User:Gerald Waldo Luis/The Living Sea

For the Canadian nature television series, see The Living Sea (TV series).

The Living Sea
Directed by	Greg MacGillivray
Written by	Roger Holzberg and Tim Cahill
Narrated by	Meryl Streep
Cinematography	Howard Hall
Edited by	Stephen Judson
Music by	Sting
Distributed by	MacGillivray Freeman Films
Release date	1995 (1995)
Running time	40 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The Living Sea is an American documentary film directed by Greg MacGillivray. Narrated by Meryl Streep from a script written by Roger Holzberg and Tim Cahill, the environmentalist film explores the general people living against the marine backdrop, as well as scientists exploring the sea they describe as magical and mysterious. English musician Sting was chosen to compose the film's score, with some of his songs also heard in the film.

Summary

All that we do is touched with ocean,
yet we remain on the shore of what we know.

— Richard Wilbur, opening text

The Living Sea traces back to 4 billion years prior, when the molten earth was cooled, which caused sea to form, credited as the "cradle of life on Earth", It calls the diversity of marine life wonderous. Currents are formed by winds and Earth's rotation, and circle Earth to bond the seas humans once consider to be separate; the film's narration dubs it "the world ocean", the only ocean that supplies everything for life on Earth. Tides also "move" the world ocean; it also contributes to the welfare of the sea, as it "enrich the land", which in return "enriches the sea." Winds, on the other hand, causes the sea churn the land; the fiercest of them travel towards the land for more than a week. The film depicts the United States Coast Guard Academy cadets facing heavy waves to demonstrate its power. It then depicts surfers; when interviewed, they describe harmonic and awe-inspiring relationship towards the ocean when surfing.

The film then depicts scientists in their efforts to learn more about the sea they regard as mysterious yet fascinating. A team led by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute oceanographer Bruce Robison who, as part of a project to explore the deep-sea life, sent a remotely operated underwater vehicle underwater. It caught a Hippopodius hippopus, a type of siphonophore, concluding that marine life is more complicated than they first thought. Scientists learn that what one does in one part of the world ocean affects its entirety: pollution done towards the kelp forests in San Diego impact the spawning of fishes, and overexploitation of giant clams in the central Pacific Ocean causes them to be endangered. The Monterey Bay Aquarium temporarily houses sea otters whose parents were hunted to train them, before releasing them. Humpback whales also faced a similar problem; counting is eased with custom markings they have at their tails' undersides..

The film then depicts Palau, whose waters are possibly the most diverse on Earth, and whose people are known for their tradition of respecting the sea, believing that that humans are naturally bonded with the sea. Legend has it that a woman once gave birth to a child, who grew gigantically and occupied a large body of sea; the parts that appeared at the surface became Palau. The film follows Francis Toribiong, seen taking his daughter Julie and son Wes to a part of the country to scuba dive, seeing various marine life, but also showing them how many species once seen there cannot be seen again, an effect of pollution. Palau has been subject to marine analyses; the film depicts scientist Laura Martin amidst her years-long research on Jellyfish Lake, known for and named after their golden jellyfish. Martin calls the lake dangerous because, at night, the jellyfishes enter the bottom layer filled with nitrogen and hydrogen sulfide to fertilize their bodies.

After saying that marine life is fragile. the narration says that the extensive studies done on the ocean is crucial as it increases understanding of the complex nature of the ocean; without understanding, humans cannot protect it. Mark and recapture on humpback whales have shown more stable count rates, symbolizing hope for the marine welfare. The film then calls all humans islanders as occupied land on Earth only makes up for 1⁄4 of Earth, and says that humans depend on the ocean for every need in life: "all life on Earth is a celebration of the living sea."

Production

The film is directed by Academy Award-nominated IMAX director and cinematographer Greg MacGillivray, who also directed similar water-conservation themed documentaries such as Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short but lost to One Survivor Remembers.

Reception

The Living Sea received generally positive reviews. Christopher Harris of The Globe and Mail compared the cinematography to classic IMAX films, which allow viewers to be fully immersed to the audiovisual clarity of the format. The sound effects and Sting score is praised as ambient and enjoyable, with Harris noting that some scenes in the film can make of a good music video. He says that the Palau sequence is the most memorable one for him. The film overall is compared with Africa: The Serengeti (1995), another IMAX documentary. However, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times was less complimentary, acknowledging the cinematography's mastery but lamented that the scenes are embedded with irony and cliche, with MacGillivray refusing to provide deep insight into the film's subjects thus making the film too packed; Ebert added: "I would have liked to see a whole film on many of these individual topics."

Soundtrack

• The Living Sea: Soundtrack from the IMAX Film

External links

• The Living Sea at MacGillivray Freeman Films
• The Living Sea at IMDb
• The Living Sea at AllMovie