When I was a boy, I was a fan of Jacques Cousteau. Actually, it
was my father who was originally a fan of the legendary underwater explorer. But
I became a fan thanks to my dad's devotion to Cousteau's fascinating
documentaries. Every weekend we would watch the latest adventures of the
intrepid explorer and his crew aboard his boat the Calypso, as they discovered
the wonders of endless deep blue seas that our world had to offer. Cousteau was
also the inventor of the scuba gear and other diving apparatus that so many
divers now take for granted these days. Of course, being a kid, I reenacted
those adventures with my own twisted little spin, as the crew of my explorer
vessel had to fight off legions of hungry octopi, as well as a race of
shark-mutants. Sure, my little stories were goofy, but I was just a kid, and
despite these diversions from reality, I've still taken away a healthy respect
for the vast oceans, with their teeming life, thanks to Jacques Cousteau.
Film director Wes Anderson was also a fan of Cousteau. And like me, he made up
his own goofy story based on Cousteau's adventures. But unlike me, Anderson
turned his story into a vastly entertaining movie called The Life Aquatic With
Steve Zissou. Bill Murray stars as the title character, an undersea explorer who,
with his valiant crew aboard the ship Belafonte (get the joke? "Calypso" is one
of the most popular of all of singer Harry Belafonte's songs) dive beneath the
waves to study and film the various undersea oddities. But that's where the
similarities between Cousteau and Zissou end. For Steve Zissou has fallen on
hard times, his last few documentaries were met with tepid response, and to make
things worse, he loses Esteban, his friend and mentor during a diving expedition.
Zissou rises to the surface in a near-panic and says that Esteban was eaten by a
rare, unseen predator known as a Jaguar Shark. The problem was that Zissou never
got any footage of the attack, and when he debuts his new documentary at a film
festival in Italy, many viewers doubt the existence of the Jaguar Shark.
And so Steve Zissou and his team decide to make another trip to the deep ocean
to find this elusive shark…and kill it. When asked by reporters what the purpose
would be for killing the shark, Steve simply says, "Revenge". Going along with
Steve and his crew on this journey is Jane Winslett Richardson, a pregnant
British reporter who is winsomely played by Cate Blanchett. Also joining the
expedition of vengeance is Ned Plimpton, who, as played by Owen Wilson, may or
may not be Steve's grown son by a woman whom he had a fling with many years ago.
Anjelica Huston stars as Steve's fed-up wife, and Willem DaFoe is hysterically
funny as Steve's second in command aboard the Belafonte. The rest of the superb
cast includes Jeff Goldblum as Steve's rival, Michael Gambon as the shallow fund
raiser for the expeditions, and Bud Cort as the wimpy insurance company guy.
Anderson has fashioned a quirky, loopy and at times outright demented comedy
that is extremely funny and a lot of fun to watch. And the two-disc DVD from the
Criterion Collection will insure several hours of watching pleasure. Among the
legion of extras included is a commentary by Anderson and his co-writer Noah
Baumbach, "This Is An Adventure", a superb 50 minute making of documentary that
follows the film's production through Bill Murray's costume fittings all the way
through to his last day on the set. There's no narrator, the camera merely
follows the actors and film crew around on stages and on location as they tackle
the problems of bringing this film to life. There's also a collection of ten
David Bowie songs sung in their entirety in Portuguese by Brazilian singer/actor
Seu Jorge, who performs snippets of each song throughout the film. An episode of
the Italian film talk show Mondo Monda featuring Wes Anderson and screenwriter
Noah Baumbach, who have some trouble understanding the host, who speaks in
Italian (he eventually switches to English) The host, Antonio Monda, has a small
part in the film itself. There's also a documentary that details the look of the
film with production designer Mark Friedberg, as well as a look at the special
effects with visual effects supervisor Jeremy Dawson, who used traditional
stop-motion animation to create the various undersea critters seen in the film
(the animation is provided by Henry Selick). There's also the Intern Journal, a
funny video diary shot by actor Matthew Gray Gubler, who plays one of the many interns
aboard the Belafonte. It deftly shows some of the free-wheeling antics that went
on behind the scenes. And there's even more special features, but I'm running out of room.
Even if you're not a fan of Jacques Cousteau, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
is a film that's still worth diving into.
--SF
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