French penguin movie a pawn in the war on evolutionary theory

[tocqueville]

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1572642,00.html

How the penguin's life story inspired the US religious right

Antarctic family values: Is the emperor penguin an enemy of Darwin? America's surprise film hit was meant to be a nature documentary. Now it's a pawn in the war on evolutionary theory

David Smith
Sunday September 18, 2005
The Observer


It is an odyssey to rival Scott's in the Antarctic, albeit with a happier ending. Fierce snowstorms rage, icy blasts flick across the screen. March of the Penguins, an epic nature documentary with a cast of thousands, was the surprise usurper of summer blockbusters at the American box office and is tipped to be the hit family film in Britain this Christmas.

To many, it will be no more nor less than a life-affirming portrayal of Mother Nature, reminiscent of Sunday-evening television with Sir David Attenborough whispering from the undergrowth. To some, however, the mesmerising images of birds waddling, mating and nurturing their young have become cinema's most politically charged parable since Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/1.

Conservatives in America claim to have seen God in the emperor penguin. They have rejoiced in the way the film shows penguins as monogamous upholders of traditional family values. They presumably welcomed the screenwriters' decision not to pursue arguments about climate change. They have even pointed to the heroically resourceful penguins - blinded by blizzards, buffeted by gales, yet winning against the odds - as proof of 'intelligent design', the religious belief system that aims to challenge Darwin's theory of evolution.

[SharonAnn]

1. Penguins choose new mates the next year for breeding. Is that

what the "christians" want us all to do?

It's sort of like "serial monogamy", faithful to one spouse after another after another after another.

[China_cat]

13. Not to mention that the

MALES do the nurturing and raising of the young while the females go out to 'work'.

[ClassWarrior]

19. It's what Newt Gingrinch and Ronnie Raygun wanted to do.

NGU.

[Grown2Hate]

2. Wait... so, the fact that penguins are incredibly

resourceful, "winning against the odds", somehow disproves "survival of the fittest"? FASCINATING cognitive dissonance by these people. It floors me every time.

PS Great website for following the fight between Evolution science and Intelligent Design "science" is http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2437/index.htm.

[China_cat]

14. Try asking them

how penguins got from the cold wet south pole to the dry middle east desert in order to board the ark.

Question also works for wallabies, kangaroos, and koalas, not to mention the platypus...a mammal that lays eggs and suckles its young.

How's that one for an 'intelligent' design?

[Gman]

3. It could never be that penguins

evolved through natural selection of those that could best adapt to that harsh climate. Oh, no. God would never "design" anything like that. Of course they know God would never do that because through their limited reading, comprehension and analytical skills (i.e. dirt stupid and ignorant), they have decided God would never do this.

The words "faith must never conflict with reason" mean absolutely nothing to these people because they severely lack the ability to analyze and then reason. Makes them ever more the solid base of the GOP. Dumb, ignorant and just plain dirt stupid. I guess the only thing much worse would be that they like being dumb, ignorand and just plain dirt stupid. Makes life so much less complicated when you don't have to think.

[Fenris]

4. Its a movie about penguins. That's pretty much it.

The things people find...:eyes:

[skids]

5. It'll end when...

...a few of the "cast members" are found OD'd on heroine in a sleazy Hollywood drug den.

Oh wait.

That's not too likely I guess.

[cynatnite]

6. Sounds like Robertson or Falwell need to up north to do some 'saving' n/t

:sarcasm:

[-..__...]

7. So, now it's penguins?

Before that it was the bombardier beetle.

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/bombardier.html

What's next... box turtles?

:)

[bettyellen]

8. Idiots know nothing about the natural sciences- so the fact that animals

migrate blows their tiny minds into thinking it's god's hand.
it's called adaptation, you idiots, try it sometimes, this ain't the fucking dark ages in anyone else's neck of the woods.

[StellaBlue]

17. Yeah

They need to migrate out of church and into a science class.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

9. Yeah, sure, right

God's got this furry flap under which His eggs get tucked - and they're on the MALE PENGUINS, as well as the females.

God is the MALE PENGUIN who takes care of the eggs right after they're laid while the female goes off to get food. She returns about 4 months later.

OK, I'm on the side of the rightwingnuts on this one.

<snort>

[MADem]

10. But, but...but--what about the GAY PENGUINS??????

Are they DESTROYING traditional PENGUIN FAMILY VALUES?????????
http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/studentwork/cns/2002-06-10/591.asp

They're in love. They're gay. They're penguins... And they're not alone.
By Cristina Cardoze



PHOTO: The New York Aquarium
Wendell and Cass, two gay penguins at the New York Aquarium.

Wendell and Cass, two penguins at the New York Aquarium in Coney Island, Brooklyn, live in a soap opera world of seduction and intrigue. Among the 22 male and 10 female African black-footed penguins in the aquarium's exhibit, tales of love, lust and betrayal are the norm. These birds mate for life. But given the disproportionate male-female ratio at the aquarium, some of the females flirt profusely and dump their partners for single males with better nests.

Wendell and Cass, however, take no part in these cunning schemes. They have been completely devoted to each other for the last eight years. In fact, neither one of them has ever been with anyone else, says their keeper, Stephanie Mitchell.

But the partnership of Wendell and Cass adds drama in another way. They're both male. That is to say, they're gay penguins.

This is not unusual. "There are a lot of animals that have same-sex relations, it's just that people don't know about it," Mitchell said. "I mean, Joe Schmoe on the street is not someone who's read all sorts of biology books."

[cynatnite]

11. Even the great Noodly can screw up n/t

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

25. VIDEO Samanth Bee of the Daily Show on gay penguins. This was great!

http://static.userland.com/gems/jake/video/DailyShow040923GayPenguins.mov

[MADem]

26. Heh heh, I remember that!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

27. I rewatched it last night and had to run to the bathroom! nt

[pitohui]

12. oh that makes a lot of sense

god abandoned them & left them to struggle on in the cold w. every other land species dead & gone around them

& that is proof of god's glory

who could worship such a god, he turned his back on their land & destroyed it

weird concept of life-affirming

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. Steve Jones had the right quote

"Supporters of intelligent design think that if they see something they don't understand, it must be God; they fail to recognise that they themselves are part of evolution. It appeals to ignorance, which is why there is a lot of it in American politics at the moment."

[StellaBlue]

16. I JUST got back from seeing this

And it shattered my rosy illusions about penguins.

I thought they mated for life, when, really, they are serial monogamists.

This movie neither refutes evolution nor shores up 'family values' as defined by the religious right.

THEY'RE PENGUINS - NOT HUMANS.

There are a LOT of things in the movie that humans, especially as a group, would not do. Like just allow a predatory bird to fly in and take a baby. What group of humans would allow that - even if the baby was an orphan?

This film made me both like the penguins and be very, very glad to be human - and able to use reason to IMAGINE IMPROVEMENTS to our collective lot.

Edited to add: and it didn't strike me as 'life affirming' - nor was it depressing. It was just like life for us - ups and downs, deaths and births. Over and over and over and over. And, like the penguins, we still do the same stupid things over and over and over. They make a bunch of 70-mile treks through ice storms; we make war. Rather than trying to evolve consciously and find other, easier, better, less dangerous alternatives.

:eyes:

[tocqueville]

18. penguin joke

A man drives to a gas station and has his tank filled up. While doing this
the clerk spots two penguins sitting on the back seat of the car. He asks
the driver, "What's up with the penguins in the back seat?"

The man in the car says, "I found them. I asked myself what to do with
them but, I haven't a clue."

The clerk ponders a bit then says, "You should take them to the zoo."

"Yeah, that's a good idea," says the man in the car and drives away.

The next day the man with the car is back at the same gas station. The
clerk sees the penguins are still in the back seat of the car.

"Hey, they're still here! I thought you were going to take them to the zoo!"

"Oh, I did," says the driver, "and we had a great time. Today I'm taking
them to the beach."

[-..__...]

23. Better penguin joke

http://media.putfile.com/Chimp--on--Penguins

[tanyev]

20. The fundies love a French movie?

:rofl:

[tocqueville]

22. I bet they don't even know it's French

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0428803/

Marche de l'empereur, La (2005)

Also Known As:
March of the Penguins (USA)
The Emperor's Journey (International: English title)
Runtime: France:85 min
Country: France
Language: French
Color: Color
Sound Mix: DTS / Dolby Digital / SDDS
Certification: Canada:G (all provinces) / Hong Kong:I / Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) / France:U / UK:U / USA:G / Singapore:G

Trivia: 'Morgan Freeman' recorded his narration in 1 day. (more)

User Comments:

79 out of 87 people found the following comment useful:-
Luc Jacquet has done the impossible., 8 July 2005

Author: John DeSando ([e-mail]) from Columbus, Ohio

Toss that anthropomorphic expectation and embrace your inner animal because documentarian Luc Jacquet has done the impossible: March of the Penguins respects, even adores, these indomitable cuties, not because, as Morgan Freeman says in his voice-over narration, they may be just like us, but rather because they are not like us. Although we may want to see ourselves in them, we end up seeing in this incomparably intimate journey through the entire breeding cycle in Antarctica is a unique organism totally devoted to the survival of its family, brooking no selfish activity and no vacation from the harsh climate and relentless demands of nature.

[sakabatou]

21. If I see god in sliced bread...

those that make me affirm christian "values"? :sarcasm:

[Qibing Zero]

24. I often find it hard to contain myself

Sometimes I'm just so overcome with frustration with these people... why can't they just open their eyes?! I mean, I know the reasons, my family has been that way ever since I was a small child. I guess I just want to have more faith in humanity...

Grrr!

:grr: