Third Paper

For this blog assignment, we were to watch a fourth documentary on our own, in addition to the three we are watching in class, and write a reflective blog post on it.

For my fourth documentary to watch for this assignment, I chose March of the Penguins, a documentary that chronicles the journey emperor penguins go through to mate and reproduce. I chose this movie for a couple reasons. For one, it's one of my favorites - I've owned it since it first came on DVD (it was a Christmas present) and have seen it a bunch of times, so I'm familiar with it. For another, I wanted to do my paper on a documentary that was less incendiary and controversial than some of my other favorites, such as Outfoxed or pretty much everything by Michael Moore.

At any rate. The film begins with stunning cinematography of Antarctica, where the emperor penguins live. It was structured as a story, telling how the penguins "march" or walk to their ancestral breeding grounds to find a mate.

The conflict is how the penguins fight against the harsh elements of Antarctica to hatch their young. For example some of the eggs get exposed to the harsh winds, and freeze, killing the baby penguin. Also, once the babies are born, some freeze to death. There is one particularly moving scene in which a mother penguin finds her frozen baby and she starts trumpeting her anguish.

A recurring theme in this movie is that these penguins are trying to live and reproduce in the harshest place on earth. Survival is hard for all animals, who have to fight against the elements and other predators, but it is especially hard for animals trying to survive in Antarctica.

The film concludes with the parent and now older baby penguins seperating, and gives the impression that soon these baby penguins will be making their own journey or "March". It's a very satisfying end.