The Sea Around Us

It's a real shame that the copy of "The Sea Around Us" that was shown on Turner Classic Movies is in great need of restoration. Due to the effects of time on nitrate film stock, the film is often too dark or muddy or faded...and it's a shame as the original color film must have wowed audiences.

The film is named after Rachel Carson' book and her name in in the opening credits. However, I have not read the book and assume it differs significantly because there isn't much in the way of plot...just lots of clips of various sea creatures.

When you watch the film today, you also will probably notice that the style is very old fashioned and sensationalistic. Instead of using scientific jargon, the film often tries to amaze viewers and the language is often ridiculous. Moray eels and octopi are described with such florid words as 'killer', 'murderous' and 'cruel'...none of which are true about these relatively benign creatures. This isn't too surprising because this is how many early nature documentaries were...such as Jacques Cousteau's "The Silent World" or the Disney nature films of the 1950s. I suspect much of the sensationalism also was because Irwin Allen made this film...the same guy who loved disaster films and bigger than life stories.

Overall, some excellent early underwater cinematography combined with some very unscientific and sensationalistic material...such as showing a diver knifing a shark to death or using ridiculous narration meant to entertain and not educate. Some of the sea life is misidentified or misrepresented. A real mixed bag.

The film is based on "The Sea Around Us," the extraordinary book published by Rachel Carson in 1952. She signed away rights to the title and got a little bit of money. She was appalled by early scripts and did not like the finished product.

This won an Academy Award for Documeentary Feature and most definitely deserved to win. The whole project is well-executed and the underwater camerawork is particularly worthy of mention. Holds up very well after almost fifty years. Turner Classic Movies usually shows this a few times a year. Highly recommended.

This is probably the first documentary made on life that makes its home under the water. Today, it doesn't really look like much, but for its time, there were really no other resources for learning more about undersea animals, other than going to the sea yourself or having a book. The film shows a number of extremely beautiful wonders that exist beneath our oceans, but few people have had the pleasure of seeing, such as tremendously tall growths of seaweed that can be over 100 feet in length, resembling a submerged jungle, coral reefs, and sea anemones. The film doesn't just focus on underwater things though. There's also a segment that shows how turtles hatch on land, then attempt to make a dash for the shoreline on the beach. Sadly, many of them die and are eaten by birds in the process. Also shown are seals and gannet birds. The reason why I say it's a little disturbing is because of how the interactions between the divers and some of the animals go in the movie. In particular, there's one moment when someone grabs a small shark and cuts open its midsection with a knife in only a matter of seconds, leaving it to die of blood loss. Even one of the posters I saw for the movie depicts this. Nowadays, this type of behavior would be unacceptable and divers would only take the animal's life as a last resort if it was threatening to attack a diver. Other than that, it's pretty good. If looking at the vibrant and stunning life of the ocean interests you, try to find a copy of this. The ocean is so huge and vast there are things in it we still don't know about.

Sea Around Us, The (1953)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Oscar-winning documentary runs a short 62-minutes but it packs one great punch for some wonderful family entertainment. This documentary, written and directed by Irwin Allen, takes a look at the various lifeforms that live in and around the sea. The documentary using, at the time groundbreaking camera-work, takes us below the sea and shows us a wide range of items from various varieties of fish and even a fight between a shark and an octopus. It's funny to note that one segment of the film deals with tidal waves, which is the subject of Allen's The Poseidon Adventure nearly twenty-years later. The documentary was filmed in Technicolor and this is another plus as we get to see the beautiful fish and other items in their full glory. Some of the footage, like the shark fight, is black and white but this is only a small fraction. Not only do we get to see the various fish but we also get to look at various jobs including a crab farmer and a shark walker, which some might remember because of a certain scene in Jaws 3. I'm sure kids would really get a kick out of all the scenery here but there's enough stuff here for adults as well. The film is probably old-fashioned in regards to some of the information it's giving out but that's not really a problem since I'm sure most people will be caught up in the visuals. The one minor problem is some of the narration, which is a tad bit over-dramatic.