The Natural History of the Chicken

This is a documentary that says as much about people as it does about chickens (and it's certainly not a "natural history" lesson of the fowl). Seemingly random in the quirky episodes he relates, Mark Lewis shows us a range of human behavior, from those who understand and appreciate chickens for their personalities, to the nameless corporations who run factory farms, the footage from which is appalling, though the film is far from comprehensive about anything.

There's a woman in Maine who gave CPR to save a frozen chicken's life, but there are also a couple of farmers from the 1940's who had a rooster live after its head was chopped off, then cruelly kept it alive for months so that they could monetize it in travelling sideshows. There's a woman who sees her chicken as her soulmate and goes swimming with it, but there's also the guy who was raising 100 roosters for cockfighting, an enterprise that was scuttled because they drove their neighbors crazy with their incessant crowing. Maybe my favorite human in this was the guy who could imitate a rooster to a tee, including its mating ritual.

There is also a degree of information here about the chicken, or at least, through the various scenes we understand they have a degree of intelligence and compassion that is usually conveniently overlooked to reduce guilt in those that eat them. This is another film that makes me happy I'm a vegetarian, though the film is not pushing this agenda, and if anything, the idea of "God's natural order," and free-range, organic farming seem to be its ideals. The final story, with a farmer relating the story of Liza, a Japanese silky bantam who desperately wanting to have chicks and then was willing to sacrifice herself in the face of a hawk attack for them, is certainly stirring.