12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Warning: This (edit: was) DUBBED IN FRENCH!, August 30, 2010
Yes, the original soundtrack, which was in ENGLISH, has been REMOVED and a FRENCH-ONLY dub put in its place. WTF??? I have contacted the distributor and been promised a proper Original Sound version, REPEATEDLY, but none ever arrive. I can only guess that someone screwed up at the pressing plant and we are the poor dupes who are shelling out good money for a broken product with no recourse for a refund.
This would be great if you are deaf and only read French though! Otherwise PASS, as this is the biggest FUBAR I have ever seen in a movie release to disc.
Also, note that the Director's Release, i.e. this one, restores the Frenchman, Eric Serra's, music score, removing Bill Conti's music which was used in the USA release of this movie. We can debate 'til the cows come home which score is better, but I personally wish they had included BOTH. This is one of my all time favorite movies, BOTH versions, but this blu-ray release is a disaster not worth bothering with.
2010-11-22 EDIT: After over a year of complaining, and several responses from the distributor on some island off the coast of France, I did receive a re-printed edition of The Big Blue with the ORIGINAL ENGLISH SOUNDTRACK! Woot! They just gained THREE STARS! :-) (I ought to take off stars for having to spend a year of my life hounding people to make good, but whatever....) Now, if they would release this in blu-ray with the USA cut as an extra, the one with Bill Conti's music that Luc Besson hates so much, this would warrant the elusive FIVE STAR RATING. I'm not holding my breath. I suspect this is as good as it gets. Just be sure they don't send you one of the original batch with only dubbed French! ;-)
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Go... go and see, my love ..., September 24, 2011
Before actually reviewing this movie, I would just note that, in order to make sure that I got the correct English language version of this Blu-ray disc, I ordered my copy from the amazon.uk site (I will post a link to that webpage in the comments section). The amazon.uk website lists the French language-only Blu-ray separately. At the time of this writing, this Blu-ray is also cheaper when ordered on amazon.uk, even with the extra shipping costs.
It should be noted that most of the dialogue for this movie was filmed and recorded in English, not French. Jean-Marc Barr and Jean Reno and most of the other actors were bilingual/multilingual and spoke in English during filming (or, in the Italian scenes, in Italian). Barr is French-American and partly grew up in the US, attending UCLA even, thus his unaccented American English in this film.
And so the French soundtrack version of this movie is the dubbed version.
This is a poetically beautiful movie, and it works on several levels, with the love story between Johana Baker (Rosanna Arquette) and Jacques Mayol (Jean-Marc Barr) anchoring the magical and mysterious ending of the original version of this movie.
After watching this movie and being just thrilled by its poetry and beauty, I found a Youtube post of the ending of the American theatrical version, with the pasted-on Hollywood "happy ending" (Barr returns to the surface with the dolphin and the Bill Conti score cuts into the original Eric Serra soundtrack, blaring its insane happiness in the background). What to say except that I was appalled by this utterly crass, brainless, and incongruous "happy ending" version.
There are many other parts to this extended version - the beginning black and white scenes showing Jacques and Enzo as children, the beginnings of the rivalry for the deep free-diving records between the adult Enzo and Jacques, Jacques's work with the physiologist/physician Dr. Laurence, and Johana's mundane, boring life in America as an insurance adjustor.
This is the extended version, the Director's Cut - comments from the amazon.uk site indicate that most people who have seen all the different versions (the American version, the shorter European theatrical version) think that this is the best, most complete and fleshed out version of this wonderful movie. I remember the ads for this movie back in 1988, but this is the first time I have ever seen it. The movie was the most successful movie of French cinema during the 1980's but struggled in the U.S., and I am glad that I never saw the US theatrical release.
The story is a fictionalized version of the real-life story of the competition for the free-diving record from the mid-1960's to the early 1980's between the real Jacques Mayol and Enzo Maiorca (changed to Enzo Molinari for this movie). It is sad to know that Mayol committed suicide in 2003, alone and depressed. Would that he had a real-life Johana and their child as companions in his old age.
As an aside, I stumbled on this movie one night after re-watching the movie "The Name of the Rose". I was curious what had happened to the mysterious and pretty peasant girl saved from burning at the stake in that movie (in the book, the girl burns). Well, Valentina Vargas survived to play a small part in "The Big Blue" as Enzo's girlfriend.
This is a wonderful, poetic movie, driven by a certain languid and Zen-like pace and philosophy.
Go...go and see...
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