Le peuple migrateur 2001

Critics score:
96 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Winged Migration is one for the birders, or for all other people who have stood still and forgotten themselves as they watch a sparrow make its way through the world. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: This film by French director Jacques Perrin is to most nature documentaries what King Kong is to monster movies: It towers over them. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Winged Migration is, without question, the best documentary about birds I have ever seen. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: [O]ne of the most astonishing pieces of work I've ever seen. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: Many modern fantasy films, employing digital effects and camera trickery, offer us an invitation to fly. None really sweeps us up to the heights like this one. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: Provides such an intense vicarious experience of being a flapping airborne creature with the wind in its ears that you leave the theater feeling like an honorary member of another species. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: This is a movie to be seen and savored. And savored again. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: To be next to these birds as they are flying is frankly mesmerizing. Read more

Houston Chronicle: A life-affirming story that's enthralling, inspiring and poignant. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: A feat of diligence -- and not just on the part of its feathered subjects. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: For some 90 minutes, unadorned reality outdazzles special effects, and poetry-prone viewers may find themselves remembering paeans to nature by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: There's not a single special effect, and yet the visuals are spectacular. Read more

Jane Sumner, Dallas Morning News: It's a heady, exultant ode to life. Read more

John Powers, L.A. Weekly: The footage ... is astonishing both for the beauty of the birds and for its sheer technical brilliance. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Nature films are assumed to be plotless, but Winged Migration is full of major and minor narratives, from the basic struggle of a snow goose making its migratory trek from the Gulf to the Yukon, to sequences of decidedly high drama. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: Read more

Bob Campbell, Newark Star-Ledger: Perrin's film assembles discontinuous but overlapping visual wonders into a vaguely mystical ode to the endless variety and timeless rhythms of life. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: People have to learn poetry. Birds are born with it. Perrin has merely copied their poetry on film, and it is breathtaking, frame by frame. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: A beautiful spectacle that makes one think of God and Darwin in the same breath. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: A fascinating motion picture. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: There are sights here I will not easily forget. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: This is awestruck filmmaking at its best. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Winged Migration is just a peek into the birds' view of things, and it's a precious one. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Arguably the most beautiful documentary ever made, Winged Migration has a 'wow!' factor that is off the charts. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Reminds us of the possibly primal connection between movies and the eternal dream of flight. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: Whether we're seeing a startled flock taking sudden flight or zapping into a mountain lake to catch fish, our eye is constantly bedazzled. Read more

Time Out: Read more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: Though you learn less about the various species Perrin circled the globe to document than you might from an afternoon with Animal Planet, you become intensely chummy with the process and labor of flying. Read more