Rupert Murray’s forceful documentary The End of the Line should do for our oceans what An Inconvenient Truth did for climate change — that is, stamp the issue into the public consciousness and shame governments around the world into at least talking about doing something. The film has already prompted retailers such as Marks & Spencer and Pret à Manger to announce new policies on sustainable fishing.
Murray’s film has as its main spokesman the British journalist Charles Clover, who explains, in a no-nonsense manner, what a terrible mess we are making of the vast and increasingly fragile infrastructure of the seas. The film is a damning indictment of unsustainable industrial fishing methods. The editing is emotive, cutting together shots of noble blue-fin tuna swimming free with shots of the wholesale slaughter of this critically endangered species. It’s profoundly depressing, particularly if, like me, you happen to have munched through several times your own body weight in tuna sarnies over decades of lunches. Everyone should watch this film, or at least familiarise themselves with the issues.
PG, 83mins