{"id":18426,"date":"2011-06-29T11:58:54","date_gmt":"2011-06-29T18:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=18426"},"modified":"2021-01-25T00:40:48","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T07:40:48","slug":"cry-of-the-penguins-mr-forbush-and-the-penguins-1971","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=18426","title":{"rendered":"Cry of the Penguins \/ Mr. Forbush and the Penguins (1971)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Now remember this, Forbush: sex and Scotch in either order do not a biologist make.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Cry-of-the-Penguins-Poster-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Cry-of-the-Penguins-Poster-1-221x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"221\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-50412\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Cry-of-the-Penguins-Poster-1-221x300.jpg 221w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Cry-of-the-Penguins-Poster-1-94x128.jpg 94w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Cry-of-the-Penguins-Poster-1-199x270.jpg 199w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Cry-of-the-Penguins-Poster-1.jpg 737w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 221px) 100vw, 221px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA womanizing biology student (John Hurt) tries to impress his latest crush (Hayley Mills) by accepting a job studying penguins in Antarctica.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Antarctica and the Arctic<\/li>\n<li>Hayley Mills Films<\/li>\n<li>John Hurt Films<\/li>\n<li>Scientists<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nThis intriguingly titled film is sure to pique the interest of most film fanatics, especially given that it stars cinematic favorites John Hurt and Hayley Mills &#8212; but be prepared for disappointment. While <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Arne_Sucksdorff\">Arne Sucksdorff&#8217;<\/a>s extensive footage of penguins struggling to survive in the Antarctic is impressive (and must have been especially so to audiences at the time), we&#8217;ve since seen the exact same &#8220;story&#8221; told to even greater effect in the haunting, must-see documentary <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0428803\/\"><em>March of the Penguins<\/em> (2005)<\/a>. Meanwhile, the surrounding narrative &#8212; involving womanizing Hurt&#8217;s infatuation with Mills, and his bizarre attempt to impress her by taking a position as a penguin researcher: <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Mills-Hurt.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Mills-Hurt-1024x768.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-65827\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Mills-Hurt-1024x768.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Mills-Hurt-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Mills-Hurt-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Mills-Hurt-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Mills-Hurt-360x270.png 360w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Mills-Hurt.png 1183w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8212; is unspeakably lame on every count. Hurt&#8217;s character is not only insufferable, but &#8212; even worse &#8212; we never really believe in him as a viable researcher, given that the screenplay fails to offer us any credible scenes actually showing him intelligently engaging with scientific material. Once he&#8217;s out living with the penguins, we see him keeping vague track of the birds, and (in one truly weird scene) slaughtering a penguin to analyze its innards (?? really ??) &#8212; but unlike Charles Martin Smith&#8217;s protagonist in the infinitely superior <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=1892\"><em>Never Cry Wolf<\/em> (1983)<\/a>, he&#8217;s simply never convincing. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Impressive footage of penguins in Antarctica<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Penguins.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Penguins-1024x772.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"483\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-65828\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Penguins-1024x772.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Penguins-300x226.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Penguins-128x97.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Penguins-768x579.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Penguins-358x270.png 358w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Penguins.png 1163w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>The exciting blizzard scene<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Blizzard.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Blizzard-1024x783.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"489\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-65826\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Blizzard-1024x783.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Blizzard-300x229.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Blizzard-128x98.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Blizzard-768x587.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Blizzard-353x270.png 353w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Mr-Forbush-Blizzard.png 1163w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo; feel free to skip this one. Listed as a Personal Recommendation in the back of Peary&#8217;s book, most likely because of the novelty of the penguin footage at the time &#8212; but rent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0428803\/\"><em>March of the Penguins<\/em> (2005)<\/a> instead. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0066961\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1981\/06\/19\/movies\/mr-forbush-studies-penguin-mating.html\">NY Times Original Review (spoiler alert)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thespinningimage.co.uk\/cultfilms\/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=1179&#038;aff=13\">Spinning Image Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Now remember this, Forbush: sex and Scotch in either order do not a biologist make.&#8221; Synopsis: A womanizing biology student (John Hurt) tries to impress his latest crush (Hayley Mills) by accepting a job studying penguins in Antarctica. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Antarctica and the Arctic Hayley Mills Films John Hurt Films Scientists Review: This intriguingly titled film is sure to pique the interest of most film fanatics, especially given that it stars cinematic favorites John Hurt and Hayley&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=18426\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18426"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65829,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18426\/revisions\/65829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}