Review: Ocean with David Attenborough is brutal – it's also a must-see
This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here.
These days, I try to avoid watching anything remotely bleak. I even had to turn off Emmerdale the other day when misery guts Cain Dingle got drunk on his dead dad's moonshine. But there's one type of TV that I can't turn away from, no matter how grim it gets, and that's any nature documentary involving Sir David Attenborough. His latest project, Ocean with David Attenborough, is a two-hour National Geographic film about the importance of the sea to the health of the planet – and it rides one heck of a wave.
Released in cinemas on David Attenborough's 99th birthday (and now available on Disney+), Ocean begins with Attenborough sitting on a beach and telling us how much our knowledge of the ocean has changed in his lifetime. Over the past century, we've made more discoveries and reached greater depths than in any time before. Our awareness of the world beneath the surface has been transformed, in part thanks to the astonishing nature documentary series Attenborough gave us over the past seven decades.
In Ocean, Attenborough wants to remind us of how precious this marine world is. The photography in this film is spectacular – it captures colourful coral, vibrant marine forests and deep sea darkness, all pulled together by powerful storytelling delivered with Attenborough's rich, timeless voice. It's a visual symphony, one with so much motion and detail that sometimes it feels like you're actually down there, swimming through those forests of seaweed and tiny fish.
Then, Attenborough delivers a furious sucker punch: humans have munted the ocean. Governments around the world allow bottom sea trawling and commercial fishing industries are overfishing, and as a result, we've screwed up the sea's delicately balanced ecosystems. Abundant and pristine marine worlds have been brutally ploughed, leaving behind a grey 'nuclear winter' on the ocean floor. Now, local fishermen only catch plastic in their nets.
It's a horrifying, heartbreaking shift in tone. We've let ourselves down, but even worse, we've let Sir David Attenborough down. In his 100th year, he's probably still sitting on that beach, the cold wind blasting through his white hair, quietly shaking his head at the damage we've done. He lived through this change. It didn't have to be like this.
The reality about the state of the ocean is confronting, but Attenborough leaves us with a message of hope. If we leave the ocean alone – if we protect areas through legislation and create ocean sanctuaries – it will regenerate and thrive. Fishing stock will flourish. Plants and plankton will soak up carbon emissions and produce more oxygen than the trees on Earth combined. Saving the ocean is key to saving us from ecological disaster.
Ocean is Sir David Attenborough reminding us – once again – that we need to sort our shit out, and fast. This is a powerful, must-watch film that will fill your heart, rip it into tiny pieces, and then put it back together again. It's a stunning watch on the small screen; I can only imagine how impressive it would be in the cinema. For all our sakes, don't miss Ocean – and don't forget how lucky we are to have the legend that is Sir David Attenborough.
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