March of the Penguins: Leave It Be

by Erin Harvey on September 26th, 2005

Why is it that people must take even the most innocent of things, like a documentary about penguin life in Antarctica, and twist it into some mangled political propaganda that sours the movie-going milk for the rest of us?

I went to see March of the Penguins based on the fact that I love animals, and I love documentaries. What then, could be better than a wildlife documentary? It was a mid week early show at one of the quaint local theatres and the crowd was a curious mix of the elderly, the pre-school, and the university student avoiding study. As the show began even the children were (mercifully) silent as they watched the brave flightless creatures toddle back and forth across the wind-ravaged lands of Antarctica. They laughed when penguins slid on their belly, they gasped when the little babies were in danger and they pointed out things of interest to their relaxing parents beside them. Funny thing was, they weren’t alone. Grandpa guffawed, the student cynic expressed his amazement, and I had never had such a good time staring at so much snow in all my life. I also, get this…I learned a lot. I knew nothing about penguins other than the fact that they swam rather than flew, carried their eggs on their feet, and lived way down South. Now I knew that they marched hundreds of miles on their little scaly feet every year, and the ice flows dictated much of their activity.

It was only when I left the theatre and continued reading movie news that I saw March of the Penguins had been co-opted by the political right (or has been accused of being co-opted, by the left) as a demonstration of the proper order of nature and to reinforce their strong push for family values, including anti-abortion, anti-gay hooplah. Are you following this? They waddle and wiggle and make little cheep-cheep noises (none of which said ‘two mommies is wrong!’ or ‘abortions is murder!’. They’re penguins. In a children’s movie. I didn’t come out of the theatre thinking “Gee, all little babies need a mommy and a daddy to survive! A strong family core without single parents or gay people must surely be the answer to all of society’s ills.” In fact, I saw the film weeks ago on a quest to find Morgan Freeman and Emilie Simon cohabitating in gorgeous audio bliss. I thought “Wow, penguins are fascinating! I’m glad I went and I’m glad I learned all those neat penguin facts”. I’m sure, since my mentality is often on their level, that this is also what 6 year olds thought.

It’s the adults that always ruin all the fun.

b5media.com

Film Gecko