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Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Drama · Family · 1973

Jonathan is sick and tired of the boring life in his seagull clan. He rather experiments with new, always more daring flying techniques. Since he doesn't fit in, the elders expel him from the clan. So he sets out to discover the world beyond the horizon in a quest for wisdom.

Movie details

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

“Everyone's Book Is Now Everyone's Motion Picture”

1973 Drama · Family 1h 39m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

5.7 / 10

2.4K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

8 %

Tomatometer

TMDB

6.1 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Jonathan is sick and tired of the boring life in his seagull clan. He rather experiments with new, always more daring flying techniques. Since he doesn't fit in, the elders expel him from the clan. So he sets out to discover the world beyond the horizon in a quest for wisdom.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Jonathan Livingston Seagull?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Hall Bartlett

Written by

Hall Bartlett

James Franciscus

James Franciscus

Jonathan Livingston Seagull (voice)

Juliet Mills

Juliet Mills

Marina (voice)

Philip Ahn

Philip Ahn

Chang (voice)

David Ladd

David Ladd

Fletcher Lynd Seagull (voice)

Dorothy McGuire

Dorothy McGuire

Mother (voice)

Richard Crenna

Richard Crenna

Father (voice)

K

Kelly Harmon

Kimmy (voice)

Court is in session

Put Jonathan Livingston Seagull on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.