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The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
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Wikipedia article
'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou' is a 2004 American comedy-drama film written by Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach and directed by Anderson. It is Anderson's fourth feature-length film and was released in the United States on December 25, 2004.
The film stars Bill Murray as Steve Zissou, an eccentric oceanographer who sets out to exact revenge on the "jaguar shark" that ate his partner Esteban. Zissou is both a parody of and homage to French diving pioneer Jacques Cousteau, to whom the film is dedicated.
The film also features Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, Michael Gambon, Jeff Goldblum, Anjelica Huston and Bud Cort. Seu Jorge has a minor part, but contributes heavily to the film's soundtrack. It was filmed in and around Naples, Ponza, and the Italian Riviera.
The film was released to mixed reviews and was a box office flop. In the decade following its release it has garnered a cult following, and is now viewed more positively by both critics and fans. It was also since remastered and re-released by The Criterion Collection in 2014.
Plot
While oceanographer Steve Zissou is working on his latest documentary at sea, his best friend and chief diver, Esteban du Plantier, is devoured by a 10-meter-long, luminescently spotted creature Zissou describes as a "jaguar shark". For his next project, Zissou is determined to document the shark's destruction.
The crew aboard Zissou's aging research vessel 'Belafonte' includes his estranged wife Eleanor, chief strategist and financial backer; Pel dos Santos, a safety expert and Brazilian guitarist who sings David Bowie songs in Portuguese; and Klaus Daimler, the German first mate who views Zissou and Esteban as father figures. Minor crew members include Vikram Ray, cameraman; Bobby Ogata, frogman; Vladimir Wolodarsky, physicist and soundtrack composer; Renzo Pietro, sound man; and Anne-Marie Sakowitz, a script girl who is often seen topless. Also included is a recent group of unpaid interns from the University of North Alaska. However, the "Team Zissou" venture has hit a decline; they have not released a successful documentary in nine years.
Ned Plimpton is a longtime Zissou fan whose mother has recently died, and he believes that Zissou is his father. After they meet at Zissou's latest premiere, Ned takes annual leave from his job as an airline pilot in Kentucky to join his crew. As Oseary Drakoulias, Zissou's producer, cannot find anyone to finance their latest documentary, Ned offers his inheritance. Eleanor feels her husband is taking advantage of Ned and leaves. A pregnant reporter, Jane Winslett-Richardson, comes to chronicle the voyage. Both Ned and Zissou are attracted to Jane, and a competition develops between them. Klaus becomes jealous of the attention Zissou pays to Ned.
On their mission to find the jaguar shark, the 'Belafonte' steals tracking equipment from a remote station owned by currently more successful oceanographer (and Zissou's nemesis), Alistair Hennessey. They then sail into unprotected waters and are attacked by Filipino pirates, who steal Ned's money and kidnap Bill Ubell, a "bond company stooge" assigned to the project. They are then rescued by Hennessey and towed to Port-au-Patois. Sakowitz, along with all but one of the interns, jumps ship once they reach port.
Zissou persuades Eleanor to rejoin the 'Belafonte', and then leads the crew on a rescue mission. They track Bill to an abandoned hotel on a remote island, saving him along with Hennessey, whom the pirates have also kidnapped. Ned and Zissou then make one last search for the shark in the ship's helicopter, but the aircraft malfunctions and they crash. Ned dies from his injuries and is buried at sea. Prior to Ned's death, Eleanor revealed to Jane that Zissou is sterile; therefore Ned could not have been his son.
Zissou finally tracks down the shark in a submersible but he decides not to kill it, both because of its beauty and not having any more dynamite. At the premiere of the finished documentary (which is dedicated to Ned), Zissou receives a standing ovation while waiting outside the theater for the premiere to finish. The crew returns triumphantly to the ship the next day.
Cast
* Bill Murray as Steve Zissou
* Owen Wilson as Edward 'Ned' Plimpton / Kingsley Zissou
* Cate Blanchett as Jane Winslett-Richardson
* Anjelica Huston as Eleanor Zissou
* Willem Dafoe as Klaus Daimler
* Jeff Goldblum as Alistair Hennessey
* Michael Gambon as Oseary Drakoulias
* Bud Cort as Bill Ubell, Bond Company Stooge
* Noah Taylor as Vladimir Wolodarsky
* Seu Jorge as Pel dos Santos
* Robyn Cohen as Anne-Marie Sakowitz
* Waris Ahluwalia as Vikram Ray
* Niels Koizumi as Bobby Ogata
* Pawel Wdowczak as Renzo Pietro
* Matthew Gray Gubler as Niko, Intern (credited as Intern #1)
* Antonio Monda as Himself
* Isabella Blow as Antonia Cook
* Seymour Cassel as Esteban du Plantier
Production notes
Literary inspiration
Though the characters were inspired by such American novels as 'The Great Gatsby' and 'The Magnificent Ambersons', the plot has been compared to 'Moby-Dick'.Writing about the metaphorical aspects of the film's settingsomewhere in the Mediterraneanfilm critic Elena Past says that the underwater scenes, because they are central to the storyline, make 'The Life Aquatic' similar in some ways to 'Respiro'. Both films set out a "Mediterranean state of being" where "having left the security of land, the characters in both films are suddenly confronted with the precarious nature of human existence, as the films that depict them tackle the challenges of representing the submarine world."
Exotic lifeforms
In addition to the luminescent-spotted jaguar shark, other fictional lifeforms (some stop-motion-animated) are cited and appear throughout the film, such as the rhinestone bluefin, crayon ponyfish, wild snow-mongoose, electric jellyfish, and sugar crabs. The animation work was done by Henry Selick.Music
The soundtrack to 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou' contains a style typical of other Wes Anderson films. Mark Mothersbaugh, a member of Devo, composed the score, as he has for many of Anderson's other films. The film also features many rock songs from the 1960s-1980s, and several instrumental pieces composed by Sven Libaek for the underwater documentary television series 'Inner Space'. Additionally, the film and soundtrack feature Seu Jorge performing David Bowie songs in Portuguese on the acoustic guitar. Jorge, who also plays the character of Pel dos Santos, performs some of these cover songs live, in character during the film, mostly with modified lyrics reflecting Jorge's own experiences working on the film. The ending scene depicting the beauty of the shark features the song "Starlfur" by Sigur Rs.
'The Life Aquatic' is Anderson's first film not to feature a Rolling Stones song.
Reception
Box office
The film grossed a total of $24,020,403 domestically after twelve weeks in release, less than half its $50 million production budget. It took in a further $10,788,000 internationally, bringing the total gross to $34,808,403.Critical response
Initial reviews of the film were mixed. The film has a 56% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 224 reviews, with an average rating of 6.10/10; the website's consensus states: "Much like the titular oceanographer, 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou's overt irony may come off as smug and artificial but for fans of Wes Anderson's unique brand of whimsy, it might be worth the dive." The film has a 62/100 weighted average score on Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D" on an A+ to F scale.Anthony Lane, a film reviewer for 'The New Yorker', agreed with the conventional criticism of Anderson's deadpan style: that the underreaction of Anderson's characters used to be "hip" but has now become "frozen into a mannerism." He said that "some stretches of action" in the film are being "lightly held within quotation marks," with an "unmistakable air of playacting" in even the most violent scenes. He also criticized the film's deliberately "weird" set ups, which leave the viewer with "the impression of having nearly drowned in some secret and melancholy game."
In the years since its initial release it has developed a cult following, and it underwent a critical reevaluation. Many critics view it more favorably, and some, such as Mike D'Angelo of 'The A.V. Club', consider the film to still be "undervalued" when compared to the rest of Anderson's filmography.
Accolades
Home media
The DVD of the film was released by the Criterion Collection on May 10, 2005 as its 300th title, in both 1-disc version and a 2-disc versions. This is Anderson's third film to be released in the collection, after 'Rushmore' and 'The Royal Tenenbaums'. The Criterion Blu-ray was released on May 27, 2014. It is also available on Disney+ outside the United States.
References in popular culture
* The name of Mexican rock band Belafonte Sensacional is inspired, in part, by this movie.
* Austin Tofte, of Swimming With Dolphins has listed this movie as his favorite film.
* 'Epic Rap Battles of History' released a rap battle between Jacques Cousteau and Steve Irwin. In one of Cousteau's flex bars, he references 'The Life Aquatic' saying, "I'm so cool, Bill Murray played me in the movie."
* The Family Guy episode 'The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou's title is a reference to this movie.
*The song 'Alan Forever' on Lupe Fiascos album DROGAS WAVE imagines an alternate reality for Alan Kurdi in which he survived his emigration from Syria and might be the next Steve Zissou or maybe Jacques Cousteau
See also
* 'SAS Walvisbaai', the ship used as the 'R/V Belafonte'
* Jaguar catshark, a species of shark named after the fictional shark featured in the film.
References
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