Becoming Cousteau

The documentary Becoming Cousteau reveals the life of Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his passion for all things under the sea. I loved learning more about this man, who was a dominate figure during my youth who brought fantastic underwater images into our living rooms.

This film shows Cousteau's love for the oceans, as it explores over four decades of his work and how he became a spokesperson for the environment more than 50 years ago.

I loved watching this film and learned more about Jacques Cousteau than I knew previously. It sort of filled in the blanks of the back story of the man who captured our hearts and imaginations years ago. The cinematography is breathtakingly beautiful, although I wondered why the archival shots at the beginning had not been digitally enhanced. I also found it interesting that even his first dives into the ocean, in 1937, were filmed. Of course, he says several times that he has always been a filmmaker, but still those shots surprised me. He also talks about how he was not a good husband or father and, indeed, six months after his wife died he remarried. Also, he sent his children off to boarding school so he and wife number one could spend their time on the boat pursuing various missions. He was a clever businessman too, which was necessary to keep the funding flowing and we learn how he too on an assignment from British Petroleum to research oil reserves under the ocean in order to finance other projects he and his crew pursued. I remember well his TV series, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, which aired from 1968n to 1976 and featured Cousteau along with his two sons and grandson. His wife, who did not appear on screen, was sort of the glue that held things together with the crew during these expositions on their boat, the Calypso. The Cousteau Society still exists and continues to carry out explorations worldwide and helps people understand the fragility of life on Earth - the Water Planet. This beautifully produced documentary directed by Liz Barbus (The Farm: Angola, USAP truly is an ode to a remarkable man who changed the course of history by embracing life beneath the sea.

The message of this film is a reminder to take care of our planet and treasure the undersea world.

I give Becoming Cousteau 4 out of 5 stars and recommend it for ages 10 to 18, plus adults. Reviewed by R. Levy, KIDS FIRST!

I learned a lot from this film, it was packed with content and at points was compelling and tragic. I found its presentation to be a bit hap hazard in the way it jumped between voice over cameos, interviews, narration and footage, which made it feel a bit cluttered however I did leave with a clear sense of Cousteau's character journey.

First off, I'm not an english bigot. I'm all for non-english productions but if you provide english subtitles, I expect them to be a good translation, easy to read and doesn't distract from the film. Is that too much to ask for? I only made it less than halfway before I had to give up. 42" tv just didn't do it. Not only were the subtitles flashed too quickly but they were in a very small font which made it difficult to follow the film and read the translation at the same time. I may go back and watch this again, and ignore the subtitles, but I just don't have the patience to finish the film as is. Ok, so why not find subs somewhere else. Because the subtitles are part of the film so adding subs would just make it even more distracting. But, it's not just this film. Most producers make what they want without considering their viewers, or maybe they do consider but insist their viewers to be multi-lingual, multi-cultural, and with dog level hearing abilities and tv sound to match.

A man with red beanie ... man for whom children stop playing just to watch undersea wonders on TV. It was a ritual for many children to watch Cousteau on television despite parent's protest for football game or some movie on other channel .... at least in my family or my friends as we all want's to be explorers or astronauts.

It's a shame that we only have Sir David now as no one younger want to pursue this form of career ...

Jacques and David, great mans who teach us to love nature in his many forms.

Very good documentary. It's also showing how early he warned the world what will happen to our planet and climate if we not change. But all this arrogant world leaders did noting. Money rules the world. Saddely.