Becoming Cousteau (2021) User Reviews

Stunningly beautiful portrail of Jacques Cousteau, explorer and protector of the undersea world.

[rannynm · 8/10 · 24 October 2021]

The documentary Becoming Cousteau reveals the life of Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his passion for all things under the sea. I loved learning more about this man, who was a dominate figure during my youth who brought fantastic underwater images into our living rooms.

This film shows Cousteau's love for the oceans, as it explores over four decades of his work and how he became a spokesperson for the environment more than 50 years ago.

I loved watching this film and learned more about Jacques Cousteau than I knew previously. It sort of filled in the blanks of the back story of the man who captured our hearts and imaginations years ago. The cinematography is breathtakingly beautiful, although I wondered why the archival shots at the beginning had not been digitally enhanced. I also found it interesting that even his first dives into the ocean, in 1937, were filmed. Of course, he says several times that he has always been a filmmaker, but still those shots surprised me. He also talks about how he was not a good husband or father and, indeed, six months after his wife died he remarried. Also, he sent his children off to boarding school so he and wife number one could spend their time on the boat pursuing various missions. He was a clever businessman too, which was necessary to keep the funding flowing and we learn how he too on an assignment from British Petroleum to research oil reserves under the ocean in order to finance other projects he and his crew pursued. I remember well his TV series, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, which aired from 1968n to 1976 and featured Cousteau along with his two sons and grandson. His wife, who did not appear on screen, was sort of the glue that held things together with the crew during these expositions on their boat, the Calypso. The Cousteau Society still exists and continues to carry out explorations worldwide and helps people understand the fragility of life on Earth - the Water Planet. This beautifully produced documentary directed by Liz Barbus (The Farm: Angola, USAP truly is an ode to a remarkable man who changed the course of history by embracing life beneath the sea.

The message of this film is a reminder to take care of our planet and treasure the undersea world.

I give Becoming Cousteau 4 out of 5 stars and recommend it for ages 10 to 18, plus adults. Reviewed by R. Levy, KIDS FIRST!

Documentary about a man well ahead of his time in his quest to explore and save the oceans

[cotta002-318-865119 · 7/10 · 30 November 2021]

Great story of a man who invented the scuba diving system, explored the worlds oceans and became a pioneer environmental activist.

When you watch all the great things he did like using his fame to lobby governments around the globe to sign a global treaty banning artic development he is a real inspiration.

His family story is fascinating and sad, he was a stoic individual and till his last days did his best to convince the world we have little time to save our planet, such meaningful words spoken decades before it was the norm.

He is sadly missed and that's why you mustn't miss this movie, watch it and get inspired.

Surprisingly balanced.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 3 December 2021]

Too often when I watch documentaries about beloved folks, I notice that the films are not balanced at all and seem more like hero worship than a true biography. Well, fortunately, "Becoming Cousteau" is more balanced than I expected. Let me explain.... Jacques Cousteau was a wonderful person in some ways....and also a very, very flawed man in others. Surprisingly, the film shows both sides of him...the beloved explorer as well as the guy who could be a jerk when it comes to his personal life as well as what he put into his early film, "The Silent World"....where he and his crew committed some agricultural atrocities which are VERY noticeable today, as our sensibilities have changed. The only negative I would have loved to have learned about was his lawsuit against his surviving son, Jean-Michel. But otherwise, the film was very well made and complete...and leaves you admiring the man as well as realizing he was flawed as well.

the man in the red cap

[ferguson-6 · 7/10 · 21 October 2021]

Greetings again from the darkness. For anyone under age 35, it may be difficult to imagine a world where high-definition cameras don't blanket every nook and cranny of our planet. These days, there are multiple channels serving up nature and oceanic documentaries, many with stunningly clear and colorful underwater photography. Each of these owe a debt of gratitude to Jacques-Yves Cousteau, and documentarian Liz Garbus is here to make sure we all know it.

Jacques Cousteau trained as a Navy pilot, but a serious accident drove him to swimming as therapy for his broken body. It's there where he became enamored with free-diving and spear-fishing, and Ms. Garbus includes some archival video clips to show those early days. He was soon driven to dive deeper and stay under longer, which led him to co-invent the regulator for Aqua-lung, the early device that eventually allowed for scuba diving and breathing underwater. His co-inventor happened to be the father of his wife Simone, whom he married in 1937. Simone, along with their two sons, spent a great deal of time on the Calypso. The crew referred to her as "The Sheperdess".

This unique underwater access meant Cousteau and his cohorts could perform research never before imagined. Soon they had re-commissioned a boat as "Calypso" and turned documenting the sea into their mission. Cousteau's love of cinema meant that he had to develop a camera that would function underwater so he could film all activities. In fact, it's Cousteau's own video archives that make up much of the clips used by Ms. Garbus here. In 1956, Cousteau and young French filmmaker, Louis Malle, finished their film, THE SILENT WORLD, and the underwater photography was so groundbreaking that the film won the prestigious Palm d'Or at Cannes, and the Oscar for Best Documentary. Cousteau claimed his films were not documentaries, but rather "true action stories". Malle, of course, went on to direct such acclaimed films as ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS (1958), ATLANTIC CITY (1980), and Au Revoir les Enfants (1987).

Ms. Garbus does a nice job of chronicling Cousteau's work, and for the many of us who were dedicated followers of his TV series, "The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau", that red stocking cap remains a familiar visual. Actor Vincent Cassel reads passages from Cousteau's journals, and we learn that "Diving is the most fabulous distraction you can imagine", and that he was "miserable" out of the water. This matters because he transformed from delivering spell-binding underwater photography to an activist and educator, trying to make the world understand how humanity was destroying the ecosystem and what that meant to our world. All of today's discourse on the topic was indeed started by Cousteau, who proclaimed, "You protect what you love." Liz Garbus is one of our most talented documentarians, as evidenced by her work in such films as WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE, 2015 and THE FARM: ANGOLA, USA, 1998, and ALL IN: THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY, 2020. The first two earned her Oscar nominations, and here she pays tribute to Jacques Cousteau - an explorer, researcher, filmmaker, and activist. She focuses on his professional life, and also touches on his tangled personal life - one that resulted in two additional kids (producers of this film) with Francine (while he was married to Simone), one of the divers on Calypso. We learn of the tragedy in Cousteau's life, and that he and his crew discovered the oil in the Persian Gulf while raising funds for their expeditions. Cousteau is shown at the Earth Summit in 1992, where he is treated as an international rock star. Ms. Garbus' film shows how Cousteau's work helped educate us as he tried to make the world a better place, by giving us an appreciation of the underwater world he so treasured.

Opening in theaters on October 22, 2021.

A little messy direction, fascinating story

[marco_dacascos · 7/10 · 20 December 2021]

For those of us who did not know much of this explorer with the red beanie hat prior to watching this documentary, the story presented is lacking on a few essential details. For example we are told Cousteau was in an accident, and we see a short clip of a road. Cousteau says that this accident hindered him in becoming a pilot. We are not told what kind of accident he was in, one can only assume that he was in a car accident. Furthermore, we are not told what kind of damage he suffered. Yes, I can google stuff, but key details like this should not be left out of a documentary like this. Another example of bad direction/editing is when we are presented to the year 1979, only to be presented to the year 1977 just 15 seconds later. Nothing happened in 1977? Or was one of the headlines showing the wrong year?

On the plus side the story is fascinating, and the source material is impressive- so many video clips and interviews used to tell us this marvellous tale. And the music towards the end really builds up the tension to the finale.

All in all an intriguing dive (just had to go there, didn't I?) in to a man that gets more and more color the deeper one goes.

Packed with content

[jon_pratt12345 · 7/10 · 21 January 2022]

I learned a lot from this film, it was packed with content and at points was compelling and tragic. I found its presentation to be a bit hap hazard in the way it jumped between voice over cameos, interviews, narration and footage, which made it feel a bit cluttered however I did leave with a clear sense of Cousteau's character journey.

Hero for any school child from 70's and 80's

[klf-72758 · 8/10 · 28 November 2021]

A man with red beanie ... man for whom children stop playing just to watch undersea wonders on TV. It was a ritual for many children to watch Cousteau on television despite parent's protest for football game or some movie on other channel .... at least in my family or my friends as we all want's to be explorers or astronauts.

It's a shame that we only have Sir David now as no one younger want to pursue this form of career ...

Jacques and David, great mans who teach us to love nature in his many forms.

speed reading required

[howboutthisone_huh · 6/10 · 1 December 2021]

First off, I'm not an english bigot. I'm all for non-english productions but if you provide english subtitles, I expect them to be a good translation, easy to read and doesn't distract from the film. Is that too much to ask for? I only made it less than halfway before I had to give up. 42" tv just didn't do it. Not only were the subtitles flashed too quickly but they were in a very small font which made it difficult to follow the film and read the translation at the same time. I may go back and watch this again, and ignore the subtitles, but I just don't have the patience to finish the film as is. Ok, so why not find subs somewhere else. Because the subtitles are part of the film so adding subs would just make it even more distracting. But, it's not just this film. Most producers make what they want without considering their viewers, or maybe they do consider but insist their viewers to be multi-lingual, multi-cultural, and with dog level hearing abilities and tv sound to match.

Celebrating A Master Explorer & Conservationist

[JoshuaMercott · 9/10 · 8 December 2021]

Jacques Cousteau is a force of nature unto himself, and deserves the praise and global recognition he has received for his efforts in bringing the natural world to our appreciative attention.

In this documentary dedicated entirely to him, National Geographic has gone and celebrated him even further. It brings you the man himself, with rare never-before-seen footage from his past regaling us with the truth of all he has done for the world of Nature, particularly marine conservation.

Bear in mind that this was no ordinary guy. Cousteau was not only a French naval officer, explorer, and conservationist, he was also a filmmaker, researcher, scientist, photographer, and author. In addition to co-inventing the 'Aqua Lung', he was also a longstanding member of the Académie Française. To call him accomplished would be putting it mildly.

"Becoming Cousteau" is on Disney+, as well as Disney+ Hotstar. I loved this documentary for several reasons, the most important being that I grew up seeing the barest minimum of this giant's work and have come full circle realizing just how much more there was to the man than the younger version of me thought existed.

Beautifully directed by Liz Garbus and insightfully written by Mark Monroe and Pax Wasserman. Vincent Cassel's narration was just what this docu needed. The archival footage was superb. Remarkable musical scoring by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans. All other crews did splendid work on "Becoming Cousteau". Special shout-out to the sound and editing teams.

The docu covered not just Cousteau's early years, career, and personal life but also his innovations in diving technology, which were quite novel back then. I enjoyed all the historical diving concepts covered in this documentary. Since he was also a passionate filmmaker, the docu covered Cousteau's forays into underwater filmmaking - they gave his "true adventure films" wonderful flourish.

The concept of having cities or communities under the sea was just fascinating to watch, especially through the eyes of Cousteau. The man's view on the swift deterioration of the natural world was proof that the roots of our current Climate Emergency indeed go back decades. There's little wonder why they nicknamed him 'Captain Planet'.

Jacques Cousteau (b.1910 - d.1997) dedicated his life to a lot of Nature-centric themes, and has explored the secrets of the oceans and seas as only he can. This National Geographic documentary film granted me a glimpse at his career, one that could potentially rival the enormity of the deeps.

"You will only protect what you love."

Listening but don't care

[rolfhu · 8/10 · 14 December 2021]

Very good documentary. It's also showing how early he warned the world what will happen to our planet and climate if we not change. But all this arrogant world leaders did noting. Money rules the world. Saddely.

A Painting in Poor Light

[omegura · 5/10 · 26 November 2021]

"Becoming Cousteau" is a biographical documentary about the famous ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau. It's a film that illustrates his life in such a weird way, and one that delves into the conceptual carelessness of humanity.

I think the film paints a poor picture of Cousteau. It informs us of Cousteau being aware of himself and his lifetime regrets, and the many things that have happened in his life in regard to himself and his relationships.

There's a part of the film where Cousteau says he is aware of his own faults and his own neglect for his family and kids, and yet it sounds like he didn't really care much for his family. He sort of started it and then left it behind to pursue his passions. The film tries to paint his life in a good fashion, especially with the inclusion of his petitions to make the climate crisis more renown amongst the public, as well as his inventions to further ocean exploration. But, I couldn't help but dwell on his neglect for those he loves in order to pursue his curiosities.

The film showed him as a selfish person, and painted this picture where everyone he worked with was expendable. It barely touches on the tragedy of his family's suffering, and then it moves on to his next family, where in the last moments of his life, are finally spent with a new family.

After the passing of his wife, the film made it seem like he just moved on to his second one, and it showed him interacting and smiling with his step kids. It looked incredibly disrespectful to the family he started over 40 years prior.

Lastly, his carelessness at the beginning of his career to the environment was so terrible. His contribution to animal abuse and environmental destruction was present so nonchalantly, and felt so casual and regular in the beginning of his "curiosity voyage."

I couldn't help but feel like everything he did at the end of his life was to makeup for his naive behavior at the beginning of it. It was an interesting character study that tried to paint something beautiful, but nonetheless made something detrimental to his image. I don't know much about him, and I feel like he was a good person, but this film inhibited that image.

At the same time, his story felt like a study of humanity, and subtly addressed our species' many mistakes when handling other species and environments. It still kept its intrigue, but lacked in painting a strong image for Cousteau.

WHERE IS THE REST OF THE FAMILY?

[sarahtopdavies · 2/10 · 2 February 2022]

Why is there a film about Cousteau but so few of his family in it, where is his eldest son and other grandkids? Seems Francine is determined to write them out of history which is so unfair since she doesn't dive and never was an explorer. Why can we not hear from people who dived with him in his golden years also with the surname Cousteau? Just feels like half a story.