After a seemingly endless icy winter, the Arctic coast of Alaska and British Columbia, and the the northern Pacific which washes it, warm and bloom more intensely then the Amazon forest. pla... Read allAfter a seemingly endless icy winter, the Arctic coast of Alaska and British Columbia, and the the northern Pacific which washes it, warm and bloom more intensely then the Amazon forest. plankton, which gets constant feeding in the deep fjords is a feast for the food chain. This ... Read allAfter a seemingly endless icy winter, the Arctic coast of Alaska and British Columbia, and the the northern Pacific which washes it, warm and bloom more intensely then the Amazon forest. plankton, which gets constant feeding in the deep fjords is a feast for the food chain. This starts with herring, seals and whales, which travel for months from the quiet, warm but re... Read all
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Himself - Narrator (Attenborough, David): The table is set for the mightiest predator of them all. The humpbacks have reached their feeding grounds. After six months without a bite to eat, the humpbacks can finally break their fast. The whales have learned to target these ready-made balls of fish. But they'll need more than just a mouthful, and with the feast now in full swing, this is their chance. To exploit the vast shoals of herring that are in deeper water, they rely on teamwork. For these whales have developed a truly remarkable way of hunting.
[WHALES SINGING]
Himself - Narrator (Attenborough, David): The inlets echo to the sound of a mysterious song.
[WHALES SINGING]
Himself - Narrator (Attenborough, David): A curtain of bubbles and a haunting call hold the secret to an ingenious way of fishing.
[WHALES SINGING]
Himself - Narrator (Attenborough, David): [HIGH-PITCHED SINGING] This is "bubble-net feeding". A dozen whales work together to harvest the herring bonanza. Such fishing requires an extraordinary level of intelligence and cooperation. The lead whale dives first. She is the bubble-blower. It's her job to find the fish.
[WHALE SPOUTING AIR]
Himself - Narrator (Attenborough, David): The rest follow in formation. Each takes exactly the same position in every lunge. Once she's located the fish, the leader blows a net of bubbles that completely encircles the shoal.
[WHALES SINGING]
Himself - Narrator (Attenborough, David): Another whale calls to synchronise the group.
[WHALES SINGING CONTINUES]
Himself - Narrator (Attenborough, David): Panicked by the eerie sound and the blinding bubbles, the fish won't cross this fizzing curtain.
[HIGH-PITCHED SINGING]
Himself - Narrator (Attenborough, David): As few as 100 humpbacks have learnt how to feed as a team like this. And this is the only place on the planet where whales fish in this way.
[LOUD MOANING]
Himself - Narrator (Attenborough, David): At the height of the great feast, these humpbacks fish around the clock, each eating a ton of herring a day. Only man has learnt to exploit the seas on a greater scale.
Picking a favourite among so many gems, some ground-breaking, in Attenborough's enviously consistent career is exceedingly difficult. Some of them also doing remarkably amazingly at making one appreciate more species that they were indifferent to before, for instances reptiles and insects give me the creeps usually but Attenborough's work sees them in a new light in an illuminating way that there was more appreciation garnered from them. Picking any of them to include in your top 10 is also hard.
2009's 'Nature's Great Events' (aka 'Nature's Most Amazing Events') for me is up there though, not ground-breaking perhaps but still an achievement. It has everything that makes so much of his work so wonderful, hence some of the reiteration of my recent reviews for some of his work (being on a nature documentary binge in my spare time), and deserves everything great that has been said about it.
Like the previous five episodes, can't find anything to fault "The Great Feast". Great isn't enough to describe it. Amazing is more like it. What a way to finish the series off.
First and foremost, "The Great Feast" looks amazing. It is gorgeously filmed, done in a completely fluid and natural, sometimes intimate (a great way of connecting even more with the animals), way and never looking static. In fact much of it is remarkably cinematic with some of the shots being unique for a documentary series, making one forget that it is a series. The editing is always succinct and smooth and the scenery is pure magic, similarly really admired the wide-ranging diversity of the different landscapes rather than restricting it to just one habitat. The music score fits very well, never overly grandiose while never being inappropriate.
Again, like so many Attenborough nature/wildlife documentaries and individual episodes from them, "The Great Feast" fascinates, teaches, moves, entertains and transfixes. In terms of the facts there was a very good mix of the known ones and the unknown, some facts being familiar to us while going into detail about the different animals, their challenges and some truly amazing wildlife events in their struggles for survival and interaction with other animals whether prey or predator.
Everything about the food chain is really illuminating and remarkably comprehensive, being not as knowledgeable in that area, and evoke some awe-inspiring and powerful moments.
Narration by Attenborough helps significantly. He clearly knows his stuff and knows what to say and how to say it. He delivers it with his usual richness, soft-spoken enthusiasm and sincerity, never talking down to the viewer and keeping them riveted and wanting to know more. One cares for what goes on in front of and behind the camera.
The animals are big in personality and very diverse. The conflict has genuine tension and suspense, there is some fun and a lot of emotionally powerful moments done with a lot of tear-jerking pathos. Found myself really caring for what we're told.
At no point does "The Great Feast" ever feel like an episodic stringing of scenes, instead feeling like its own story and journey, with real, complex emotions and conflicts and animal characters developed in a way a human character would in a film but does it better than several.
In summary, so much amazes here and it's yet another episode that shows why this brilliant series lives up to its name. 10/10 Bethany Cox
- TheLittleSongbird
- Apr 23, 2018
Details
- Runtime49 minutes