Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30428 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-10-25
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 90 minutes

Special Features
Extras- Scene specific audio commentaries from directors Alastair Fothergill and Andy Byatt
'The Making Of Deep Blue': a behind the scenes documentary (50 mins)
Isolated music and effects score
Interview With composer George Fenton
Stills gallery
Educational interactive DVD-Rom content

Synopsis
Filmed by the BBC Natural History Unit this documentary features the oceans and its indigenous life from around two hundred different locations world-wide. Filmed at depths of up to five thousand metres using a submersible, this is the crew that produced THE BLUE PLANET series.

Customer Reviews

A visually stunning and dramatic film.
This is a wonderfully enjoyable way to spend 80 minutes. A film with very limited narration, focusing instead on the drama and violence of life in the world's largest, most turbulent and least understood habitat. I am an enthusiastic viewer of natural history films, amd this is a very different and very rewarding change from the usual. There is one major problem with this piece, and that is the sound - it is inconsistent in volume, and occasionally distracting, but the score itself is well-written and beautifully performed, and I absolutely do not agree that it detracts from the film in any fundamental way. Other than the sound issue, this is a superb release.

The camerawork is exemplary - the visuals are vivid and beautiful, and with subject matter this captivating, this DVD contains some of the most stunning images ever captured of the ocean and it's animal and plant life. The editing of the film is superb too - the impression is that you are a silent, passive observer in a strange and dangerous world - the action unfolds without any hint of human interaction, and this creates a real sense of immersion. Some of the footage here is simply breath-taking, and I mean that literally - including a pack of sharks in a feeding frenzy on the ocean floor, and a seal being flung a hundred feet into the air by a killer whale - this is powerful, dramatic stuff.

There is almost no narration at all, and this makes a great change - there is a tremendous range of documentary material available, some of it brilliantly informative and educational, but this film speaks for itself, and more narration would simply lessen the experience. Previous reviewers stated that some of the footage from "The Blue Planet" has simply been recycled here without narration - that is true, and it is stunning footage, all the better without mandatory education over the top of it! "The Blue Planet" is a superb documentary - much more informative, and more complete in scope, but the aim of this DVD is clearly very different, and I believe that it is successful and worthwhile.

This is a powerful, moving journey through the oceans of the world - visually stunning, dramatic - it will leave a great impression on you. At this price, I recommend it to anyone with an interest in the natural world.

Why 2* when it should get 5?
The Deep Blue is little else than a shorter version of the previously released and otherwise outstanding work of the BBC series "The Blue Planet".

I got the newly released DVD being mislead by its advertising that is rather a genuine work and only the crew from the BBC series is the same. That is not the case, unfortunately, most of the Deep Blue material is taken from the Blue Planet.

If that is your first marine environment DVD, you will love every single second of the documentary but if you already have the Blue Planet, it's probably not worth going for this one too.

this is not a documentary and not for young children
I have the 4-disc set of the Blue Planet which I love and bought after reading the commentary here. Funny thing, although I love the series, I find myself wanting to buy or watch Deep Blue again. Most (probably all) of the footage is from the series but I find I like the juxtapositions of the images and the sparseness of commentary better here. In all fairness, the curiousity about what I was looking at spurred my buying Blue Planet which does a fine job of explaining the details but watching this film is more of an emotional experience. It is a paean to the oceans and their denizens in all their splendor, otherness and even frightfulness. I came away with a strong desire to engage myself more fully in supporting measures to protect this treasure.

Caveat for parents of young and/or sensitive children: my 7 year old daughter, who loves Willy, was appalled by the scenes of killer whales snatching baby sea lions from the beach and drowning a baby grey whale while its mother helplessly hovered near. She was in tears, said she HATED the whales now and makes me skip that part. You will need to able to explain carnivores and their place in the world.

Favorite scene? Seeing the animals that depend on herring all together in a gorgeous multi-textured underwater shot (a good argument for over-priced large screen TVs if ever there was one): I was blown away!
See it for yourself.