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Plot Summary
One of the most highly anticipated films of the year, LEVIATHAN is a thrilling, immersive documentary that takes you deep inside the dangerous world of commercial fishing. Set aboard a hulking fishing vessel as it navigates the treacherous waves off the New England coast–the very waters that once inspired Moby Dick– the film captures the harsh, unforgiving world of the fishermen in starkly haunting, yet beautiful detail. Employing an arsenal of cameras that pass freely from film crew to ship crew, and swoop from below sea level to astonishing bird’s-eye views, LEVIATHAN is unlike anything you have ever seen; a purely visceral, cinematic experience.
Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
84%- Reviews Counted: 45
- Fresh: 38
- Rotten: 7
- Average Rating: 7.2/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Fresh: [It] offers not information but immersion: 90 minutes of wind, water, grinding machinery and piscine agony.
Rotten: More an accumulation of often indefinable images than any kind of even remotely traditional feature, the documentary "Leviathan" proves a strange and unsatisfying endurance test.
Fresh: Leviathan is an immersive examination of a highly mechanized industrial process, the men who work at it and the thousands of poor fish who cross their path.
Fresh: End of days or the beginning of new ways of seeing?
Customer Reviews
Leviathan
I am sorry to say that the film was poorly made, and appeared like a watery version of the Blair Witch Project. Poor lighting, water droplets on many of the lens, and it never progressed to anything worth watching. I deeply regret sending my $ to the coffers of this film crew. Two minutes of this was enough to show the film crews point of view.
You've got to be kidding me
The most amazing thing about this film is that there were so many positive reviews. Save your $ and don't waste an hour of your life would be my suggestion. There is no drama, no excitement, no education, no horror, no romance, no comedy, no-thing.
A fascinating look at the harvest from the sea
Leviathan pairs the direct cinema ethnographics of Verena Paravel (Foreign Parts) with the more pared-down aesthetics of Lucien Castaing-Taylor (Sweetgrass) to create a truly unique approach to documentary, delivering an astonishing perspective on deep sea fishing in the North Atlantic. What strikes you at once is what you might call the naiveté of the camera's eye. It's not random, it's intelligent, and seems to pay attention and figure things out, but it's as if the operator doesn't start out knowing what's important, it's as if the camera is a subjectivity thrown into the situation of the fishing ship -- to begin with in the nearly total darkness of the early hours -- and starts out just looking, intrigued by what it sees and wanting to capture it all, but only one piece at a time.
You'd think it would be boring. I was prepared for something slow and contemplative, and perhaps a little scary to see the blood of fish remains washing from the ship. It turns out I couldn't look away - the naiveté of the camera made me forget what I know about fishing, and just look, sharing in the fascinations of the camera. It really turned out to be one of the most memorable visual (and visceral) experiences I've had in front of a screen.
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