It won an academy award in 1956 for best documentary and was apparently a very influential film. Le Monde Du Silence is also one of the most anti environmental films I have ever seen. Costeau and his crew of undersea explorers are shockingly unenlightened about the oceans they are exploring. Their interactions with sea life are jaw dropping in their insensitivity. In order to get a census count of fish at a coral reef they blow up the reef and count all of the dead fish.
Later in the film Cousteau's ship the Calypso hits and kills a baby sperm whale. The blood from the whale attracts a school of sharks intent on feeding on the dead whale. This provokes Cousteau and his crew into their own frenzy of shark killing because as Cousteau says "ze shark is ze enemy of ze diver."
The movie was co-directed by the great French director Louis Malle. Malle was known for his humanist approach in his films, but in this case that apparently that didn't extend to the fish. An amazingly clueless film.
86 minutes.
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