Review of Winged Migration (2001) by Tom C — 10 Feb 2004

I've been watching a whole lot of documentaries lately, so I thought I would inaugurate the new multi-rating function with a little special entry about them. luckily, they were all worth watching too, covering all types of documentaries available.. from biography to nature to crime.

[indent][font=Georgia][size=5][i]Spellbound[/i][/size][/font].

[/indent] this warm, wonderful documentary follows a handful of young teenagers, all of whom have qualified through regional spelling bees to compete at the national spelling bee in Washington D.C. while many documentaries are about darker subjects such as corruption, social problems and crime, this one's all happy as we get to follow how all of these hard-working, bright young kids make their way to the final, and then finally compete against each other in a duel of spelling words that I don't even know half the time. each teen has a different background, and come from all over the US. while you may find yourself rooting for a favorite, there's no denying that you feel for all of them. at the end of the day, one of them will be declared the winner, but the others are not sore losers either. it's definitely refreshing to see such a fun, happy and positive documentary for once. **** stars out of five.

[indent][font=Georgia][size=5][i]Capturing the Friedmans[/i][/size][/font].

[/indent] now here's a gem of a documentary. it follows the true story of the Friedman family, whose father was exposed as a pedophile out of the blue, something that destroyed this family forever. while the story it tells isn't exactly a new subject, it certainly has a lot going for it that many other documentaries don't and that's it's abundance of home video footage, shot by the Friedman family themselves, who for some reason let the camera roll even during some of their absolutely darkest moments. this gives us the viewers insight to what it truly was like for them during this difficult time, something you really can't get from 15+ years later interviews. the documentary has those too, obviously, but the most fascinating thing is definitely the home video footage that truly captured the Friedmans. it's a fascinating film, and one that let's you decide what you think is the truth or not. **** stars out of five.

[indent][font=Georgia][size=5][i]The Thin Blue Line[/i][/size][/font].

[/indent] Errol Morris (recently Oscar-nominated for [b]The Fog of War[/b]) made this famous documentary back in the 80's about a man named Randall Adams who was framed and wrongfully convicted of murdering a police officer in Dallas, Texas in 1975. having watched this documentary, it truly boggles the mind how it could go so wrong, and how this innocent man could end up in prison for over 10 years when this documentary gives us the truth of what really happened in such a simple, logical way. Morris blends interviews with everyone involved with the case, some of who tell the truth, some who bend it, and some who flat-out lie. mixed with that is recreations of what happened that night, and it's all set to music by Philip Glass. while it's a relatively straight-forward documentary, the most powerful and gratifying thing about it is the fact that it got Randall Adams' case reopened, and got him exonorated for the crime. **** stars out of five.

[indent][font=Georgia][size=5][i]Winged Migration[/i][/size][/font].

[/indent] it's possible you'll never see a more beautifully filmed nature documentary than this, to be honest. while watching it, you may think to yourself that you can't quite understand how they actually managed to film it the way they did. it's not a documentary that gives us much of any new knowledge of why birds migrate, but it sure is visually outstanding and thankfully it's not ruined by a narrator talking throughout. Jacques Perrin, the director, chose to set it to music instead and for that i'm thankful. while certain parts of the documentary is obviously staged for dramatic effect, for example to show the perils birds face, both natural and unnatural, those bits don't ruin the film at all, even if I would've preferred one without anything staged. Winged Migration is a wonderful nature documentary that really shows us some of the most majestic images you'll ever likely to see on celluloid. **** stars out of five.

[indent][font=Georgia][size=5][i]Crumb[/i][/size][/font].

[/indent] I honestly didn't know too much about Robert Crumb the person before watching this, and besides learning that he's a pervert with some seriously bizarre things mixed into it, I didn't really know that much more about him when I walked out. that's not to say that this is a waste of time or anything, but definitely a tad disappointing as it felt a bit aimless in it's depiction of Crumb and his family. something it does deserve praise for though is that it's almost brutally honest about just about everything. Crumb is likely one of the most twisted artists you can find, and this documentary sure doesn't sugarcoat him. he's not a bad person or anything, but he's certainly not the most well-adapted normal person you'd ever meet. but then again, had he been normal, he probably would never have made the comics he is now world famous for, and many of the comics he's made in the past 40 years are certainly very good. it's too bad the documentary didn't turn out to be as good as I imagined, but it's definitely worth watching anyway, if only for it's brutal honesty. ***½ stars out of five.