Winged Migration Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Winged Migration Blu-ray Movie Review

Some of the most amazing footage of bird flight ever captured outweighs qualms about how it was captured.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 3, 2009

When is a documentary not a documentary? That question may or may not give pause to some viewers of Winged Migration, certainly one of the most audacious nature films of all time, but one whose street (or sky, as the case may be) cred has been challenged by those in the know about the backstory of its creation. The film has a very simple premise—it follows different species of birds on their migratory patterns around a calendar year. Where the controversy comes in is by way of the absolutely astounding imagery the film offers, some of the most mind-boggling shots you’re ever likely to see of birds seemingly within a hair’s breadth of the camera, flying to and fro. If you’re like me, one of the first questions that is going to pop into your head as you watch Winged Migration is, “How the frell did they film that?”

And it turns out that that is at the heart of some purists’ problems with the film. In order to be able to get this up close and personal with various flocks, the filmmakers raised the avian creatures from their hatchling stages, allowing them to “imprint” upon various members of the film crew. The birds were also made to grow accustomed to the various flying apparatuses the filmmakers utilized to capture the stunning imagery. So when the birds were indeed ready to fly, they stuck close to their imprinted human “parent” and weren’t ostensibly bothered by the Ultralight Gliders and other paraphernalia used to get the cameras airborne. Does that bother you? If it doesn’t, fine, no worries, you’re going to find Winged Migration one of the most fascinating accounts of nature’s mysterious ways ever caught on film. Does it bother you? I would only say then, don’t look at Winged Migration as a standard documentary—enjoy it instead as a somewhat fictionalized account of various birds’ behaviors. Because the amazing flying imagery is there, one way or the other, and that can’t be faked.

The charming French village whose birdlife opens Winged Migration.

For eighty million years, birds have ruled the skies, seas and earth. Each spring, they fly vast distances. Each fall, they fly the same route back. This film is the result of four years following their amazing odysseys in the northern hemisphere and then the southern hemisphere, species by species, flying over each continent. No special effects were used in the filming of the birds. So states Winged Migration’s prologue, and while some may quibble about the veracity of the “special effects” comment, at least with regard to the imprinting (not to mention the outright use of some CGI for some bridging elements), there is no denying the almost miraculous visuals directors Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud, and Michel Debats offer to the viewer here. Starting in a pastoral wintertime French village that could almost be a lithograph from an old Currier and Ives Christmas card, which then magically morphs to spring, we start following various families of birds, notably geese, as they feed their young and prepare for long flights ahead.

Winged Migration is blessed by the virtual lack of narration, just a comment here and there by a somewhat heavily accented French voiceover artist. Equally occasional subtitles appear informing us of the huge distances (usually thousands of miles) various species travel in their annual journeys. The rest of the film consists mostly of simply marvelous flying sequences. We follow birds down the Seine and under various bridges, or see them taking off from a highway in the American southwest. We’re traipsing through misty clouds with them, or rushing by the ocean. One glorious scene after another will fill most viewers with a sense of awe and wonder, that same age old feeling that has evidently haunted mankind since at least the mythical era of Icarus.

Things get a little stickier, content wise, with some patently staged elements that have not helped the film’s reputation with the Ken Burns just the truth and only the truth crowd. A camera shows a hatchling in some overgrown wheat and then tracks back to reveal a thresher moving in menacingly. A caged goose looks plaintively overhead to a freely flying flock almost mockingly soaring past. A parrot manages to evade evil trappers. Geese get a bird’s eye view of man’s ecological incompetence. And so on. These elements may help give the film some dramatic shape, at least for younger viewers who may tire of the otherwise endless flying scenes, but they seem heavy handed at best, and outright deceptive at worst. The film would have been manifestly better, to my eyes at least, without these added stagings. That's especially evident in scenes that at least appear to be "real," as in the hapless bird with a broken wing which is attacked by sand crabs, a disturbing and visceral moment in the film.

If you can overlook, or at least somewhat dismiss, the twin caveats of the procedures used to train the birds to fly for the cameras, and the frankly more troubling aspect of the artificial sequences, Winged Migration is a triumphant piece of filmmaking that features one unbelievable flying scene after another. Set to an enjoyable score of quasi-ambient music, and blessedly free of omnipresent narration, the film is easily one of the most unique looks at animal behavior ever captured on celluloid. Maybe not knowing how it was done is the way to really unequivocally enjoy Winged Migration.

Winged Migration Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Winged Migration's AVC encoded 1080p 1.85:1 image has both its good points and its bad points. Let's dispel with the bad points first--there's an abundance of grain in this transfer which approaches noisy levels especially in the blue sky footage. The rest of the news is very good indeed. This is a stunningly sharp and wonderfully rendered picture, with incredible detail. You'll marvel at the clarity with which you can see these birds, often at the discrete feather level. The surrounding land and seascapes are also incredible to behold. Some of the water imagery is especially lush, with beautifully saturated teal greens and deep cobalt blues. The desert imagery offers excellent detail and rust red colors that pop beautifully. Occasional long shots suffer just slightly from softness, but this is generally a superior looking Blu-ray.

Winged Migration Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix plays at 48 kHz, streaming generally at or just above 3.0 Mbps. While this mix doesn't offer knock your socks off directionality, there's abundant use of surround channels, especially (perhaps ironically) in the more land locked segments, where ambient environmental noise immerses the listener in a very natural soundscape. Bruno Coulais' beautiful music fills all channels and offers an aural support to the proceedings that's very enjoyable. There are some great moments of some neat directionality, as when you hear the flutter of wings from a right channel just before some birds pop into view. This is a clear and distinctive sound mix, but is not bombastic by any means.

Winged Migration Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Several excellent supplements augment the main feature, chief among them the excellent 52 minute SD making of documentary which documents the imprinting of the birds and the filming techniques. The director commentary, while a bit hard to understand due to the heavy accents, is also extremely informative, offering a wealth of background information. A 17 minute SD interview with Coulais offers some insight into his compositional process. Filmmaker Interviews actually offers two separate segments, About the Film, 9:45 in SD (though anamorphically enhanced), where Perrin discusses his inspiration for making the film, and Further Insights, a 14:05 enhanced SD picture in picture look at some of the footage. Rounding out the supplements are a picture gallery with commentary and BD Live functionality (which had no content when I checked).

Winged Migration Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Forget about the backstory and simply revel in the truly astounding imagery of Winged Migration. There's been nothing quite like this in filmed bird flight, and its innovativeness far outweighs any passing qualms as to how much was staged for the camera.