterful documentary film Winged Migration. Naysayers have decried the film is not a documentary because many of the birds were raised from birth, then trained to obey humans, bonded to them for they were the 1st things the birds saw after birth, called imprinting), so they're not 'really' wild animals. Another objection is that the film, on several occasions, intersperses computer graphics with the 'authentic' documentary sequences.These objections are bushwah- this film is 1 of the most unique & exhilarating pieces of film- documentary or not- ever made. It goes & we see them interact in ways never not just seen before, but not really imagined. Yet, despite how informative it is the film is really about how birds live, in an interior sense. Most people watching this film will have ideas that birds migrate, are sensitive to earth's electromagnetic fields, & acutely aware of the seemingly most trivial landmarks, but it's when the film focuses in on a species or flock that we realize that all the birds are individual. Unlike the Alfred Hitchcock film, The Birds, these creatures are not mindless automata. Because they are not as sophisticated as humans does not mean they do not possess a high degree of sophistication, & 1 might even argue bird culture. Mating dances, flight patterns, hunting routines, are all delineated in detail, & we see the travails & triumphs of groups, even as some individuals fall prey to death in its myriad forms- human hunters, industrial waste, other birds, & in a particularly chilling scene a bird with a broken wing who is pursued on a beach by a horde of voracious sand crabs.Of course, being a documentary there is not a real plot, we just follow the different flocks through the course of a year. What intrigues is how the footage got so close to the birds? Some was taken while flying in ultra-light aircrafts, the noise of which the birds were made accustomed to while still in their eggs. Other footage was culled from hot air balloons & some from ground vehicles. Regardless of its provenance the visuals dazzle far more than any cyberworld can. Take your faraway worlds & galactic rides- give me this earth, this view, this way! Thankfully, there is very little narration- just enough to inform of a plight, but not enough to drone on irrelevantly.

¿It is me or is it not extraordinary that a single documentary filming for hour and a half only birds? Alright, birds are cute, ¿Who doesn't love to see a parrot eating a piece of pie and chanting for 2 minutes? Well, Jacques Perrin achieves with extraordinary cameras (how did he do that?)to trap us in the poetic flight of a condor, in the lightness of an albatross and in the comical stumbles of a penguin. We are amazed just with looking at the bird, learning at its migratory course, and contemplating the fastuose sky that lies as a recurrent location. This film has a poetry, a music that involves the soft movements of the birds. If you are patient and decide to take up this challenge; one Sunday evening after you took a shower: trust me, It will be a everlasting experience.

As the sun sets somewhere along the western coast of Africa, grotesque, spidery silhouettes gang up on a wounded bird. It was difficult to watch. Yet, it was visually mesmerizing. The crabs were hideous beyond description. Mercifully, the more brutal aspect of this scenario was apparently edited out.Nature is brutal. I personally find little enjoyment in watching predators kill and devour their prey. The baby penguin being torn to pieces by the gull in "March of the Penguins" was unpleasant to watch.Nature films like "Winged Migration" are usually rated G, but one should use caution when showing such films to children. Depending on how sensitive a child may be, some images in nature may prove to be psychologically traumatizing. Fortunately, most film makers of nature know what to edit out when depicting violence in the animal world.The French are good documentary film makers. They know how to capture the beauty found in nature and they can easily be relied upon to reveal its cruelty.

In 2001 Jacques Perrin "Winged Migration" became an award-winning documentary. It came as no surprise. For me it was a 'wide-eyed' 99 minutes of unique cinematography of migrating bird species from around the world. With minimal narrative and absolutely no special effects, the film focuses in on birds and nature in all its power and glory. Filmed over three years,the exquisite cinematography of migrating birds coupled with spectacular winged formations filmed from the Artic Circle,the flight over vast oceans, to the industrial areas of Eastern Europe. Here we see different environmental factors concerning industrial pollution. We also see the dangers faced by hunters whose gunfire brings sudden death as well as a bird with a broken wing who is attacked and devoured by crabs. These few unpleasant parts set to remind us of the human condition along with unseen dangers faced by birds on their quest to survive.Highly recommended.