Red in tooth and claw




I, along with most of the UK, have been watching Saint Attenborough's new illuminated manuscript of slow motion marvel, Life. As we have come to expect, its the usual kaleidoscope of amazing sights, but this time, I am left underwhelmed...and for a reason that I am aware most people would disagree with.
The premise of 'Life' actually appears to be 'Death' - every scene involves one animal hunting and then eating it's prey, obviously so that it might live.

The thing is, I really don't enjoy watching an endless procession of animals loudly crunching beetles in slow motion and ichor-dripping close-up. I know its a daily part of life and all that, my father was a large animal vet and I know how to kill and prepare animals, but it doesn't mean I'm too fond of watching a chameleon chomping a grasshopper in slow motion with ridiculously loud crunchy sound effects. And I certainly think there's little merit in the camera lingering over a group of komodo dragons begin to eat a live cow stuck in the mud, exactly as it happens in my
worst nightmare.

I find it odd that the BBC finds it necessary to put sound effects on the slow motion footage. Why do they add the ridiculous noises? Does anyone really like hearing it? And if they want us to stare the reality of life and death in the face, why do they then give it a fake soundtrack?

3 comments:

Brit said...

I've actually got so squeamish that I can't bear to watch things being eaten by other things at all any more. This has got worse since we've had the sprog, since it's nearly always the babbers and weakling who get got.

And yeah, the sound effects are a Big Lie. (the silliest being the creaky 'growth' sounds they play over vastly speeded up sequences of plants growing)

Gareth Williams said...

Squeamish? Since being cut into, I can't even watch wood being chopped any more (true).

Jeez, I'm glad I missed the komodo dragon cluster-feast. Unfortuately, I did catch last week's chameleon rape.

Rather than use sound effects, I think they should play early Clash.

[Worm: my word verification today is 'winges'. Poor spelling but otherwise spot on.]

worm said...

great! so it's not just me then!

3 people who are not in raptures over an Attenborough programme - is this the moment when Sir David jumped the shark?*

*Metaphorically speaking. He may actually have jumped a real shark in a previous series, I'm not sure