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Not a follower of competitive birding? Never actually heard of it before? Neither is a requirement to appreciate the absolute joy that is the 2011 comedy “The Big Year.” Based upon Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mark Obmascik’s 2003 book, “The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession,” the film chronicles the adventures of three men – wealthy New York executive Stu Preissler (Steve Martin), professionally unfulfilled computer programmer Brad Harris (Jack Black) and shrewdly competitive housing contractor Kenny Bostick (Owen Wilson) – as they traverse North America in the hopes of spotting the most species of birds in a single year, thereby winning the annual “big year” competition. The tale is inspired by the actual events of the 1998 contest, which, as the Aspen Daily News reported, “turned out to be the biggest of big years,” with the three birders at the center of the story “far outpacing other competitors and seeing more than 700 species apiece — the only such occurrence on record.”
Obmascik was compelled to cover the unique competition and its even more unique competitors as a sort of “escape from the darker world he found himself in as a reporter,” according to the Daily News. Indeed, “The Big Year” is an undeniably feel-good story about the unlikely friendships that develop when random individuals come together over a deep love of a shared hobby.
Though not a box office success (it grossed a meager $7.7 million worldwide), the film, currently streaming on Disney+, is definitely worth a binge. Featuring an all-star cast of Hollywood heavyweights that, along with the headliners mentioned above, includes Rashida Jones, Jim Parsons, Anjelica Huston and Dianne Wiest (among many others), the production is endlessly fun, heartwarming and uplifting – not to mention chock full of stunning backdrops.
Shot over the course of 55 days in 100 different locations, filming took the cast and crew from the Yukon Territory to Joshua Tree to the Florida Keys, with the far-flung landscapes serving to fully enmesh viewers in the adventures of the various big year competitors as they journey the Americas in search of different bird species. As director David Frankel is quoted in the movie’s production notes, “I think we captured the experience of being on the road for a year with these characters.” Jack Black further likened the shoot to “like a decade’s worth of travel crammed into one month.”
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