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Highly Overrated But Still Good

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

What's it been...39 years. But having the CD brings it all back, and I played it four times this afternoon. The funny thing is I've never liked Neil Diamond. This work in my book is the one thing he's done worthy of the awards for it. Awful conceit about the man. When it came out, I raced after work to catch the early showing, and could hardly stand afterward for how completely moved I was. I knew it would go over like a lead balloon, and it did. It was gone in no time. But boy for us writers and lovers of music. If you have the least smidgen of philosophical spirituality, you will adore the movie, the book and the music. If you have mature children, preteens or teens with high ambition, they'll hug you for it, especially cut #7, Anthem, on the CD. The album back when had voluminous notes of how Diamond went to Hawaii and mulled months over how to best do the book justice. It was nominated or won for cinematography and editing, so you know already it was gorgeous. It brings tears of joy.

*** SPOILER ALERT ***With all the good will in the world, I sat through Jonathan Livingston Seagull with an open mind and struggled with my better judgment not to be cynical. Yet, I failed and the cynicism found me anyway. In regards, to this film, I not only embraced my cynicism, I bathed in it.I have an open mind toward almost anything, but in this case I have to confess that there will never be an open spot in my imagination for a story about an existential seagull. Thank God they are in limited supply.Jonathan Livingston Seagull is based on the improbably popular book by Richard Bach first published 1970. I have read the book twice in my life, first as a child, then later as an adult. The kid version of me simply rejected the concept of a seagull wanting to venture into the world and discover what the world has to offer him. The adult version of me simply rejected the concept of a seagull wanting to venture into the world and discover what the world has to offer him. I'm sorry, this is just not a story that I could wrap my brain - let alone my heart - around.The movie stars no actors on screen, just 99 minutes of nature photography, mostly of seagulls either flying or sitting. It opens with about 10 or 15 minutes of water, sky, rocks, and Neil Diamond. The seagulls are characterized with human voices, provided by the likes of James Franciscus, Juliet Mills and Dorothy McGuire. The voices sound muffled and are mostly heard in a monotone. We don't see the seagulls speaking the dialogue, we only hear it. That wouldn't be so bad if their dialogue actually meant something. Most of it simply consists of inane nonsense like: "The only true law is that which sets us free." Groovy dude, hug a rainbow.The story involves the title bird, a seagull that sees the world of his flock and wonders if life might contain something other than searching for food. His purpose, the movie insists, is to break his own flying speed record. He wants to travel where seagulls don't go, and do things that seagulls don't do. This doesn't make him very popular among the seagull township who call him into a town meeting where (and I am not making this up) they pass judgment on him and cast him out for having the unmitigated gall to have the capacity for abstract thought.Even if I had the capacity to get foothold on this nonsense, I have a fundamental problem with the fact that I just can't get cuddly with a seagull. Seagulls are nasty, noisy, ungainly scavengers who poop everywhere and eat garbage. Opening scenes show a flocks of gulls on a trash pile pecking at the refuse doesn't exactly further my endearment. Apparently they aren't very nice to each other as evidenced by the fact that we get close-ups of the birds pecking at each other over a few scraps of food. Plus, the noise. Seagulls make, for me, one of the most unpleasant noises in nature. Oddly enough, I found the dialogue in this movie to be even less tolerable.Even if I could accept the concept of hearing a seagull's thoughts, I would imagine that what is in their heads might be more interesting than worrying about flying speed. Jonathan's dialogue about his flying speed makes him sound like a test pilot, a boring one. The rest of the dialogue sounds like it came off of a funeral parlor calendar. Honestly, for those reasons and many more I am perplexed by this film even at the concept level. My mind wanders over the two or three dozen fundamental questions that this film raises and never answers. Yet, I don't ponder on them too long. I have better things to do.

It's an amazing view. A seagull just like the other ones suddenly decides to be different and this difference would affect his life. he should now pay more cost for the different life he chose. Jonothan is just like the Christian saints and his guidances are so like the St. Francis's. I see a lot of similarities with this film (an obviously the novel it is derived from) with Kzantzakis novels.I am so happy to see such a film without any actors or actresses and only see a clan of seagulls.The music of the film is so fascinating and set perfectly on the film story.Another fact that i must mention here is the difficulty of photography, editing and directing of such a movie. It is just hunting the moments because you can see a lot of shots in this movie that i know it took too much time to have such a sight.

After getting the book as a Christmas present in 2005, I was so in love with the story that I decided I must also watch the film, exactly one year later the DVD arrived on my doorstep from Play.com.First thing's first, I consider this to be one of my most favourite files, the reason I enjoy it is because to me it's very symbolic and the film includes all of my true loves; the sea, sky and gulls. I often warn people about this film before showing it to them because it's seriously a matter of personal taste. The average person probably wouldn't be interested in this.I absolutely love the music and I now have the soundtrack, together with the beautiful photography, the nature scenes and gulls, I believe it was a work of art, a masterpiece. So deep.. I've now watched it about 20 times or more and still never bored of it!Call me crazy but I cannot get enough this, I know the story inside out.. I know that it's a metaphor but the fact is, it's still based on gulls! That's what really makes it enjoyable for me, because I never get tired of watching birds, especially my beloved gulls..The plot is simple, not confusing. Jonathan sees more to life than just fighting for fish all day long, he wants to learn how to master the gift of flight. (In real life, gulls and other birds actually do fly for fun.) He wants to take flying to new levels, he wants to reach the top (literally) and surpass everyone below, for they aren't thinking any further and don't even want to. Jonathan expands his knowledge on flight throughout life and beyond, meeting very few gulls like him and teaching others the joy of learning. It's inspirational because as the book suggests, Jonathan lives within us all and we can so easily relate to him wanting to do what he wants to do, and dealing with "peer pressure" almost, the other gulls put him down and tell him that his learning is wrong. This often happens to us in real life, some people are weak and go with the crowd while others continue to be themselves.One thing about this film that eeks me, the fact that so many people compare it to a Christian's story.. about heaven and Jesus and all, but really those are the type of people who see the bible's story EVERYWHERE THEY LOOK. This is NOTHING to do with Christianity (if anything, the devil chanting at the end of the film shows that stereotypical Christians are discriminative, and you're better off NOT listening to their silly rules!)Besides that, watching this film always brings me to life, like Jonathan, my passion is flying. I really cannot get enough of those beautiful flying parts and the whole thing is something I hold close to my heart.OK I admit I may be a little biased because I'm absolutely gull crazy... I don't think there are any gull nuts who wouldn't enjoy this.