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List Price: $29.95 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 38793
Released: August 15, 2000 |
| Our Price: $79.95 |
| Used Price: $44.70 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Experience the peril and intensity of free-diving the world s most dangerous sport in The Big Blue. Jacques (Jean-Marc Barr Breaking The Waves) and his friendly rival Enzo (Jean Reno The Professional) are considered masters of free-diving and have made a career out of this one-of-a-kind competition. Jacques life-long obsession with diving comes from his unusual bond with the sea while Enzo thrives on the challenges of its inherent danger. In his travels Jacques meets Johanna (Rosanna Arquette Pulp Fiction) who is attracted to his innocent qualities and follows him across Europe to share his adventures triumphs and ultimately tragic bond with Enzo. With breathtaking underwater photography and matching musical support from Eric Serra (The Fifth Element) The Big Blue immerses you in a life and death adventure you ll never forget.System Requirements:Starring: Rosanna Arquette Jean-Marc Barr and Jean Reno. Directed By: Luc Besson. Running Time: 168 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2000 Columbia TriStar Home Video.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 043396039278 Manufacturer No: 3927
Description of The Big Blue (Director's Cut):
A hit in Europe but a flop in the U.S.--where it was trimmed, rescored, and given a new ending--Luc Besson's The Big Blue has endured as a minor cult classic for its gorgeous photography (both on land and underwater) and dreamy ambiance. Jean-Marc Barr is a sweet and sensitive but passive presence as Jacques, a diver with a unique connection to the sea. He has the astounding ability to slow his heartbeat and his circulation on deep dives, "a phenomenon that's only been observed in whales and dolphins… until now," remarks one scientist. Kooky New York insurance adjuster Joanna (Rosanna Arquette at her most delightfully flustered and endearingly sexy best) melts after falling into his innocent baby blues, and she follows him to Italy, where he's continuing a lifelong competition with boyhood rival Enzo (Jean Reno in a performance both comic and touching).
Besson's first English-language production looks more European than Hollywood, and it suffers from a tin ear for the language. At times it feels more like an IMAX undersea documentary than a drama about free divers, but the lush and lovely images create a fairy tale dimension to Jacques's story, a veritable Little Merman. More dolphin than man, he's so torn between earthly love and aquatic paradise that even his dreams call him to the sea (in a sequence more eloquent than any speech).
Besson has expanded the film by 50 minutes for his director's cut, which adds little story but slows the contemplative pace until it practically floats in time, and has restored Eric Serra's synthesizer-heavy score, a slice of 1980s pop that at times borders on disco kitsch. Most importantly, he has restored his original ending, which echoes the fairy tale he tells Joanna earlier in the film and leaves the story floating in the inky blackness of ambiguity. --Sean Axmaker
The Big Blue (Director's Cut) Reviews:
Better than i remembered 
2009-03-07 - I saw this movie years ago and i just re-discovered it on netflix. I don't remember how the American version was, but don't bother, there is no need to see that version when you have such a beautiful version in the director's cut. The movie is long (almost three hours), but it's definitely worth it. The beautiful water sequences with the dolphins. Jean Reno is so funny as Endo and i just think Jean-Marc Barr is beautiful and so fascinating as Jacques. I am not a big Rosanna Arquette fan, but i definitely liked her in this movie. I loved Eric Serra's music, i think it just brought it all together. It's just a shame that there aren't enough people who really like this movie. And at the end, right before it fades to black. I think the dolphin is pulling Jacques back up to the surface. At least, that's what i hope, the movie made me cry, it was definitely better than i remembered.
ZE BIG BLEW! 
2009-03-06 - This movie is baaaaaad but loooooooooooooong...
Talk about a Giant Sucking Sound!
Sure, it's got beautiful scenery and lush cinematography, plus two very likable stars (three, if you count Griffin Dunne doing a bit role). But that doesn't ammount to much when the movie lacks a credible screenplay, and what poses as such is full of unnerving clichés and stereotypes that sink the entire thing deeper than the main character on a quest for the Titanic!
Rossanna Arquette plays the dopey American blonde in love with the ultimate "cold fish", a dreamy French American effete whose only desire in life is to become a dolphin and swim away for all eternity (eventually he does, thank God, but you'll have to spend a great deal of yours to get to that particular scene). Jean Reno plays the (stereo)typical Italian bachelor (obnoxious mother in black included) in a "boastful performance" most humble moviegoers would describe as plain overacting. Even Dunne is given lousy lines the few seconds he's in -something like "You deliberately lied to me, embezzled the company's money, and should go to jail this very instant if I'm not to lose my own job as well. But never mind all that; tell me: is this love for real?".
No kidding: there's an old uncle who dives in a bathtub, a bipolar dolphin who feels out-of-water, and an aquarium where you can break in and walk away with whatever you please without a care in the world. There's daddy dying on cue, mamma frowning on spaghetti -although she cooks lots of it in hotel bedrooms- and Honey getting pregnant and abandoned (tears and all) in a -literally- fishy finale. And there's this guy who grew in an impoverished idyllic Greek vilage, doesn't have a job, doesn't own a suit, and yet stays at the Nice Carlton and lives in a posh apartment. But mostly there's me, the bemused-confused audience, wondering why this pretentious deadweight is hailed as a cult film, when it should be shelved in the far off corners of the Hallmark Channel where it belongs!
P.S.: As any licensed diver can tell you, these guys are fakes! The first and foremost rule in diving is SAFETY. That is, if someone tells you something is not safe, or seems not safe, or may not be safe, or lurks in the vicinity of perhaps not safe, YOU DON'T DO IT, PERIOD! To show otherwise is like showing cops goofing around with a loaded weapon. Whatever one may think about them, professionals is not likely to be on the list. And one is to believe these hotshot divers are pros, let alone World Champions, when hey routinely ignore every warning they're given? Please..!
The Big Blue-Loved it!
2009-02-09 - I watched this movie back in the 80s, when I used to work in a video store, because I love dolphins and saw one on the cover. It's definately different, but in a good way. It is slow in a few spots, but overall a good movie. I normally can't stand Rosanna Arquette, but can watch this movie over and over again because of the story and great scenery/photography. Also, Jean Reno is always good as a villain and it's great to see him before he became known in the States.
The Big Blue
2008-10-14 - Big Blue is a joy to watch. The scenery, on land or in the sea is beautiful. The acting is very good. The movie is humorous and mellow. There is a spiritual theme that unfolds towards the end of the movie, but I will not be specific lest I spoil it for others to uncover.
This film is more than you think... 
2008-08-30 - Aside from the great reviews this film deserves, It is so far the highest calibrating film of all time. According to the conciousness calibrations of Enlightened Sage Dr. David Hawkins, the film calibrates at an amazing 700 out of a possible 1000 as noted in his book "Truth vs Falsehood" Most movies don't come close to half that. See this film and find out why!!!
