The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

With a plan to exact revenge on a mythical shark that killed his partner, oceanographer Steve Zissou rallies a crew that includes his estranged wife, a journalist, and a man who may or may not be his son.

Director:

Wes Anderson

Writers:

Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach

Stars:

Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett

4 wins & 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bill Murray	...	Steve Zissou
Owen Wilson	...	Ned Plimpton
Cate Blanchett	...	Jane Winslett-Richardson
Anjelica Huston	...	Eleanor Zissou
Willem Dafoe	...	Klaus Daimler
Jeff Goldblum	...	Alistair Hennessey
Michael Gambon	...	Oseary Drakoulias
Noah Taylor	...	Vladimir Wolodarsky
Bud Cort	...	Bill Ubell
Seu Jorge	...	Pelé dos Santos
Robyn Cohen	...	Anne-Marie Sakowitz
Waris Ahluwalia	...	Vikram Ray
Niels Koizumi	...	Bobby Ogata
Pawel Wdowczak	...	Renzo Pietro
Matthew Gray Gubler	...	Intern #1

Storyline

When his partner is killed by the mysterious and possibly nonexistent Jaguar Shark, Steve Zissou and his Team Zissou crew set off for an expedition to hunt down the creature. Along with his estranged wife, a beautiful journalist and a co-pilot who could possibly be Zissou's son, the crew set off for one wild expedition.

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Plot Keywords:

shark | expedition | oceanographer | revenge | pirate | 

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Taglines:

The deeper you go, the weirder life gets

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language, some drug use, violence and partial nudity

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Icelandic Filipino Portuguese French Tagalog German Italian

Release Date:

25 December 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Life Aquatic

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Box Office

Budget:

$50,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$152,699 (Australia) (18 March 2005)

Gross:

$154,517 (Australia) (18 March 2005)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Touchstone Pictures, American Empirical Pictures, Scott Rudin Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film is dedicated to Jacques-Yves Cousteau; Cousteau's ship was the Calypso. Zissou's ship is called the Belafonte; Harry Belafonte became famous singing commercialized calypso songs. In the beginning sequence,when Zissou is first introduced to the Italian audience, the model of the Belafonte on his desk is actually a model of the Calypso, painted blue instead of black.

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Goofs

When Steve and Ned are in the helicopter, they're supposedly far out in remote "unprotected waters". There's a two-masted sailboat visible over Steve's right shoulder in several shots. In the same sequence, the water beneath the helicopter is shallow and churning with brown sand, indicating this was shot very near a beach.

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Quotes

[first lines]
[in Italian]
Festival Director: Ladies and gentlemen, we are very pleased to welcome you to the world premiere of Part 1 of the newest film from a great favorite of ours here at Loquasto, Mr. Steve Zissou. A brief Q & A will immediately follow the screening. Thank you.

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Crazy Credits

During the end credits the filmmakers acknowledge that the real Steve Zissou is a prominent attorney in New York City specializing in complex federal litigation.

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Connections

Referenced in The Simpsons: The Wife Aquatic (2007)

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Soundtracks

"Gut Feeling"
Written by Mark Mothersbaugh and Robert Mothersbaugh
Performed by Devo
Courteys of Warner Bros. Records Inc.
By arrangemenet with Warner Strategic Marketing and Courtesy of Virgin Records Limited

User Reviews

A Strange Film Hard To Rate On One Viewng

I find this a hard movie to rate. Maybe a second viewing would make it easier. It's a odd film: one of these low-key black humor films which is a mixture of drama and comedy. What set this apart were a few other shocking scenes of violence, something not normally in this type of movie. For a comedy, albeit a tongue-in-cheek one, that violence doesn't seem to fit, but it makes the film all the more intriguing.

At times I was totally bored with this movie and at other times fascinated. I know one thing: this is a bizarre story! That automatically means it's a good vehicle for Bill Murray, who excels at wacky characters, event he low-key ones as he sometimes plays (i.e. Lost In Translation, The Royal Tenebaums, etc.). Speaker of the latter, this movie was written and directed by Wes Anderson, the same man who did "Tenenbaums." If you saw that, you have an idea of what you might get here, although I thought Royal Tenenbaums was far funnier.

At 118 minutes, this a bit long for what it offers. I'd like to have seen it 15 minutes shorter with a tighter script. But it does offer some good photography in addition to the strange story. This movie, as they say, is not for all tastes.