Becoming Cousteau

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source: Becoming Cousteau

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.

Jacques Cousteau is a force of nature unto himself, and deserves the praise and global recognition he has received for his efforts in bringing the natural world to our appreciative attention. In this documentary dedicated entirely to him, National Geographic has gone and celebrated him even further. It brings you the man himself, with rare never-before-seen footage from his past regaling us with the truth of all he has done for the world of Nature, particularly marine conservation. Bear in mind that this was no ordinary guy. Cousteau was not only a French naval officer, explorer, and conservationist, he was also a filmmaker, researcher, scientist, photographer, and author. In addition to co-inventing the 'Aqua Lung', he was also a longstanding member of the Académie Française. To call him accomplished would be putting it mildly. "Becoming Cousteau" is on Disney+, as well as Disney+ Hotstar. I loved this documentary for several reasons, the most important being that I grew up seeing the barest minimum of this giant's work and have come full circle realizing just how much more there was to the man than the younger version of me thought existed. Beautifully directed by Liz Garbus and insightfully written by Mark Monroe and Pax Wasserman. Vincent Cassel's narration was just what this docu needed. The archival footage was superb. Remarkable musical scoring by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans. All other crews did splendid work on "Becoming Cousteau". Special shout-out to the sound and editing teams. The docu covered not just Cousteau's early years, career, and personal life but also his innovations in diving technology, which were quite novel back then. I enjoyed all the historical diving concepts covered in this documentary. Since he was also a passionate filmmaker, the docu covered Cousteau's forays into underwater filmmaking - they gave his "true adventure films" wonderful flourish. The concept of having cities or communities under the sea was just fascinating to watch, especially through the eyes of Cousteau. The man's view on the swift deterioration of the natural world was proof that the roots of our current Climate Emergency indeed go back decades. There's little wonder why they nicknamed him 'Captain Planet'. Jacques Cousteau (b.1910 - d.1997) dedicated his life to a lot of Nature-centric themes, and has explored the secrets of the oceans and seas as only he can. This National Geographic documentary film granted me a glimpse at his career, one that could potentially rival the enormity of the deeps. "You will only protect what you love."

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.