Adventurers Steve Zissou and Jacques Cousteau

I recently saw the Wes Anderson movie "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, starring Bill Murray in a parody of real oceanographer Jacques Cousteau. I enjoyed the movie, although it was a bit goofy at times, but I'm gaining an appreciation for Wes Anderson movies, so it was a worthwhile watch.

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You can get a sense here of how they tried to make the character of Steve Zissou resemble Jacques Cousteau. Below left we have Bill Murray in the title role of Steve Zissou, and below right we have Jacques Cousteau, both wearing their red hats and blue shirts.

Bill Murray as Steve Zissou based on Jacques Cousteau

My interest in watching this movie was partially the result of a recent trip to Turks and Caicos, where I had the opportunity to scuba dive and had a fantastic time. I was hoping for a diving-themed movie which would further inspire me, but it arrived in a different way than what I expected. There aren't many diving scenes in the movie, and those that do take place are a bit on the cheesy side, including fake sea life and goofy special effects, which becomes part of the charm of the movie. But it did inspire me in that knowing that the story line was loosely based on a real life explorer, and therefore I can move on to get better acquainted with the real-life adventures of Jacques Cousteau.

I went looking for Cousteau films on Netflix, but no luck there … I guess it's not much of a surprise, now that I see that most of his films were made in the 1960s and 1970s. I do see some movies of his and/or about Cousteau available from the library, so I'll have to check those out. His son, Jean-Michel Cousteau, has followed in his father's footsteps (to a certain degree), and has over 70 films to his name, so I guess there's plenty of underwater adventurer material out there to explore.

Just for fun, let's throw in the trailer for "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," so you can see a little bit of what I'm talking about, in regards to the movie.