In The Wild

Sunday John and I had a movie day, which had the unintended theme of nature-related documentary. We watched March of the Penguins and Grizzly Man. I liked them both.

If you haven't seen it yet, March of the Penguins follows Emperor penguins in Antarctica as they go through great lengths to create adorable little baby penguins. Penguins have always been one of my favorite animals, mostly because of their cute little waddle. When I was watching the movie I forgot that penguins are relatively small. I was sucked into the world of some kind of super penguin- the giants of the penguin family, towering at 6 feet. The cute little waddle turned into the labored step of a large man or a big animated over-stuffed sausage with impossibly short, stubby legs. But my perspective could be totally off, because John said he though they looked small. Anyway, If you haven't seen it yet, it's definitely worth the while.

Grizzly Man is a film by Werner Herzog, about a man named Timothy Treadwell who spent 13 summers camping alone in the wilderness of Alaska (without any weapons), getting to know his bear "friends". He and his girlfriend were eventually killed by a bear. He left behind massive amounts of video, including the audio of his own death (which thankfully wasn't played in the movie, only described). This was an entirely different look at nature and a big departure from the heartwarming penguins. The bears aren't glorious-looking, but downright scary. Every interaction he had with a bear made me nervous, and even when he is pictured alone in a wide, empty expanse I was waiting for a huge scraggly bear to come bounding in and tackle him. The music was really good- it had the sort of raw, free quality that I think captured what drew Treadwell to the wilderness of Alaska.