MovieChat Forums > Le grand bleu (1988) Discussion > I didn't get this movie and it was kind ...

I didn't get this movie and it was kind of odd :|

posted 9 years ago by DreadFox
2 replies | jump to latest

I know it's a little old but I just got around to seeing this for the first time. It was kind of strange.

In the beginning when Jacques lost his father I thought it was a strange event. I mean his father is underwater, says leak, and yells for Jacques to help him. On the boat Uncle Louis simply holds Jacques back from going into the water and already acts as if it's a lost cause. Like "there there, you're fathers dead for sure just calm down". Umm, why didn't you pull on the rope or do something...at the very least REACT like someone just died.

Johana makes up the rest of the movie's oddities. The love at first sight bit is fine, but it all played out so strangely. Jacques ends up in her room for the first time and breaks down in tears about his dolphin family. Umm...ok.

She's back in New York all in love and decides to drop everything to be with Jacques. Kind of a big change but ok. Right away they stay at Uncle Louis's place and you can just see the regret overcome her when she sits in Jacques's room. Like oh sh*t what have I done lol.

But they continue on. Jacques seems to be unable to communicate with humans yet she is completely in love with him. It was very odd when outa nowhere she starts thinking of babies.

Then when she needs to have a "real" talk with Jacques she jumps into the water. He jumps in after her and she goes on and on about wanting a life, family, a house, a dog, and how she might be pregnant. During all this Jacques is doing a dolphin impression and not paying giving a rat's a$$ about what she is saying. He goes underwater for a good long while because I guess the sound of emotions is painful to him, and she FREAKS OUT screaming his name. I was wtf.....is Jacques like slightly mentally retarded?

She ends up pregnant and Jacques doesn't really care. He needs to "see" what's below the ocean surface. Poor bastard keeps having visions so yeah he's gone off the deep end. He says peace out pregnant woman and dives down where he meets a dolphin that presumably takes him away and he dies.

Movie had some charm and good bits, but overall it was just weird.

[–] spookyrat1 9 years ago

I think it's a good film with an original story, which describing it as SLIGHT is something of an understatement.

Regarding Jacques's father's death, I think we're expected to assume it occurred at a much greater depth than it looked. Thus we see Louis holding Jacques back.

The whole Johana sub-plot, like the whole first act, begins well, but just fizzles into, first a kind of comic relief, then submerged deep in melodrama. I felt sorry for Rosanna Arquette, as I don't think the script gave her much substance at all.

The film, for a sports movie was different in that it didn't really highlight the competitiveness of the 2 protagonists, focusing more on Jacques's spiritual nature and experiences. By the end though I agree with you. He just seems off with the aquatic fairies and dolphins.🐭

[–] lucky_star_1 9 years ago

I thought the relationship between Jacques and Johanna was extremely well developed, given the short length of time that they actually knew each other. It really emphasised Jacques' struggle with how to function in the real world.

Their romance was key to the plot, because it gave us an outsider's perspective (namely Johanna) of the extreme danger that both Jacques and Enzo were subjecting themselves to. It takes her a long time to come to terms with meaning of their bizarre behavior. It's only in the final scene of the movie that Johanna finally realizes the nature of the phrase "if you truly love someone, set them free".

Jean-Marc Barr also does an excellent job at portraying the deep conflict in Jacques' mind. It's not a black and white situation; he is genuinely in love with Johanna (many moments in the movie show him very happy with her and sad that she, like his own mother, lives in New York) but the other part of him is so distant from reality in that dolphins are the only true family he has left.

With Enzo, the diving competition was more about thrill-seeking and his strong jealousy of Jacques' talent but with Jacques, the diving obsession runs deeper and is more about his own personal conflict over who he really is.

So I think that Johanna's pregnancy was the culmination of everything that their relationship had been building towards. Johanna is ecstatic with joy but at a devastating cost, and Jacques -upon hearing her cry for him to consider her feelings - is clearly torn between two worlds and ultimately two great loves (Johanna and the sea).

The Big Blue is such a great movie, because it uses the central romance plot to set up huge questions about the choices we make when it comes to love, freedom and sacrifice.