Life
2009
Original language: English
- documentary
The story
David Attenborough looks at the extraordinary ends to which animals and plants go in order to survive. Featuring epic spectacles, amazing TV firsts and examples of new wildlife behaviour.
What it’s like
Lush, saturated wildlife photography shot on long telephoto lenses, with slow push-ins on insects and seedlings and sweeping aerial wides of deserts, rainforests and frozen tundra. Light is mostly natural and dramatic: dawn haze over savannah, dappled canopy green, harsh midday glare in arid country, and a lot of macro work where a single droplet or leaf fills the frame. Narration is warm and unhurried, sitting over a symphonic orchestral score that swells for spectacle and drops away to near silence when the camera waits on a hunter or a hatching chick. Pacing is episodic and patient, each segment building toward one striking behaviour or surprising adaptation, and the mood is awed and curious rather than tense. Intensity is moderate: predation and death occur, shown matter-of-factly with some blood and a few tense hunts, but nothing lingers on suffering. Suits a slow weekend afternoon, a family viewing, or a thoughtful evening with a cup of tea. For viewers who want to see the natural world up close and feel wonder at how life adapts, and who are fine with occasional real-world predation.
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