The Living Sea: IMAX (1995)

The Living Sea is a visual smorgasbord representing all aspects of the world's oceans, with a great deal of the tidal eye candy focusing on underwater denizens and marine ecology. While the most sumptuous scenery is (as always with IMAX ocean films) under the surface of the sea, I also enjoyed the time-lapse views of tidewater ebb and flow as well as baywater recreational boating -- not to mention the segment on the joys of surfing. Here is an IMAX film that gives us panoramic vistas from California's sea kelp to the Palau Islands' barrier reef and all the marine creatures that inhabit such environs. Divers swimming among swarming schools of fish is a great pleasure to witness (esp. due to top-shelf IMAX production values, including sound editing by Skywalker Ranch) and we even follow a cuttlefish, with its psychedelic color-shifting, for a minute. The segment on Palau's eons-old saltwater lake is particularly stunning, with "a million" nonstinging jellyfish that "farm" algae inside their own bodies. Like many IMAX films, The Living Sea feels like a spiritual experience -- if you love and respect the Earth's creation and all that it contains. The music soundtrack by Sting is lyrical yet meditative and Meryl Streep (considered by some to be the world's greatest living actress) as narrator is a superb choice. The only complaints seem to come from those who hate Sting, hate Streep, misunderstand IMAX (typically a 39-minute visual-essay "documentary lite"), are anti-evolution (implied in one line of the script), or anti-science. The message of The Living Sea, stated twice, is as follows: "Our knowledge of the oceans is growing. This knowledge is important, because we can't protect what we don't understand. What we understand fully, we come to love." The oceans *are* all connected. They *do* provide 70% of the world's oxygen. Laws protecting habitats and prohibiting the slaughter of entire species (the humpback whale, to cite one example) *are* reversing prior trends towards extinction. The Living Sea is a love song to our oceans, its creatures, and those who respect them. Enjoy! 5 stars.