Watching David Attenborough “Dynasties” on Sunday and the Emperor Penguins I was reminded of a film starring the late John Hurt called “Mr. Forbush and the Penguins” (1971) a sweet little film so I went about looking for a copy online. It took a while but I found a decent copy, sat back, and enjoyed.
Richard Forbush, played by John Hurt, a very talented and capable biology student who seems too spent is time chasing females round until he runs into Tara played by Hayley Mills where his charms hit a brick wall. He reluctantly accepts a postgraduate field assignment to observe the population of penguins in the Antarctic partly to fulfil his 'debt to science' but more so to impress a beautiful aspiring biology student, Tara.
Soon he finds himself at a dilapidated scientific outpost built by famed arctic explorer Ernest Shackleton decades earlier and alone. With no penguins he just as to wait then several days later he spies a lone penguin, then another, followed by more they had arrived but Forbush yearns for the high life of home and Tara.
His attitude changes almost immediately upon sighting the very first lone penguin ambling down the side of a snowy slope. Hundreds of penguins quickly join him or her, and as the rookery grows Forbush gets down to business and performs all his assigned scientific tasks in a somewhat professional if eccentric manner. The scenes of the penguins and their occasional interaction with Forbush lead to some very endearing and humorous moments.
As time transpires, Forbush finds himself increasingly involved emotionally with the penguins, marvelling at their will to survive, watching them care for the eggs and the eventual birth of the chicks. His haggard appearance is a marked contrast to the fresh faced chopper pilots who stop by and his college buddy Starshot who visits during Christmas, all of whom fear Forbush is taking the penguins much too seriously for his own good.
Eventually, Forbush's obsession with the penguins' welfare, coupled with the madness brought on by months of isolation, lead him astray. After weeks of watching, helplessly as the predatory skua gull attack the rookery, destroying hundreds of eggs, and killing many chicks, he discards the scientific creed of strict neutral observation, builds a catapult, and takes action against the predatory birds attacking their nests.
He soon regains his senses; he realizes he was foolish to try to interfere with the pattern of nature that has been going on for thousands of years. His last taped messages to Tara raise questions about his very soul and about humanity's relationship with nature, which are relevant even today. On Sundays “Dynasties”, we saw the camera crew help the penguins out of a steep ravine some had fallen into with their young chicks by digging a few steps to help them.
By listening to these tapes during Forbush's six-month tenure in the wild, Tara keenly senses his maturity as a scientist and as a man. Tara listens to Forbush's tapes in the company of her current suitor, who is understandably bored.
Tara takes this beau's insensitivity to the penguins' plight she eventually decides that the bird-loving Forbush is a better man.
My Rating
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