Becoming Cousteau

Too often when I watch documentaries about beloved folks, I notice that the films are not balanced at all and seem more like hero worship than a true biography. Well, fortunately, "Becoming Cousteau" is more balanced than I expected. Let me explain.... Jacques Cousteau was a wonderful person in some ways....and also a very, very flawed man in others. Surprisingly, the film shows both sides of him...the beloved explorer as well as the guy who could be a jerk when it comes to his personal life as well as what he put into his early film, "The Silent World"....where he and his crew committed some agricultural atrocities which are VERY noticeable today, as our sensibilities have changed. The only negative I would have loved to have learned about was his lawsuit against his surviving son, Jean-Michel. But otherwise, the film was very well made and complete...and leaves you admiring the man as well as realizing he was flawed as well.

For those of us who did not know much of this explorer with the red beanie hat prior to watching this documentary, the story presented is lacking on a few essential details. For example we are told Cousteau was in an accident, and we see a short clip of a road. Cousteau says that this accident hindered him in becoming a pilot. We are not told what kind of accident he was in, one can only assume that he was in a car accident. Furthermore, we are not told what kind of damage he suffered. Yes, I can google stuff, but key details like this should not be left out of a documentary like this. Another example of bad direction/editing is when we are presented to the year 1979, only to be presented to the year 1977 just 15 seconds later. Nothing happened in 1977? Or was one of the headlines showing the wrong year?

On the plus side the story is fascinating, and the source material is impressive- so many video clips and interviews used to tell us this marvellous tale. And the music towards the end really builds up the tension to the finale.

All in all an intriguing dive (just had to go there, didn't I?) in to a man that gets more and more color the deeper one goes.

Great story of a man who invented the scuba diving system, explored the worlds oceans and became a pioneer environmental activist.

When you watch all the great things he did like using his fame to lobby governments around the globe to sign a global treaty banning artic development he is a real inspiration.

His family story is fascinating and sad, he was a stoic individual and till his last days did his best to convince the world we have little time to save our planet, such meaningful words spoken decades before it was the norm.

He is sadly missed and that's why you mustn't miss this movie, watch it and get inspired.

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.

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.