The destruction of our oceans is my pick for the most important issue facing the world, and especially as the top issue that nobody is dealing with at all. “Due to overfishing and rising ocean acidity, there won’t be fish to eat in 30 years” met with a shoulder shrug. “Fifty percent of the planet lives within 100 miles of an ocean, so the more polluted it gets, the worse it is for people” met with a blank stare. “There could be water wars due to increasing water scarcity” met with a so-what? “The ocean produces a majority of the planet’s oxygen and it’s dying out” and nothing…
So in my book any documentary that wants to talk about this issue is on the right track.
Mission Blue…It’s mostly about noted oceanographer Sylvia Earle and her attempts to raise awareness to the destruction we’re doing to our oceans. I wanted to love this film about the greatest environmental issue the planet is facing or rather not facing, but the doc makes the strange decision to focus so much on Earle herself that it may take away from the overall issue, and risks making the global look a little too small-scale. Plus, there’s no doubt Earle has had a fascinating life, but she’s not really a fascinating speaker. She talks about the pollution of the ocean in diplomatic, state-department-like terms and you wish the film had a little more passion driving it. In the end, the best reason to see it is for the beautiful ocean footage and maybe that does the best job of showing what we’ll be missing if we don’t change course…except that that’s NOT really true since humanity won’t be alive if we don’t make drastic and immediate changes. So maybe narcotizing us with gorgeous footage of scuba divers maybe doesn’t make this point as effectively as possible. Grade: B…Although I Give it an “A” for Having the Right Message
Vanishing Pearls: The Oystermen of Pointe A La Hache…A destruction-of-the-oceans doc that points fingers and names-names, but one that is definitely uglier to look at since we’re mostly looking at the polluted Gulf of Mexico region devastatingly tarnished by BP. This is more the style I like, and the movie is most fascinating when detailing how the payments BP have made to struggling fishermen really aren’t all they’ve been advertised to be and there are many loopholes they’re using to deny paying claims. The next time I see a smug BP commercial advertising how much they’ve done to help the Gulf region, it’ll be one more reminder of why I’ll never buy gas at a BP station for the rest of my life. And maybe this film will inspire more people to do the same. Grade: A-