Winged Migration (2001)
Bac Films

Description

Witness as five film crews follow a rich variety of bird migrations through 40 countries and each of the seven continents. With teams totalling more than 450 people, 17 pilots and 14 cinematographers used planes, gliders, helicopters and balloons to fly alongside, above, below and in front of their subjects. Open your eyes to the wonders of the natural world as you fly along with the world’s most gorgeous birds through areas.

Collected reviews and ratings

10 TV Guide | Maitland McDonagh

An absolutely breathtaking documentary whose close-up shots of birds in flight are so freakishly intimate that the film is compelled to open with the statement they're not special effects.
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9.5 DVD Verdict | Adam Arseneau

Blurring the line between scripted motion picture and nature documentary, the film has the outward appearance of a mammoth and sweeping documentary, but in reality, the film has very little emphasis in fact or ornithological information and sequences occur that are obviously scripted and manufactured for dramatic effect.
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9.0 Salon.com | Stephanie Zacharek

The movie, which opens a window into the migratory travels of all sorts of birds, is more visual than educational, and that's what's so revelatory about it: It never feels like one of those dry, pedestrian nature specials that you happen upon while restlessly flipping channels.
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9.0 Time | Richard Schickel

It deserves its every dollar and its Oscar nomination because it flies with the birds — intimately, soaringly, ecstatically — in ways that are utterly without cinematic precedent.
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8.8 Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

Director Jacques Perrin gets so close to the intimate beauty of flight, you feel privileged. The result is a movie miracle; it soars.
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8.3 Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

For some 90 minutes, unadorned reality outdazzles special effects, and poetry-prone viewers may find themselves remembering paeans to nature by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
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8.0 BBC | Jamie Russell

Taking five crews three years to complete, using a host of innovative filming techniques (from remote controlled gliders to helicopters and balloons), "Winged Migration" is a quite astounding feat of cinema.
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8.0 documentaryfilms.net | David Loftus

Though it has its thrilling and hilarious moments, "Winged Migration" is mostly calm and soothing. Yet it never puts you to sleep. We get a unique sense of the grandeur and courage of the lives of birds.
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