Cry Of The Penguins

One of the odder films
This film is the only English language film made by a Norwegian(?) director and easily qualifies as being one of the strangest most patchy films I have ever seen.

The story is simple enough. John Hurt playes Forbrush, a spoilt rich post graduate student who is supposed to be studying biology at the University of London. He is very good in his chosen field, but is largely wasting his time drinking and chasing women. He decides that he wants to impress Hayley Mills, and semi- accidentally gets signed up for a 6 month tour studying penguins on his own in Antarctica. Once there, his loneliness drives him half mad, and he becomes paternally attached to the penguins he is supposed to be studying. In the course of the six months he grows up and becomes an adult as opposed to the fop that he was

The first half hour of the film is almost excrutiating. John Hurt wades through an appalling script (by none other than Anthony Shaffer) and does his best to be drunk and fey and enamoured by...

CRY OF THE PENGUINS (DVD)
Ggood film about the life of the penguins, their continuous struggle for survival. Has many aspects on the need for environmental awareness.
The acting is good enough, the direction is fine and the scenery superb.
I purchased this dvd because of the promising theme and of course because of the participation of Hayley Mills who is one of my favorite actresses.
I was not disappointed.

Heartwarming love-story
I loved the film but should point out that I'm the only reviewer I have ever come across that seems so to do. I watched this a long time ago and have been searching for a copy of the film ever since. The Antarctic scenes are beautiful and John Hurt plays his character with sympathetic flair. If you're an animal lover and relish the thought of a film filmed mainly on location in arctic conditions, then you'll love this.

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