"Life in the Freezer" is a majestic, haunting, extraordinary look at life in Antarctica, the most hostile place on Earth. Producer/Director Alastair Fothergill and his brilliant team of cinematographers and sound recordists journeyed to the icy continent to record more than a year of life in the freezer. The emotions one feels while watching this are overwhelming and we are filled with awe and wonder at a continent that is closer to an alien planet than anything else within our terrestrial boundaries. The successful "March of the Penguins" clearly took both its inspiration and structure from "Freezer". Of course, Fothergill's depiction of the penguins' march possesses a stronger, more haunting quality, and the hostility of the environment is enhanced by George Fenton's stunningly effective musical score. The doco is not all penguins, though. We travel to the most arid part of the world where a seal has been mummified for centuries. We plunge into a blue, spooky canopy beneath the ice and explore incredible caves shaped by the flow. We hang out with whales and ride shotgun with a myriad of birds as they cross the continent for food. Narrator David Attenborough, as usual, delivers powerful, enthusiastic, irony-laced monologues from the Antarctic wasteland and infects us with his unbridled passion for nature and its awesome beauty. In every sense, one of the greatest and humbling celebrations of our planet's diversity every produced.
