SHANA R. (LynniePennie) from CLAYTON, NY Reviewed on 3/11/2009...
You must rent or purchase this DVD if you've ever had a special bond with chickens. I laughed, cried and contemplated life during this movie. From the wonderful little lady in Maine who saves her frozen hen by performing mouth-to-beak resuscitation, the lovely woman in Palm Beach who has a spoiled rotten Japanese Bantam Silkie who rides in the car and goes grocery shopping, and swimming with her, to the fighting roosters invading a peaceful neighborhood, the farmer raising his own food humanely and to the preacher who learns about God's love for us from a mother Silkie protecting her babies, I loved every minute of this movie. In fact I plan on buying a copy for a few of my chicken fancier friends!
3 of 3 member(s) found this review helpful.
Susie C. from SAINT CLOUD, FL Reviewed on 2/12/2009...
Excellent documentary! Very educational, entertaining and charming. It will endear you to chickens forevermore.
1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Movie Reviews
Hysterically ironic, even poignant at times.
ChickenGrrl | Dallas, TX USA | 07/12/2001
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I caught this film at the USA Film Festival in Dallas last year, thinking it would be a fun way to spend an hour or so. (As you may be able to surmise by my online name, I have something of a thing for chickens.) Little did I know what was in store for me and my companions. The stories are charming, some even downright silly, and I learned way more about chickens than I ever thought I would.I loved the story of the lady who gave her chicken mouth-to-beak resuscitation after it got lost in a blizzard, garnering national attention for them both. Then there's the story of Cotton, the pet rooster of a woman even more eccentric than I. This pampered chick has his own special seat in the car so that he may ride around with his owner, who dresses him in diapers (guess chickens can't be house-trained!) and washes and blow-dries him daily, after they swim laps in her pool. He also loves to watch TV with his human. (Apparently chickens have vision similar to ours, and also enjoy all kinds of music!) There's also a story about a rural neighborhood where a man who raised fighting cocks moved in, and all hell broke loose because of the noise the roosters made. I also learned from Mike ("Miracle Mike") that chickens can indeed live a very long time without a head! And a pastor tells his moving story about a tiny hen he owned who defended her chicks against a marauding raptor. This little film may also make you change the way you think about eating poultry (I was already a vegetarian), showing the horrors to which chickens are subjected before being slaughtered for consumption.Director Mark Lewis' tongue is firmly planted in his cheek with some of these stories, treading a fine line between mocking/deriding his subjects, and gazing upon them with pure affection. This film is truly a celebration of chickens, and the people who love them."
Share the Love, Hug a Chicken
I'm Serious | Galt, CA USA | 09/13/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is a great program for people who just don't know chickens.
The program comes across as a bit anthropomorphic, but it is a very sensitive, very enlightening, very engrossing, insightful look into the life of a fellow creature we too often take for granted. Chickens tend to be under-appreciated considering the numbers of them it takes to feed us. Eggs, McNuggets, buffalo wings, Teriyaki, chow mein, etc.
There are several people in this program who are clearly absorbed with the Nature of the Chicken. They dearly LOVE chickens--but they are people who probably love cats, dogs, kids, and other people, too.
Chickens seem much more special after watching this program.
"
The Natural History of the Chicken is very close to
yygsgsdrassil | Crossroads America | 01/11/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"....the Unnatural History of Man.
If the story about the frozen chicken brought back to life with CPR doesn't get you, or the one about the headless chicken or the one in which an entire country community responds to the torrent of Bantam rooster crowing, maybe the one in which the lady shows how she puts the Depends on her pet chick or the story of how the mamma chicken saves her brood from the hawk ('I would be proud to be called chicken.') will. These are tales told with a deadpan and a tongue in cheek ala PBS's Rare Visions show. Something here will have you chuckling...or clucking....and putting a big smile on your face. If, however, you feel the need to sit on a few eggs, I suggest you seek a therapist."
Best Chicken Documentary EVER!!
DakotaMDM | Lafayette, LA | 11/04/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I can't believe how utterly stunned I am. Rarely does a television show leave me so dumbfounded as the documentary I just watched. Thank god I taped it, because I had to watch it twice.It was on PBS and called, "The Natural History of the Chicken." Still being in a sense of awe, I?m not even sure what to say about it, but here goes.There?s a woman in Florida who proudly skinny-dips with her rooster/significant other Cotton every morning. She takes him with her everywhere she goes. She?s got a special little car-seat that allows him to look out the window as they drive around town running errands. He eats the same foods this woman eats and even shares a bed with her. She has him wear little ?panties? around the house to prevent him from ? well, you know. As I?m typing this, they?re grocery shopping together since Cotton eats the same things she eats (just not as much I guess).Ok, now they cut to McDonalds where the Florida lady and Cotton are enjoying a ?Big-Mac.? (I believe this proves I really don?t have a life. It?s Saturday night and I?m mesmerized by watching a chicken eating a hamburger.)Now, when this woman leaves for work in the morning she leaves on the television tuned to Cotton?s favorite programs, usually classical music. He also seems to be partial to opera and is a big fan of Pavarotti.She shared a ?poem? she wrote about Cotton:My Cotton RoosterEach day the beautiful, white rooster called Cotton arises crowing.
He has such love and happiness.
He has such a joy exuding from his whole beautiful being.
I never even knew a human that was filled with so much love and joy, so great to greet me each morning.Then they spend quite some time talking about this chicken that lives for several weeks after it had been be-headed. It?s owners took the bird on tour all over the country when it finally died as they were in between gigs.Another woman who had several chickens as pets was calling them all in for the night when one of them was discovered missing. She searched exhaustively for the bird and found it some time later under a house, on it?s back, frozen solid, legs straight up in the air. The woman was sad that her chicken was dead, so she picked up the bird and brought it home in order to give it a proper burial.As she laid the chicken in a box and was about to close it, she felt a faint pulse in the chicken?s neck. She immediately scooped up the bird and began performing CPR and was able to revive the bird.Word had gotten around about the ?miracle,? and the owner of the bird was contacted by an animal psychic who wanted to ask the miracle chicken a few questions.She wanted to know, ?When you were frozen [the chicken], had you been going down a long tunnel with a light at the end? And, if so, why did you come back??The chicken?s response [as relayed by the psychic]: ?Yes indeed I did go down the tunnel. I got pretty close to the end where the light was and was told ?You must go back.? And I realized that I had been put on this farm not to just lay eggs, but to prove to people that with love and with caring miracles DO happen.? (Ah, the wisdom of a chicken.) There was a lot more, but those were the highlights. I just had to write about it or I wouldn?t be able to sleep tonight.Anyway, if you have a chance to see this documentary, do it! You won?t regret it."
Best in Show for Chickens!
Martian | California | 07/09/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Not a comprehensive view of chickens, but if you're looking for a little less on the information and more on the entertainment, this is it. I love this movie! It reminds me of Best in Show in the way it was filmed and the intriguing people and will give you a whole new perspective on chickens."