Seaspiracy (2021) – Review

This new, thought-provoking documentary highlights the damage that humans are really doing to our very own ocean life, while also uncovering an alarming amount of corruption that is happening on a global scale. Seaspiracy is available to stream on Netflix, but it has to be said that there are a number of extremely raw and upsetting scenes of animal cruelty included. If you’re able to get past that, however, I’d encourage anybody to watch this at least once in their lifetime.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Director: Ali Tabrizi
Writers: N/A
Starring: Ali Tabrizi, Lucy Tabrizi, Sylvia Earle, Paul de Gelder, Peter Hammarstedt

It’s not too often that documentaries come along and manage to educate you as well as open your eyes up to things you never quite realised were happening to our own planet, along with highlighting the long-term effects these issues could have – but that’s exactly what Seaspiracy managed to do. From the first minute to the last minute, this was an emotional, hard-hitting film, with some challenging scenes injected too, that at times were difficult to digest.

With a runtime of just under ninety-minutes, this appeared like the sweet spot for a flick of this nature and didn’t seem excessive at all. If anything, it could be argued that a longer runtime or perhaps a second film may have been required, especially considering the sheer amount of information that had to be translated to the viewers. From start to finish, the pace was fast, and the visual presentation was more than satisfactory also.

One aspect that pleasantly surprised me, however, was the way in the which the filmmakers tackled more than just the typical and traditional issues that similar filmmakers have done previously. This film dug deeper than just the damage smaller, more spoken about plastics were doing to our ocean floors and attempted to uncover the harm that industrial scale fishing was doing too, which seemed to be encouraged and supported by organisations worldwide, for financial reasons…

Something else worth highlighting and mentioning is the team behind this documentary. The creator, Ali Tabrizi, spearheaded the majority of the flick, along with assistance from his partner, Lucy Tabrizi. At times, the pair found themselves in some rather awkward and compromising positions, but it was clear that the pair were extremely motivated when it came to uncovering many of the issues that our oceans are faced with.

After watching this documentary, most have said that they were left with a sense of hopelessness and that’s not something I’d argued with. For me, I regard this as an important and educational film that I’d encourage anybody to watch at least one in their lifetime.

“Most of the positive and negative things that bring about change in human civilsation start with someone… Someone…”

Sylvia Earle – Seaspiracy