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The Big Blue: Director's Cut
review by David G.
Running Time: 168 Minutes
Starring Jean-Marc Barr, Jean Reno, Rosanna Arquette,
Marc Duret, Jean Bouise
Studio: Columbia/Tri-Star (Sony)
Screenplay by Luc Besson and Robert Garland from an
Original Story by Luc Besson
Directed by Luc Besson
Retail Price: $29.99
Features: Theatrical Trailers, Talent Files,
Production Notes, Photo Gallery, Isolated Music Score
Specs: 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, 5.1 Dolby
Digital English, 5.1 Dolby Digital French, English Captions,
French Captions, Spanish Captions, Chapter Search
Jacques Mayol, the Frenchman (Jean-Marc Barr) and Enzo
Molinari (Jean Reno) have spent their childhood together in
Greece living their passion of the ocean. Jacques is shy
while Enzo is an extrovert and pretentious. One day, Jacques
is the witness of his father's death while picking up
oysters in the sea. We then find our two friends about
twenty years later, Enzo is the world champion of free
diving living in Sicily while Jacques works as a research
subject around the world. But Enzo has only one idea in his
head: compete with Jacques for the trophy. The insurance
investigator Johanna meets Jacques in her travels and
immediately falls in love with him. She is attracted by his
innocence but she will never manage to really understand
him. Both men's passion and the sea will be the center of
this drama.
Luc Besson (The Professional, The Fifth Element), was his
second movie and is his most popular film. The story of two
men so obsessed by the sea that they would die for her
(because the sea is a character by itself in this movie), no
matter the consequences and their closes relations. It is
not easy to understand why this movie hit the heart of so
many people around the world (mostly in France). This has
been a cult movie. It's a slow paced film (particularly the
director's cut which adds 49 minutes of footage, which isn't
really nessescary), and the story is maybe a little
impenetrable. But this film is considered a generation's
movie, perhaps that in 1988 people needed that kind of
movie, no matter the screenplay. They needed to be immerged
in the blue, in something more beautiful than the real world
and believed to understand Jacques's motivations.
Personally, I don't think that "The Big Blue" is a
masterpiece, it is just a good film with flaws and good
points. The underwater photography is beautiful (although
that the DVD does not pay homage to it) and the Eric Serra's
music fits well the movie. The movie suffers too from Luc
Besson itself, thus, as the director takes himself for James
Cameron, he reedited his movie for a very arguable
director's cut and since, he became one of the most
pretentious French director I've ever seen. Except "La Femme
Nikita" (just "Nikita" in France) and maybe "The
Professional", all his movies are puffy, wobbly: "The Fifth
Element" is a good example. But let's come back to "The Big
Blue". it has not the pretension of "The Messenger" but its
naïveté may irritate some. Every director is not
Steven Spielberg!
The movie is presented in a widescreen anamorphic 2:35:1
format. The picture may be fuzzy, and some scratches and
dust are often seen. For a movie based on the picture's
beauty, it's hard to believe that Columbia/Tristar gives us
such a poor master.
A few soundtracks are included: English 5.1, French 5.1
(not mentioned on the box) and English Dolby Surround and
French Dolby Surround. There is also English, Spanish and
French subtitles. Here is the good point of the audio: the
music of Eric Serra is presented beautifully and really
deserved this. I am French, so I appreciate the 5.1 French
track which was even absent in the Region 2 DVD.
The extras aren't so good. The DVD features Talent Files,
Production Notes, A Photo Gallery (it has three phots!),
Trailers (don't miss the Big Blue trailer, it is absolutely
ridiculous) and, finally, the Isolated Music Score (good
idea).
I'm not a fan of Luc Besson (I only really like Nikita)
but I have to admit that he managed to create a movie with a
mood despite its languor. The movie deserves a better DVD.
On a side note, I had some troubles with selecting the items
with my SD 2109 Toshiba DVD player.
 (2.5/5, NOT included in
final score)
 (3/5)
 (4.5/5)
 (2/5)
 (3.5/5, NOT an average)
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