THE SEA AROUND US

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 778, 18 June 1954, Page 19

THE SEA AROUND US

(R.K.O. Radio) | HAVE said before that I quickly tire of "pure" nature, and I was quite ready to become bored with a little over an hour of the sea around us. So it is high praise when I say that even after a first course of half an hour of True Life Disney (not to mention Leon Errol and a glimpse of Poppa Schine at the Kentucky Derby) I stayed interested to the end. It’s a family picture, too. We all went along, and 24 hours afterwards my two boys are _still re-enacting the gory whaling scenes-which doesn’t, I fear, say much for their state of civilisation. The Sea Around Us has a number of good qualities, but none more valuable than its variety. It doesn’t give you a chance to become bored. It goes back to the beginning-to the birth of the earth and the oceans-and flows on beautifully through the sea’s changing colours and temperament. There’s a remarkable series of shots of microscopic life. Then we are at sea with ships and fishermen, or spectators of a fight (which might almost be a ballet) between shark and octopus. More humans are introduced: a shark walker, a crab herder, ; deep-sea diver, a sponge gatherer, an under-water’ fisherman stalking some fearsome creature, a lighthouse keeper. A turtle lays its eggs and the young scuttle for the sea, preyed on by swooping gulls. It is all full of interest. My one regret (not a big one) is about the end-in the context just a little melodramatic, however real the threat of the melting ice-caps may be. The script by Irwin Allen, who also produced the film, is simple and direct-its "This is... these are .. ." form of narrative is surprisingly unmonotonous. I haven’t read Rachel L. Carson’s book, but if it is anything like as good as its film, translation its popularity isn’t surprising.