The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou was tepidly received when it was first released. 20 years on, it stands out as Wes Anderson’s most adventurous film.
Twenty years ago, Wes Anderson brought us The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Co-written with Noah Baumbach, the film was an anticipated release following a three-movie stretch where Anderson had built his credentials as a quirky auteur, culminating in The Royal Tenenbaums earning him his first Oscar nomination and becoming a modern classic. Yet when The Life Aquatic came out, the reception from critics was tepid at best. Audiences felt the same way, and the film failed to make back its budget. However, many retrospectives have since praised it as one of his best works. And I think part of the reason is that time has divorced The Life Aquatic from initial expectations, revealing it to be Anderson’s most adventurous film.
The last expedition by the famed oceanographer Steve Zissou (Bill Murray, Lost in Translation) ended with his best friend devoured by a “jaguar shark.” Now Zissou wants to hunt it down. This will undoubtedly be a personal mission. When asked what the scientific purpose for killing the shark would be, he replies, “Revenge.” The problem is that without a hit documentary in nine years, Zissou desperately needs funding. However, the fates align when he meets Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson, Bottle Rocket), a pilot from Kentucky who claims to be his son.
Using Ned’s inheritance, Zissou sets off on his ship and allows his possible son to join a crew that includes the jealous Klaus (Willem Dafoe, The Grand Budapest Hotel). Also onboard is hard-hitting journalist Jane (Cate Blanchett, TÁR), who is several months pregnant. But one person isn’t joining the mission. Zissou’s estranged wife Eleanor (Anjelica Huston, The Player), the supposed brains behind Team Zissou, is staying on land with her former husband, Alistair Hennessey (Jeff Goldblum, Wicked).
There is a bit of Moby-Dick to this story of a seafaring man obsessive over a creature of the ocean. Yet the obvious influence here is Jacques-Yves Cousteau, the legendary French oceanographer and filmmaker to whom the film is dedicated. Cousteau’s legacy is complex. His Palme d’Or winner The Silent World had revolutionary underwater cinematography but also saw him carve out chunks of a coral reef, kill a swarm of sharks and use dynamite to count fish. He later realised the error of his ways, dedicating the rest of his life to campaigning against the destruction of the ocean.
The shared characteristics with Zissou are numerous. Both men have a red beanie, a fixation on dynamite and a passion for exploring marine life. Moreover, Cousteau admitted his dedication to the ocean meant he was neglectful of those closest to him, especially his family. Crucially for The Life Aquatic, that is also the case with Zissou. He is an often intrusive, offensive and arrogant figure who tries to kiss random women, steals Alistair’s hi-tech equipment (and cappuccino machine), doesn’t think much about the people around him, changes Ned’s name and then fights with him over Jane.
This lays the groundwork for Anderson’s continued examination of father figures, nestled within the grander arc of Zissou changing his ways and expressing regret for his past negligence towards others. With Ned, he gradually bonds with him until a moment that mimics the tragic way Cousteau lost his son Phillipe in 1979.
Anderson’s pastel colours, whip pans, and wide tracking shots are present in The Life Aquatic, with regular DP Robert Yeoman shooting in grand CinemaScope. The film also represents Anderson’s first experimentation with stop-motion animation, long before Fantastic Mr. Fox and Isle of Dogs. Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas) is behind the mesmerising sea creatures here, like the luminescent Vietcong man o’ war or the all-important jaguar shark. Meanwhile, Zissou’s ship, the Belafonte, is presented intricately with all the rooms shown to us like a doll’s house.
Importantly, The Life Aquatic is still full of the emotion that Anderson expresses so effortlessly. When the whole crew (cramped together in a yellow submersible) eventually come face-to-face with the jaguar shark – the entire reason for this expedition – they are captured by its beauty. Especially Zissou, who says, “I wonder if it remembers me” before breaking down in tears. Soundtracked to Sigur Rós’ ‘Starálfur’, it remains one of the director’s best and most affecting scenes. It is helped by a terrific performance from Murray, whose deadpan delivery subtly turns to teary-eyed sadness. His Zissou embodies the disaffected weariness of middle age and a fading star whose cynical, self-obsessed nature masks deep insecurities and grief.
The Life Aquatic is a film about loss and change, and a filmmaker whose search for a creature leads to him searching for his legacy. And, after questioning if anyone will remember him, he finds forgiveness in the people he previously treated poorly (Eleanor, Jane, his crew), reckons with his inadequacies and moves away from revenge. This would be a lot for any film to process, let alone one that also pivots suddenly to gunfights or acoustic Portuguese covers of David Bowie songs (courtesy of City of God’s Seu Jorge).
But that is the joy of The Life Aquatic, and also why it has stuck around despite its original reception. Even for a director with such a unique visual style, this film takes daring risks and balances shifting tones. It can be a little meandering, but that benefits the film’s exploratory nature as it traverses the ocean and interrogates a character stuck in his cynical, inward shell. And Anderson sticks with it, creating a fleshed-out world built on his eccentric traits and off-beat humour whilst being full of the melancholy that makes his films sting. No other film is like The Life Aquatic in Anderson’s filmography, which makes it all the more wonderful.
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is now available to watch on digital and on demand.
