Hunters Of The Deep

1934. HUNTERS OF THE DEEP (1954-USA). Narrated by DAN O’HERLIHY, COLOR. Music composed and conducted by GEORGE ANTHEIL. A satisfying, instructive documentary exploration of the twilight world on the ocean floor of the Caribbean and Pacific. An ever-fascinating environment described as being “mighty, unyielding, a part of the world since its beginning and yet for all the millions of years never the same from one restless moment to the next.” There are no melodramatics here, just some stunning panoramas of the ocean bottom: expansive underwater forests, populated by turtles, starfish, groupers, sting rays, sea elephants, angel fish, eels…and finally, sharks, which are called the “gangsters of the sea.” Some of this underwater life is beautiful and peaceful, while some is beautiful – and deadly. In fact, the various divers and cinematographers become intrepid adventurers as they constantly risk their lives: even the smallest mistake can make deadly dangerous the simply business of collecting a specimen for the research laboratory, and photographing the proceeding This was “filmed entirely on and under the open ocean,” edited from over 25,000 feet of footage, made in conjunction with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the United States Navy Electronics Laboratory and the Allan Hancock Institute of Marine Research. 65 minutes. Documentary