Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973) on Netflix
Jonathan Livingston Seagull wants to fly faster than sixty miles per hour, and he keeps trying new techniques to get there. When he breaks the barrier, the Elders banish him.
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- Netflix1.6/5
- IMDb5.7/102,536 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes8%
Trailer
Plot summary
Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a young seagull who finds the flock's daily squabbles over food tedious. He prefers to test new flying techniques, each one more daring than the last, and he wants to travel faster than sixty miles per hour. With luck he breaks that barrier. When he comes back to his flock, the Elders shame him for doing what the other seagulls never dare. He pleads to stay and says he wants to share his discovery with everybody, but the Elders name him an outcast and send him away. Rather than mourn, he takes his freedom and goes to explore the world beyond the horizon.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- A 1975 New York Times article by T.E.D. Klein alleged that during filming dozens of birds were killed by caustic bleaches and hair sprays, others were crippled by control cords, and 88 suffered eye injuries. Trainer Gero denied animal cruelty on the set, and Leslie Parrish confirmed she and her hairdresser bleached the gulls' wings white.
- Neil Diamond sued Hall Bartlett for cutting much of his music from the film and objected to composer Lee Holdridge sharing credit. A judge ordered five minutes of Diamond's score and three songs, "Anthem", "Prologue" and "Dear Father", restored, with credits saying "Music and songs by Neil Diamond"; Diamond vowed never to work on a movie again without complete control.
- Richard Bach sued Paramount Pictures before the film's release, saying it differed too much from his adapted screenplay and that Hall Bartlett broke a contract term requiring Bach's approval of changes. A mediator failed, and Bach had his name removed from the screenwriting credits.
- The hawk-attack sequence did not appear in Richard Bach's original book; Bach wrote it into his shooting screenplay but changed his mind after seeing the finished scene, appalled by its violence. Gary Gero trained the two birds and had the hawk's talons protected so they could not injure the seagull playing Jonathan, and said he feared more for the hawk's safety.
- Hall Bartlett hired veteran animal trainer Ray Berwick, known for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, but Berwick had an unexpected heart attack soon after production began and his apprentice Gary Gero took over most of the bird-training. Berwick accused Bartlett of pressuring him more than any previous director, and Bartlett apologized.
- Hall Bartlett read the book Jonathan Livingston Seagull in a San Fernando Valley barbershop, impulsively called publisher Macmillan and then author Richard Bach, and bought the film rights for $100,000 and fifty percent of the profits. He wanted the story told simply, without animation or actors.
- Director Ovady Julber sued the film, claiming it stole scenes from his 1936 film La Mer. The suit was dismissed without a trial, on the grounds that extensive public school and cultural use of the film had robbed it of common-law copyright protection.
