Exactly as they are

Friends had urged we see "Winged Migration" - playing locally at the Bijou in Fairhaven - and last night we did.

There's very little symbolic information - words written or spoken - in this movie. It is really an epic poem of sight and sound - and the sights, while sometimes familiar, usually aren't because most times they are astounding, in-air, up-close and personal photography. (No special effects used here - all real.) I found the sound - both natural and musical score - the equal of the visuals. Just a wonderful experience. In fact, I could have done with the elimination of symbolic information entirely and just soaked in the experience of sight and sound as if I was there flying - and occasionally dying - with all these magnificent creatures on their incredible journeys.

In short - this is not a documentary - it is an experience.

The one thing I would take some issue with is what Stephen Holden notes about the movie in his NYT review:

The breathtaking cinematography of migrating birds in Jacques Perrin's mystical documentary ''Winged Migration'' transports you to an exalted realm where nature operates under its own inviolable laws and humanity is portrayed as a crude, destructive interloper in the natural scheme of things.

I agree humanity is portrayed this way - as crude and destructive. I agree humanity tends to be that way. My problem with that statement - and the movie - is that it fails to convey the simple fact that, for better or worse, we are part of nature. It sets up a false dichotomy - here is nature - and here we are. There seems to be an unspoken perspective in the movie - and I suspect in the minds of most people - that we are somehow above all this and separate from it. We are like an outside force, an evil god, or fallen angel, acting always for the worse on nature.

I don't think we always act for the worse. but even when we do I try to remember that we are just another creature, blooming for a time on this planet, perhaps going through a cycle of overpopulation, and ultimately destined for replacement, as everything is, either suddenly through some major disaster, or slowly through evolution. You ask will it be a "natural" disaster - and I would answer, that still misses the point. In the sense that I see us as part of nature, even a nuclear war is a "natural" disaster. We are just another piece of a huge system and much as we try to distinquish ourselves and claim for ourselves a separate niche, it simply doesn't exist.

I am not saying we should therefore continue to pollute and kill, either wantonly or carelessly. I'm just suggesting that we should be more careful when speaking out against some of our worst acts, to not lose the perspective that we are part of it all. The loss of that perspective defeats our very purpose. I'm not sure that is lost in this movie. In fact, the problem may be with the reviewer.

In many ways, hunters, highways, and polluting factories, are depicted as just part of the landscape with which these animals must contend. For us to separate them and make them a special intrusion on nature, may just be a reflection of the special arrogance we bring to the film and not something the film depicts as such. As the birds contend with our intrusions, so they contend with storms, the struggle for a limited food supply, and others who prey on them.

Yes, we are damaging in stupid ways and this is not a defense of those actions - just an attempt to hold onto reality. We may poison the environment making it unsuitable for us. But I doubt very much that we will even come close to destroying all life on earth. I frequently remember descriptions from a Loren Eisley book where he speaks of coming across abandoned, man-made structures, and he describes how quickly nature takes over. There are many xamples of this. One of my favorite is Ninigret wildlife sanctuary in southern Rhode Island. This was once a Naval air station. In WWII the first President Bush was a pilot, landing his plane here during training. The last time we visited the plants were reclaiming the runways, one crack at a time - and all the flying in the vicinity was done by a wonderful variety of birds. (There may be a government project - for all I know already approved and completed - to remove the runways, but that misses the point. I think I like it better with them there and nature giving us a lesson in humility.)

But let us assume that we ruin the earth, destroy ourselves, and all other life here. The universe will hardly blink. Science long ago abandoned the view that the earth was the center of the universe. It is time we abandon the Old Testament view that the earth and all its creatures, were created to serve us.

There are those who will say, that's just the point. That is exactly what we environmentalist are saying. That is precisely the message you should have received from the sights and sounds of "Winged Migration."

And perhaps I am trying to cut it too fine. But I can't shake the feeling that there is a difference. I see a dangerous loss of perspective - both when we rush around building highways and oil tankers willy nilly - and when we vehemently oppose such actions. In both cases we are in danger of seeing ourselves as gods - as something above it all, capable of manipulating it all - we are not. We are part of it - even when we behave in what we see as evil ways.

But I wander far astray. I won't urge you to see "Winged Migration." I will urge you to experience it. Try to abandon all human prejudice. Try to appreciate not only the wondeful animals in the movie, but the magnificent animals that created it. Accept this as a whole and see yourselves and the people who created this, as part of that whole.

Mirrors reflecting mirrors reflecting . . . perhaps this is what Buddha meant when he said:

How wonderful!
How wonderful!
All things are perfect
Exactly as they are!

Posted by Greg Stone at July 30, 2003 06:38 AM