The Life of Birds
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Movie Reviews of The Life of Birds
Movie Review: At least 30 "Wows!!!"
Summary: 5 Stars
If you love birds, nature, or nature photography, this DVD series will do nothing less than overwhelm you with great narrative, truly consuming photography (not to mention the sound editing is awesome) and troves full of information. My wife and I have thoroughly enjoyed Sir Attenborough's magnificent telling of the 'Life of Birds' and are actually looking forward to watching the entire series again and again. Even if you are an avid birder, you are sure to discover new species, new habitats, and new facts about bird behaviors that you weren't aware of before. One of the most rewarding things about these stories are that you may find yourself wondering out-loud, "How did they find out about that???" over-and-over, as we did, to find that they actually take the time to answer those questions at the end of the episode. I'm only here to give credit where it's due, in my humble opinion, and to order 2 more copies as gifts.Movie Review: Five stars for content, two stars for video transfer quality
Summary: 5 Stars
This series is probably my favorite nature series ever made. The stunning close-up photography of so many exotic (and not so exotic) birds is fun and fascinating to watch as they go about their behaviors. Sir David's narration is, as in all his programs, charming and unintrusive. I reviewed the VHS release of this series a couple of years ago and was so happy when they annouced its release on DVD because of the usual improvements in transfer and audio quality. Whoever did the job should be ashamed of themselves because in some places the video is so grainy (check episode six) that it literally looks like some compressed MPEG or AVI file downloaded from the internet. In other areas it is less noticeable, but still no better than the VHS tapes. The audio sounds OK, but again it's not noticeably better. Other than the permanence of having it on DVD compared to VHS, I was very disappointed.Movie Review: Compelling...
Summary: 5 Stars
I have watched it over & over again, enthralled. I am not big on nature documentaries, but this has really reawakened my interest in the outdoors & living creatures. Life of Mammals is also excellent. The pacing is gentle yet interesting, the juxtaposition of the birds is stimulating. I have not gone birdwatching in about 10 years; after viewing this, I have not only resumed birdwatching, but I have a more intuitive way of looking at & appreciating the birds, which has helped me identify birds more quickly and accurately.
David Attenborough seems to revere the wildlife with such a refreshing perspective--as if, despite all his expertise, he is still able to wonder at each action of each creature, and truly enjoy the small wonders of the world. His enthusiasm is inspiring & his presentation of the material is compelling.
Movie Review: incredible nature documentary, but poor streaming from Amazon's "Video on Demand"
Summary: 5 Stars
It would be unjust to give the Life of Birds less than 5 stars. Afterall, this is a review of the material, not the medium on which it's delivered. But I can't seem to watch a single video from Amazon's servers without frequent pauses, garbled/distorted playback and below average video quality. It's hard to appreciate these regal creatures when you can't tell their beaks from the sky, their feathers from the water, etc.
Poor streaming results in poorer video quality, and frequent pauses to retain more of the stream for playback. I don't know what the problem is: Amazon's video window shows excellent connection/bandwidth between my computer and their servers, and my internet connection is a whopping 50mb+. My computers (Both OS X and Windows) are more than powerful enough to handle the video.
Movie Review: How did they film it???
Summary: 5 Stars
This 3 dvd set, comprising ten one hour programs on various aspects about birds (hunting, singing, mating, parenting, etc.) is utterly fascinating and informative. However, the most amazing thing about it is the incredible photography. A documentary should be made explaining how they filmed it! Here we see views looking up from the bottom of a lake as a kingfisher dives into the water and snags a fish - amazing! Birds in flight are filmed as thought you are flying along side them. There are also some rare species which were captured on film for the first time. A truly stunning documentary and very educational. I had only one minor complaint - there was very little information about common birds that you might find in your garden here in the U.S., but that is a minor detail that can be overlooked.