Posted on 09/13/2005 10:25:40 AM PDT by dead
On a conservative website a pro-lifer said the movie "verified the beauty of life and the rightness of protecting it".
At a conference for young Republicans, the editor of the conservative magazine National Review urged participants to see the movie because it promoted monogamy.
The movie is March of the Penguins, and of all the responses it has evoked perhaps the most surprising is its conservative appeal.
Conservatives are hardly its only audience; the film is the second-highest grossing documentary of all time, behind Fahrenheit 9/11.
But some have seen its stirring depiction of the mating ordeals of emperor penguins as an anthem to socially conservative values.
March of the Penguins, the film critic and radio host Michael Medved said in an interview, is "the motion picture this summer that most passionately affirms traditional norms like monogamy, sacrifice and child rearing." Speaking of audiences who feel that movies ignore or belittle such themes, he said: "This is the first movie they've enjoyed since The Passion of the Christ. This is The Passion of the Penguins."
The filmmakers say they are strong believers in evolutionary theory, but add that they wanted to create a film that would reach as many people as possible.
"It's obvious that global warming has an impact on the reproduction of the penguins," Luc Jacquet, the director, told National Geographic Online. "But much of public opinion appears insensitive to the dangers of global warming. We have to find other ways to communicate to people about it, not just lecture them."
"My intention was to tell the story in the most simple and profound way and to leave it open to any reading."
The only allusion to evolution in March of the Penguins is a line in Morgan Freeman's narration: "For millions of years they have made their home on the darkest, driest, windiest and coldest continent on earth. And they've done so pretty much alone."
The movie follows the penguins as they trek back and forth over 100 kilometres of ice and huddle together to protect their eggs in temperatures that average 50 degrees below zero.
To Andrew Coffin, writing in the Christian publication World Magazine, that is an argument for the theory that life is too complex to have arisen through random selection. "That any one of these eggs survives is a remarkable feat - and, some might suppose, a strong case for intelligent design," he wrote. "It's sad that acknowledgment of a creator is absent in the examination of such strange and wonderful animals. But it's also a gap easily filled by family discussion after the film."
Not all conservatives find the movie a rebuke to Darwin's theory. "If an intelligent designer designed nature," the columnist George Will asked recently, "why did it decide to make breeding so tedious for those penguins?"
The film's US distributors, Warner Independent Pictures and National Geographic Feature Films, insist any attempt to divine a deeper meaning is misguided.
A vice-president of Warner Independent, Laura Kim, said: "You know what? They're just birds."
Hmph! That would make it the highest grossing documentary of all time. F911 wasn't a documentary, it was a propaganda piece.
Winged Migration was much more of an "oh wow" film, IMHO.
I only got as far as reading that liberal code phrase.
I might see the movie eventually, I think penguins are cool looking, might be fun. But if it's a liberal "statement" movie, I'm gonna skip it.
I consider myself a scientist and a Darwinist, but if there's any connection to liberal moonbats like Cindy Sheehan, I'll pass.
I would ask Mr. Will if the purpose of life is ease.
I have seen the movie, and I do not recall any message about global warming at all. In fact, there was no discussion of mankind or civilization at all. You only saw humans during the end credits (which kind or spoiled the movie a bit, IMHO).
I would ask Mr. Will to keep his mouth shut about "tedious breeding," unless he's been pregnant ten times!
(/mom gripe)
So, if a designer doesn't make things clear to Mr. Will, there must be no designer? I know he can come up with a better argument than that.
Of course, he is a Cubs fan. That's a unique perspective on the universe. What's the evolutionary advantage for unbounded optimism regarding a sports team based on no evidence?
Documentary: a film true to "an intention to remain factual and non-fictional.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_film
Good catch. Moore's movie is propaganda.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda
You really have to stay alert with people who would describe a new tax as a "payroll premium". (Who else? Bill Clinton)
Back to the issue, what's the big deal with watching penguins getting hot?
This begs a question about tedious breeding for Mrs. Will. For example, does George take off his bowtie at night?
It is a good, heart-warming documentary, but it once again shows that any conservative message found in mainstream films will be largely open to interpretation, and if it is fairly obvious, then you can be sure that its an accident, and was never intended by the filmmakers.
When you think of some of the blockbuster movies that have been embraced by conservatives for what they see as pro-conservative messages and themes -- like Forrest Gump or Lord of the Rings -- then again, its a safe bet that such themes were not intended. I'm sure the filmmakers would be horrified to think that such messages were in their films.
But anyway, its interesting how the NYTimes plays this up, as if conservatives only embrace movies they feel embraces and endorses their values, when in fact its a pretty safe bet that conservatives, generally speaking, attend movies pretty much like any other group.
The snow is snowing and the wind is blowing
But I can weather the storm!
What do I care how much it may storm?
For I've got my love to keep me warm
I can't remember a worse December
Just watch those icicles form!
Oh, what do I care if icicles form?
Oh, I've got my love to keep me warm!
---Irving Berlin
:-).
I bought WM on DVD; remains to be seen about Penguins.
The only allusion to evolution in March of the Penguins is a line in Morgan Freeman's narration: "For millions of years they have made their home on the darkest, driest, windiest and coldest continent on earth. And they've done so pretty much alone."
How the hell is this an allusion to evolution? It only says that the penguins have been there for millions of years, not that they evolved; it is an allusion to the actual age of the earth and the actual age of the penguins; it has absolutely nothing to do with evolution. If you don't think penguins or the earth are a million years old take it up with Astronomers, Geologists, Paleontologists and Chemists.
It wouldn't be the first time they were wrong.
Good family movie too. Heartwarming, sad, exciting, yet realistic. A great story about the dedication, hardships, and discipline these animals go through. I doubt many of us humans would stand around in the cold for 6-9 months, just to "reproduce"!
When Mount St. Helens blew it's top, the local geologist said we had just seen 10,000 years of geologic action occur in minutes. Telling.
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