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Deep blue - Michael Gambon, Andy Byatt, Alastair Fothergill

Threat advisory: Guarded - General risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Until now we've only touched the surface.

What Microcosmos did for creepy crawlies and Travelling birds did for those that inhabit our skies, Deep blue does for ocean dwellers. Originating from David Attenborough's much-admired BBC documentary series The blue planet, Deep blue was shot over three years at a range of locations - including the Maldives, Azores, Cayman Islands and Bermuda. This majestic film has all the hallmarks of BBC quality workmanship - jaw-dropping, sumptuous visuals, a lush George Fenton score, state-of-the-art technology and some of the oddest creatures ever seen without recourse to artificial stimulants.

Persons of interest

Michael Gambon .... Narrator
Andy Byatt .... Director
Alastair Fothergill .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Deep blue official movie sites:

Deep blue QuickTime movie trailers
Awards and film festivals:

See also March of the penguins (La marche de l'empereur)
Studios and distributors:

BBC * Hopscotch

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Ok. So. The imagery in Deep blue is often spectacular and the action is full-on - with lots of predatory animal violence - and the music is highly expressive. That's the good side. But. The narration is full of grammatical errors and actually gets emotional at one point. Documentary narration should never get emotional. It is the antithesis of the documentary genre. Documentary. Noun. A film or TV program presenting the facts about a person or event. Facts. Not emotions.

Offspring are never described as babies. Baby is an emotive word that conjures up parental concern in the mind of the audience. Offspring, child, infant, young, hatchling, nestling, progeny, issue if there is no specific noun - otherwise calf, egret, kitten, kip, puppy, lamb, etc. Poor Michael Gambon is forced to call a trey whale calf "baby" while at the same time referring to its predators as "killer whales". "Killer whale" is the common name for Orcinus orca, which should be called Orca to avoid the emotional connotations of the word "killer". After all, all animals kill something else to eat. This is bad, bad, bad scriptwriting. Minus 40 points.