Forget `Ode to a Skylark.' `Winged Migration' - adhering to the proposition that a picture is indeed worth a thousand words - offers a soaring, visually astonishing tribute to all the cranes, geese, swans and assorted other birds that have, since time immemorial, made long and dangerous airborne treks from one corner of the globe to another. Like no nature special you've ever seen, directors Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats and Jacques Perrin and no fewer than fifteen credited cinematographers create a visual poem to these feathered marvels by taking us right into the thick of the action, somehow managing to get their cameras to fly, in beautifully coordinated fashion, right alongside the birds at amazing speeds and altitudes. Seeing is believing in the case of this film, and even after seeing it, you still may not believe it. That's how eye-popping and visually dazzling an experience this film is.
With only minimal narration (some of it spoken and some of it subtitled), the filmmakers provide some helpful information regarding the particular species we are seeing and its migratory patterns. But the film is far more of an aesthetic visual experience than an educational one. For long stretches of the movie, the birds merely fly along in majestic silence or backed up by haunting symphonic mood music (much of it reminiscent of the work in `Koyaanisqatsi').
In addition to the birds themselves and their amazing feats, the cinematography captures, with blindingly crystal clarity, the awesome beauty of the various landscapes through which these extraordinary creatures travel (there's even a shot of the birds flying past the Twin Towers). Watching this film is truly like being transported to another world. Nature has probably never looked this good on film.
