--- title: "David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet" year: 2020 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet" fi1m_id: "david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet" imdb_id: "tt11989890" tmdb_id: 664280 wikidata_id: "Q100613366" fi1m_score: 80 critics_score: 81 critics_reviews: 8 published: "2026-09-15" updated: "2026-09-18T08:38:33.580864+00:00" region: "ES" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (2020) Directed by Alastair Fothergill, Keith Scholey, Jonathan Hughes · 1h 23m · Documentary, Drama ## Identity David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet - **IMDb ID:** tt11989890 - **TMDB ID:** 664280 - **Wikidata ID:** Q100613366 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11989890/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/664280, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q100613366 **Fi1m score: 80** · Critics 81 from 8 reviews *In a sentence:* David Attenborough is still speaking calmly, which somehow makes the news worse > We recommend this moving, plainly spoken account of environmental loss, built around Attenborough’s own experience. Its wildlife images and quiet delivery are persuasive; the practical questions about changing course receive less attention than they need. ## Synopsis David Attenborough appears as himself in a documentary that connects his life and work with changes in the natural world. Beginning at Chernobyl, he reflects on what he has witnessed and on the loss of biodiversity during his lifetime. His recollections sit alongside wildlife images, statistics and footage comparing the environment before and after human damage. Directed by Jonathan Hughes, Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey, the film considers climate change and humanity’s relationship with other species through one person’s experience. Attenborough addresses the audience directly, asking what the changes he describes mean for the planet. ## Review *David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet* is a persuasive, upsetting documentary whose confidence in making things better sometimes runs ahead of its explanations. Directors Jonathan Hughes, Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey organise it around Attenborough’s recollections, setting the damage to the natural world against the span of his life. The personal approach gives the scale of that damage something we can grasp without pretending that it is small. They keep the running time to 83 minutes without making the losses feel like a checklist. The opening at Chernobyl establishes that this will not be a comfortable succession of animals to admire. It is a blunt place to begin, and the comparison with wider environmental damage risks doing some of the thinking for us. Attenborough’s calm delivery keeps the warning from becoming a lecture shouted across a room. He speaks about losses within his own lifetime, and his composure makes the account harder to dismiss. Gavin Thurston’s cinematography lets us enjoy looking at the wildlife, which matters in a film so concerned with its disappearance. The photography offers the pleasure we expect from a wildlife documentary, but the surrounding images of destruction make that pleasure uneasy. Editor Martin Elsbury gives the before-and-after material enough force that the statistics do not have to carry the account alone. Those comparisons give the figures a clear, visible meaning. We were more upset than we expected by the endangered creatures looking straight into the camera. The directness of those images, placed within this account of loss, made the danger feel particular rather than distant. Attenborough does not need to sound distraught for that feeling to reach us, and the film is strongest when it respects his restraint. Steven Price’s music sometimes presses too firmly at such moments, underlining a sadness that the faces and the voice have already made clear. The weakness is in how quickly a shared concern can become a shared responsibility, with the differences between us blurred. We wanted a tougher examination of who can make changes at scale, and what prevents them from doing so. Hughes, Fothergill and Scholey make the broad case so accessible that the awkward practical questions can feel like interruptions to be hurried past. That matters when the film asks us to believe that action is possible. The film also has to contend with a familiar difficulty of wildlife documentaries: admiration can be a pleasantly passive activity. Attenborough’s presence helps it get past that, because his recollections connect the spectacle to a life spent paying attention. There is little novelty in the broad warning, but presenting familiar information this clearly is worthwhile. He speaks plainly, with an expectation that we will take the information seriously. Watch it when there is time to talk afterwards, particularly about the practical questions it leaves open. *Fi1m score 80, published 15 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics respond warmly to this personal account of environmental damage, praising the clarity of its warnings and the reassurance of its proposed solutions. Much of the praise centres on Attenborough’s delivery: his calm, earnest account of changes witnessed over a lifetime makes biodiversity loss feel immediate and painful. The reviews also find emotional force in the contrast between images of thriving nature and scenes of destruction, with hope preventing the film from becoming solely an account of catastrophe. The reservations concern freshness and likely impact rather than the case being made. The i Paper finds little that is new, but considers the clear presentation powerful; Time Out is less persuaded that this witness statement can move the public as strongly as Attenborough’s earlier work. The spread runs from emphatic approval to qualified appreciation, with the dissent questioning how effectively familiar warnings can prompt a response. ## Straight answers **Is David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet worth watching?** *David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet* is worth watching for anyone prepared to be upset by a calm account of environmental loss, and we scored it 80. Attenborough's restraint and Gavin Thurston's wildlife photography make the case persuasively, though the film hurries past the practical questions of who can change course and what stops them. Watch it when there is time to talk afterwards. **How long is David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet, and what is it rated?** *David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet* runs 1h 23m. It is a documentary and drama film. **Where can I watch David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet in Spain?** *David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet* is streaming on Netflix in Spain. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How does David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet compare to Honeyland?** *David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet* is the broader and more reassuring of the two, while [*Honeyland*](https://film.one/film/honeyland) stays close to one beekeeper in the Macedonian hills and is quietly furious about what it sees. The Attenborough film explains the scale of the damage plainly; *Honeyland* shows what living from nature costs one person, and is the less comfortable watch. Choose the first for the argument, the second for the woman at its centre. **What should I watch after David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet?** After *David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet*, try [*Honeyland*](https://film.one/film/honeyland) (2019, Fi1m 82): For a closer, less reassuring look at people living from nature. Then [*Koyaanisqatsi*](https://film.one/film/koyaanisqatsi) (1982, Fi1m 82): Human activity and natural rhythms collide, with the explanation left to us; and [*My Octopus Teacher*](https://film.one/film/my-octopus-teacher) (2020, Fi1m 75): A more intimate encounter with wildlife, carrying its own complications about sentiment. ### Reviews we read (11) - **Radio Times**, Patrick Cremona (5/5): The documentary is a terrifying condemnation of biodiversity loss combined with a hopeful manifesto for mitigation, making it mandatory viewing through its effective blend of urgency and reassurance. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet-review-netflix/) - **Evening Standard**, Charlotte O'Sullivan (85/100, inferred): The film is a cosy yet terrifying witness statement on biodiversity loss and climate change that stands as one of the most important of 2020. The critic singles out the serene tone adopted by the usually reassuring Attenborough and the emotionally penetrating sequences of endangered creatures staring into the camera. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet-review-a-love-letter-to-earth-from-the-revered-broadcaster-a4556196.html) - **The i Paper**, Gerard Gilbert (80/100, inferred): Attenborough’s personal ‘witness statement’ on the degradation of the natural world is powerful and important despite little that is novel. The critic singles out the clarity with which the case is presented, including the shift from despair to a simple message of hope illustrated by the reclamation of nature in Chernobyl. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet-review-clarity-climate-change-the-environment-powerful-666557) - **IndieWire**, David Ehrlich (75/100, inferred): The film presents Attenborough's personal reflection on his career and the state of the planet as an urgent call to action. The critic highlights the legend's direct plea to humanity in his later years. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet-review-netflix-1234590155/) - **Time Out**, Huw Oliver (3/5): The film distils the urgency of environmental warnings into a compelling 90-minute call to arms that includes solutions, but the critic questions whether this 'witness statement' will move the public as powerfully as earlier works. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw: The film is a personal and political witness statement delivering a stark warning about the climate emergency and the damage inflicted on the planet during Attenborough's lifetime. It balances bleak statistics and before-and-after footage with a hopeful message in the final section that action can still save the situation. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/sep/25/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet-review-climate-emergency-documentary) - **The New York Times**, Natalia Winkelman (Critic’s Pick): The critic praises this moving documentary in which Attenborough traces biodiversity loss over his lifetime as his “witness statement.” It singles out the film’s achievement in positioning its subject as a mediator between humans and nature, with hope found in examples of regrowth such as Chernobyl. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/04/movies/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet-review.html) - **The Times**, Ed Potton (★★★★☆): This tearjerker documentary serves as a pre-emptive eulogy for the Earth, opening in Chernobyl as a microcosm for environmental damage and featuring Attenborough's personal reflections on biodiversity loss. It ends with calls to rewild the world and solutions like sustainable food production. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet-review-a-pre-emptive-eulogy-for-the-earth-802j82r9f) - **NME**, Paul Bradshaw (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it the most important film of the year and a necessary watch, framing Attenborough’s life against humanity’s destruction of the natural world. They single out the shift from awe to grief and anger in the presentation of ecological collapse and proposed solutions. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/film-reviews/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet-review-2763565) - **HeyUGuys**, Sarah Cook (85/100, inferred): The critic calls the film an imperative and important watch that serves as both a witness statement and a mission statement on humanity's impact, praising Attenborough's earnest delivery and the striking contrast between nature's beauty and scenes of destruction. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet-review/) - **Eye for Film**, Jennie Kermode (80/100, inferred): The critic describes the film as a rich personal witness statement on environmental change over Attenborough's lifetime, noting its tragic yet hopeful tone and his belief in positive action. [Read](http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet-2020-film-review-by-jennie-kermode) ## Details - **Director:** Alastair Fothergill, Keith Scholey, Jonathan Hughes - **Director:** Alastair Fothergill, Keith Scholey, Jonathan Hughes - **Cinematography:** Gavin Thurston - **Editor:** Martin Elsbury - **Music:** Steven Price - **Producer:** Jonathan Hughes - **Cast:** David Attenborough as Self; Max Hughes as Young David - **Runtime:** 1h 23m - **First release (Australia):** 28 September 2020 - **Genres:** Documentary, Drama - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64R2MYUt394 ## Where to watch in Spain - Netflix: streaming *Checked 2026-09-15.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, AZ, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Honeyland* (2019), Fi1m 82: For a closer, less reassuring look at people living from nature. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/honeyland.md) - *Koyaanisqatsi* (1982), Fi1m 82: Human activity and natural rhythms collide, with the explanation left to us. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/koyaanisqatsi.md) - *The Salt of the Earth* (2014): Another lifetime of looking becomes an occasion to reconsider what has changed. - *My Octopus Teacher* (2020), Fi1m 75: A more intimate encounter with wildlife, carrying its own complications about sentiment. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/my-octopus-teacher.md) - *The Gleaners and I* (2000), Fi1m 85: A curious, humane account of waste and the people who reclaim it. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-gleaners-and-i.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet