Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Richard Bach's best-selling parable for freshmen becomes on screen a very spelled-out allegory, complete with flat voice-overs and pretentious Neil Diamond soundtrack. The film's renegade seagull hero enacts the theme of spiritual development and human achievement, moving through an obsession with speed (maybe seagulls can't fly faster than 62 mph, but wouldn't it be great if they could) towards a more fashionable Oriental philosophy (perfect speed is being there), and final apotheosis as a Messiah figure. Ignore all that (admittedly difficult) and you have a finely photographed essay on birds which uses its coastal locations to good effect.