As you know, I am a film critic. Also, last week I started a culture in film class, and the first lesson was to watch some clips to help teach the class how to watch movies for both entertainment, but also how American culture, the good and the bad, and look past the story and see what messages the filmmakers are trying to tell us. I have always been able to do that naturally. I am not bragging, it's just something I love and understand.
I love the director, Wes Anderson, and his quirky film plots that actually have amazing insights. I love Fantastic Mr. Fox the best of his films, but a super close second is The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. I love them all, but the message underlying message of The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou has my favorite lesson. I have shared this viewpoint before, but I noticed today that my blog is now two years and one month old, and I have never shared this on this blog, so I thought it would be a great one to celebrate two years of my blog, and also share something that I love and believe wholeheartedly.
First, I want to say that the film is rated R for language and thematic elements. So, what I love about Wes Anderson is his movies seem so bizarre and quirky. I have actually been to three of his films in the theater where people either walked out thinking the movie was just weird, or they didn't get it. Others actually just got up and left in the middle of them. This was one where people left, and it's too bad they did because they missed out on something special. First, I will tell you the plot of the film, including spoilers, but come on, it's eighteen years old, and if you haven't seen it, you missed the opportunity to not have it spoiled.
We start at a fancy documentary film premiere of Steve Zissou, played by Bill Murray. He is an oceanographer and explorer like Jacques Cousteau, who would explore the seas to find new and interesting life. Team Zissou also wears clothes extremely close to Jacques Cousteau as well. The documentary they present shows Steve's best friend being killed by a shark with leopard prints, and the people in attendance think that the documentary is terrible and that the elements were fake, but Steve is the only person who knows what really happened.
Steve then concocts a plan to try to hunt down the shark that killed his best friend. The society he belongs to doesn't want to give him any endorsements to go kill an endangered creature, so Steve goes to his wife, played by Angelica Houston, who is on the rocks, and her family puts up the money for the expedition. Steve also collects some friends and crewmates, as well as interns, and they ship out to find the shark, or if it even exists. There is also a side story where a young man, played by Owen Wilson, thinks that Steve might be his long-lost father, and Steven lets him join their crew.
As their journey sets out, things all start going wrong. There are issues with the boat, they are running out of money and Steve is desperate to find the shark to a point where he puts all of his crew, and family, in jeopardy. Their boat gets boarded by Philipino pirates that steal a lot of their stuff, including crew members. Steve's wife leaves him and goes to stay with a man she may or may not be having an affair with, played by Jeff Goldblum, who I love. The boat breaks down, and everything is a mess.
However, Steve starts thinking about his wife and crew. How he mistreated them and was a jerk for putting their lives on the line just to kill a shark. He thinks about Owen Wilson's character, if he really might be his son, he wants to make up for all of the time lost. He takes off to the island where his wife and possible lover live. He apologizes and even invites his wife's potential love on the crew, plus he helps out by giving them money to fix the boat.
After making a quick trip to save the rest of his crew from the pirates, everyone is back on the ship safe and sound, and they head out to sea. As Steve is fixing his relationships with his crew and family, they start hearing a beeping sound coming from their radar system. It's the shard. They all decide to take the small submarine out with Steve to see the shark, and sure enough, it's the leopard skin printed shark who ate Steve's friend, and when the rest of the crew sees it, they silently apologize to Steve, and they ask if he's going to kill it, but he doesn't, and they all marvel over how beautiful and majestic the shark was.
They have it captured on film, go back to the snooty theater to premiere the film, which puts Steve back on top of his game again, once more.
The movie is fantastic and quirky, but it shares a beautiful message.
Sometimes in life, we get so focused or obsessed with a goal we might have that we forget what is really important to us. Those obsessions tend to alienate us from our friends and family, and it can cause unhappiness, depression, and self-hatred. However, When we readjust our views and put the things that are the most important to us, being family, friends, and the precious time we have with them, we will reach a goal that will be better than the goal where people remove themselves from the most important things, and that goal will be precious.
Sometimes in life, we get going along, and we forget what's important, which puts our lives on a trajectory to a lonely and miserable existence. I try to remember this when I start to get obsessed with it. Our family and friends are the best assets we have. They love and care about us, and what to see us succeed, but if we push them away, we miss out on their wisdom, companionship snd love, all of the things we need to be happy and successful in this life.
I really hope that you enjoyed this little snippet into how I think and feel about the film, but mostly this one because it's the one I wrote about.
I hope you are doing well. I know I always say that, but it's true. I love you guys and don't want anything bad to happen to you. Please be cautious of Covid, and be kind to one another. I hope you are haing a good day or night, or whenever you read this post. Also, below I am going to share a fun clip from The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou where he gives you a tour of his boat. If you have never seen a Wes Anderson film, and you like this clip, then you will probably enjoy the whole thing.
And one more clip for good meausre. It's the scene at the end when they find the shark. I love how the cast all put their hands on him as like an apology that they didn't beleive him about it. Even though this is very close to the end of the movie, but the whole thing should be seen if the clips seem interesting. Like I said, this one is my very close second place next to Fantastic Mr. Fox.
These clips are from YouTube, and I do not own the rights to these videos shown. I just love the lesson that if we care for and love our family and friends and put them first, our goals and obsessions will change in a healthy way, and I believe in that thought wholeheartedly. I hope you had a fun time with this post. I loved writing. it.
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