Becoming Cousteau

Liz Garbus's 2021 documentary is a portrait built from footage out of Jacques-Yves Cousteau's own archive. It is the story of the man who developed the equipment that made filming underwater possible and then used those images to introduce the ocean to the world, but the film does not present him only as an explorer. Its most honest section recounts how Cousteau, early in his career, carried out seabed surveys for oil companies and how, as he saw the consequences, he moved to an environmentalist position. The losses in his family life and his relationship with his son are also related without softening. The archive material is extraordinary. The narration at times stays too closely tied to chronology. Who it's for: viewers interested in nature documentaries and in the history of the environmental movement. Who it's not for: anyone wanting an uncritical heroic portrait, or who will find an archive-heavy account static.