Seagulls will never seem the same

Lancelot Sly at the Flicks

My partner and I should have taken ear plugs to the movies the other night. If we had we would have seen a rather tedious nature film comprised in the main of scenes' of seagulls performing acrobatics. Regrettably, however, we went without ear protection, and as a result we saw Jon a than Livingston Seagull, a penetrating exploration of the existential dilemmas of seagulls as interpreted by a number of leading seagull prophet/philosophers.

Jon a than Li Vingston Seagull, as you may have been told by a number of panting admirers, is not really a story about seagulls.

No! It is about our own human existence.

Oh!

Yeah, it is about searching for the meaning of life, and transcending the limits of our earthly existence, and seeing through the crass materialism of our own society and . . .

Go on! Well, what happens?

Well you see there is this gull, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, who wants to fly faster and higher than any other gull has ever flown before. But the flock, that is the society in which he lives, disapproves of such unorthodox behaviour and eventually expels him for not conforming to its demands. Jonathan decides to travel where no gull has ever travelled before and see things no gull has ever seen.

He goes on a quest, you mean.

Yeah, that's right, and at the end of it he is received into the fraternity of gulls who have also been divinely inspired to seek perfection. Jonathan studies under the tutelage of the Great Gull, who teaches him that his true place is back on the garbage heap with his flock, teaching the other gulls how to reach perfection. This Jonathan tries to do, without much success. He does, however, convert a small bunch of disciples to his faith and they keep up the good work while he flies on to higher places.

A scaring socio-political drama, action-packed excitement with a dash of humour, JLS is not. Instead, it is a clumsy re-hash of a number of religious and philosophical themes, primarily Christian, in an easily digested, easily marketed form. The use of the seagull metaphor, plus a variety of clever film techniques and pretentious music from Neil Diamond, comprise the sugar-coating on a rather insipid and ineffective pill, the message of which seems about as pertinent as cod-liver-oil and sulphur and molasses are effective for fighting disease. That the film's message is easily understood and accepted is the result of the familiarity of the themes to most people in the audience; the message is basically the same as that preached from Sunday School up-wards, and in fact if the story has any value at all it might as well be as an ideological aid for religious instruction or some other equally dubious purpose.

The extent to which biblical parallels are taken borders on the absurd. There is, for example, a seagull version of the laving on the hands. A young gull with a crippled wing stumbles pathetically across the garbage dump' to Fletcher Lynn Seagull and pleas for help -he wants to fly. What follows is a Pythonesque scene in which FLS touches the cripple with his beak and says the magic words, upon which the young gull promptly flies, though only after an agonisingly long take-off run.

One cannot review this film fairly unless one mentions its good points! In this category I unreservedly and without qualification include the superb acting of An Ordinary Seagull as Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Displaying an instinctive identification with the character, An Ordinary Seagull combined an extraordinary aerial dexterity with an awesome dramatic power power and presence. When one considers that this is the first dramatic performance of this young gull one is truly amazed. There is doubt, however, whether An Ordinary Seagull will ever perform again. Interviewed at his offshore nesting rock AOS said that he was content to fade back into obscurity now that he had financial security, besides which he thought it unlikely that a similar role would present itself in the near future. The Theatre will be the loser if it does not.

And finally an Oscar nomination. I nominate the Garbage Dump for the Best Supporting Set Award: a memorable performance.