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Deep Blue

2004, Movie, G, 90 mins

Deep Blue: Review

Based on the 2001 BBC television series The Blue Planet, this stunningly photographed documentary captures extraordinary images of ocean-based life — not just the fish and sea mammals, but also birds and beasts whose lives demand frequent and intimate contact with the deep. Other documentaries have already beaten this film to some of its marvels: ISLAND OF THE SHARKS (1999) documents the teeming ecosystem off Cocos Island, from surreal hammerheads to stinging coral polyps, while James Cameron's ALIENS OF THE DEEP (2005) offers startling views of the bizarre life spawned on the lightless ocean floor and in its geothermal vents. But Alastair Fothergill and Andy Byatt's film, shot on more than 200 locations scattered across the globe, offers its own unique pleasures. They include footage of penguins launching themselves out of the water onto ice floes like ICBMs, and the surpassingly strange sight of birds — shearwaters — underneath the ocean's surface, using their wings like fins as they scramble to claim a share of silvery sardines from seals, dolphins and marlin. Fothergill and Byatt capture bubbler crabs stuffing their mouths full of sand and, after extracting the organic nutrients, littering the beach with perfectly formed sand balls; migrating albatrosses; polar bears swimming like seals; spinner dolphins frolicking in the waves; killer whales eating unwary sea lion pups; and male emperor penguins clustered together against the arctic wind as they brood clutches of eggs — their mates return to care for the chicks when the weather improves. Narrated by Pierce Brosnan, the film keeps facts and figures to a minimum and lets the breathtaking images (underscored by George Fenton's sometimes bombastic score) carry the show. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh