The first 40 minutes of this British nature film don't take place at all in nature. That is unless you consider the nature of man to be the sort of nature that he finds when he goes to Antarctica to view the lives of penguins he has been studying in school. He is John heard, a few years before playing both Caligula and Quentin Crisp, yet every bit as mesmerizing as he goes from Playboy to Ernest Shackleton want to be, even living in Shackleton's cabin in the middle of one of the most desolate places on Earth.
The first part of the movie focuses on his brief romance with the pretty clerk Hayley Mills and his decision to go way down south when that relationship goes way down sour. When they were, he waits patiently for the Penguins to show up, and when they do, it's one followed by 2000 of them, and he counts each one. He also has to deal with the egg eating birds that fly over them, the challenge of big storms and of course the efforts to stay warm and healthy.
The birds themselves are funny, each one showing in individual personality, and it's sad to actually see him have to kill one so he can study its blood. Eventually, he's like the Birdman of Antarctica, and Hurt gives a marvelous performance going from crowded London to complete isolation. It's a very entertaining movie, a little slow at times, but once he's among these delightful birds, you can't help but be hooked.
The first part of the movie focuses on his brief romance with the pretty clerk Hayley Mills and his decision to go way down south when that relationship goes way down sour. When they were, he waits patiently for the Penguins to show up, and when they do, it's one followed by 2000 of them, and he counts each one. He also has to deal with the egg eating birds that fly over them, the challenge of big storms and of course the efforts to stay warm and healthy.
The birds themselves are funny, each one showing in individual personality, and it's sad to actually see him have to kill one so he can study its blood. Eventually, he's like the Birdman of Antarctica, and Hurt gives a marvelous performance going from crowded London to complete isolation. It's a very entertaining movie, a little slow at times, but once he's among these delightful birds, you can't help but be hooked.