Deep Blue DVD Review
Posted by Neil Borenstein on 05.18.2006
Get your flippers on, we're diving in!
Genre Documentary
Cast Michael Gambon, David Attenborough, Pierce Brosnan (U.S. version), Frank Glaubrecht, Jacques Perrin, Dalik Volonitz
DVD Release Date April 11, 2006
Run Time 91 minutes
DEEP BLUE DVD REVIEW
"The ocean sustains more life than all of the land, but it is unevenly spread, hiding and shifting in blue space."
The documentary Deep Blue takes viewers on an adventure through a world humans can never truly understand and grasp the ocean waters.
From the creators of The Blue Planet on BBC, Deep Blue, thought to be a follower of March of The Penguins as noted by the back cover of the DVD box, takes you through the lives of several ocean creatures. Those creatures include dolphins, sea lions, whales, polar bears, and, of course, penguins.
Deep Blue opens up with a view of dolphins swimming in the ocean, and then moves on to the waves in the water. We move on to what Pierce Brosnan, our humble narrator, estimates to be half a million albatross (a species of bird) flying overtop the ocean as they search for food. They eventually find a large school of fish silver in color underneath the water, but dolphins moving in cause the birds to abandon their prey. Meanwhile, serene music plays in the background to truly exemplify the natural feeling of what is being shown through the video.
Eventually, the albatrosses go after the fish, along with a cluster of other animals, some of which were not recognizable. This is a certain portion of the program where the narration should have been more present, being that narration was pretty minimal throughout the documentary. For the most part, the lack of narration was a good thing as it enables the viewer to just take in the visual depictions present on screen. But it did hurt a lot that there would be animals present at times, and I would have absolutely no clue what kind of animals, or species of a particular animal, they were. Regardless, the fish were a popular snack time treat for several animals in the water.
Then we come to depressing portion part one. This is nothing against the documentary as it shows nature in action, but as an animal lover, it's sort of tough to watch. The documentary shows and talks about sea lions. The narration tosses out a pretty solid quote:
"This is a world of constant jeopardy an endless cycle of birth, death and renewal."
A bit of foreshadowing, really.
The mother sea lions return to the coast solely to give birth, essentially making it where life begins. But, not being the sharpest knives in the drawer, nor the most ocean savvy, they are "easy targets for seasoned predators."
As the sea lions were re-entering the ocean water, what looked to be killer whales (narration did not exactly state the species of whale, but it looked like Free Willy to me) came rushing through the water in search of a midday snack, and they found it in some sea lion. One particular whale went crazy on a sea lion, literally hurling him/her in the air, just to land back down in the water for the whale to snatch it up and toss it in the air again. I was sitting there thinking, "Just eat the damn thing already!"
The viewer is then introduced to sand bubbler crabs that are some creepy looking fellas that put together tons of little balls of sand while on land. When they walk, they look a lot like spiders, and when a bunch of them walk together, it looks like a damn invasion!
Finally, we go deep down into the ocean itself and are shown coral reefs at the "shallows of the tropical seas."
We are shown some more creatures swimming around the ocean throughout the day, and then the moon comes out and we have our night animals appear in the ocean as the music goes a little drearier. Jellyfish are included in the night creatures.
We head to the frozen bit of the ocean next, as Deep Blue calls the extremes of the planet the Polar Regions. A polar bear is shown swimming in the ocean as its not safe for it to walk on the ice apparently.
The attention of the documentary turns towards emperor penguins, which are called sleek and fat and ready to take on the harshest weather conditions. These penguins shoot out of the water and land on their bellies as they fall to the ice, and then migrate deeper, as opposed to north like most animals, to breed.
In the winter, the sea turns to ice, and we see the polar bear moving across the ice. Beluga whales are trapped underneath the ice, except for a tiny opening where they can come up for air. Unfortunately for them, the polar bear is stalking that area to try and find food for its baby, and like idiots, the beluga whales continue to come to the surface as the mother polar bear goes to attack them. None of them get caught, but they still turn out to be gluttons for punishment, as logic would tell them to stay under water!
Now we move to depressing portion part two.
The documentary turns towards grey (or gray) whales, who are able to find food in the polar seas after the sun melts the ice. A mother whale is swimming with her three-month old, as the baby is not yet old enough or knowledgeable enough of the ocean to be on its own. The baby is close to the mother as the mother tries to protect it. Unfortunately, those damn bully killer whales reappear on the scene, and they target the three-month old.
They chase the two for six hours, and the baby eventually becomes exhausted, and the whales are able to separate the baby from its mother. The mother is forced to move on while the whales snack on the baby, as blood pours into the ocean, turning it red. Suddenly, I got the feeling we shouldn't have been so quick to free Willy.
Then we see dolphins doing some tricks in water, and move on to see more night creatures that have some pretty cool light effects in their bodies used as ways to lure prey or to be decoys against predators. It almost looks like a laser light show at the bottom of the ocean.
The documentary ends with the statistic that only one percent of the blue whales in the world remain, which is really a sorry and somewhat unsettling stat.
Brosnan gives us one more solid piece of narration towards the end of the documentary:
"We have walked on the moon, and continued to push the outer boundaries of space. Yet, it is the mysteries of the ocean that continue to elude us."
Video
The video quality of this film is amazing. Of course, as a documentary of this type, video is key. If good quality visuals are not appearing on the screen, then the whole thing is lost. From the dolphins and ocean waves at the beginning to the night creatures towards the end, everything is very visually pleasing here. They used a lot of different pieces of equipment to make it that way, and it worked out really well.
Audio
As I stated before, narration is held to a minimum, and I think that's a good thing. Of course, bringing in a well-known actor to do the U.S. version was a great idea. It would have been nice to be told what every or at least most animals or species of animals were, but it's a minimal technicality that otherwise leaves the audio in very quality condition narration-wise.
The music is also very big considering, and composer George Fenton did a great job of putting together serene sounds for the lighter and more upbeat scenes, while drearier and darker scores were present for the night ones.
Extras
"The Making of Deep Blue" 51 minutes, 23 seconds
Patience! Director Andy Byatt went out for 200 days and had five minutes of the film after all that trouble. Why? Because there is no predictability in ocean life. So patience was key for the crew.
This very in-depth behind the scenes feature looks at all aspects of the making of this film. They go into dealing with harsh weather conditions as well as working around the animals' behavior. From camera shoots equipment needed, time needed, and how to deal with animals to music compositions each score fitting for particular sequences in the film that set the mood this is a true "Making of " feature.
The 411: As a fan of animals and documentaries, I really liked this film. For those that are not all too enthusiastic about either of those two things, you may lose interest as the film goes on, but it will grab your interest for a while at the beginning and various parts throughout the remainder of it. A $19.99 price tag, which is what its priced at now at Best Buy stores, is a bit much in my opinion. However, if it goes down to around $15, I would certainly recommend it as a valuable purchase.
