Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

At the Edge of the World Blu-ray Movie Review

Eco-heroism or eco-terrorism?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 7, 2011

Living in the Pacific Northwest one gets used to accusations of eco-terrorism. We’ve seen fairly violent protests, sometimes with questionable tactics that included a lot of property damage, against everything from the decimation of protected species like the Spotted Owl to the logging of old growth forests. And so some of the issues at the crux of At the Edge of the World seemed downright close to home for me, despite them taking place a world away in the frozen climes of the Antarctic. Paul Watson, who is billed in this documentary’s credits as one of the “founders” of Greenpeace though perhaps more objective sources describe him simply as an early member who matriculated onto the organization’s Board (before being kicked out after a disagreement), is here shown in his guise as leader of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which some television viewers will recognize from the Animal Planet series Whale Wars. In fact, At the Edge of the World plays very much like a “very special episode” of Whale Wars, as Watson and his mostly quite young volunteer crew spread over two aging trawlers chases down illegal whaling activity sponsored by the Japanese government under the guise of “research.” Watson is no dummy when it comes to media relations, as Whale Wars and At the Edge of the World patently prove, and for much of the film he’s shown chatting up reporters at the Associated Press and similar outlets via a satellite phone as his captains and crew go about the business of scuttling (figuratively and literally) the whaling operations of two better equipped and faster Japanese ships.

Paul Watson

Watson doesn’t really fit one’s preconceptions of the profile for an eco-terrorist. Here in Portland we’re used to seeing skuzzy twenty-somethings clinging to the branches of an old growth tree or setting fire to a fleet of diesel trucks. Watson is a portly, graying in his early sixties. He’s relatively calm, measured and not prone to issuing War and Peace length screeds backing up his positions. Instead he sits in his cabin and calls various press outlets to inform them of the inarguably illegal activities of various whaling operations in the the southern waters. Part of Watson’s aggression springs from a long history he’s had with other environmental organizations, notably Greenpeace itself, which he has taken issue with for not being willing to back up their mission statements with actual action. He’s also frustrated by the international community’s lack of willingness to take on countries who are flouting several agreements, including those negotiated by the United Nations, to make whaling illegal. Japan in fact contravenes these agreements by going out under the supposed aegis of “research,” though At the Edge of the World (in a rather brief segment which probably relies on cogent editing) makes the case that these ships are doing nothing other than providing whale meat for eager Japanese consumers.

Much like the Academy Award winning The Cove (which I’ll also be reviewing soon for blu-ray.com), At the Edge of the World makes no bones about the fact it is trying to bring worldwide attention to a problem it thinks is being conveniently ignored by those in a position to actually do something about it. Whether Watson’s turbulent history of Greenpeace plays into that organization’s strange refusal to help on various missions is anyone’s guess. It may have just as much to do with the reason Watson supposedly left Greenpeace, namely Greenpeace’s refusal to resort to the very tactics which Watson and his crew almost gleefully engage in. These perhaps questionable antics include throwing a smelly acid onto the decks of the whaling ships (so that no fish can be left there), fouling the whalers’ propellers with large ropes, and actually ramming into the whaling boats from time to time.

At the Edge of the World actually does a better job in documenting the harsh living conditions of the crew members on its boats than it probably does in promoting at the very least the means Sea Shepherd employs, if not its purported ends. In fact the first third of the documentary is a fascinating look at the day to day life of the crew members, people from all walks of life and many nationalities, all of whom have joined together in a quest to keep even one whale pod out of the hands of people they consider to be poachers.

Once the film actually gets into its climactic conflict with two Japanese whaling ships, audience reaction may be more bifurcated than the filmmakers may have hoped. While there’s no doubt the Sea Shepherd folks believe that they’re on the side of the angels, their youthful hoots and hollers as they manage to cripple a whaling boat may leave some viewers feeling at least a bit uneasy, if not downright angry. The one mitigating factor in Sea Shepherd’s modus operandi is the fact that neither nations nor other environmental organizations really seem willing to do much of anything about this persistent problem, and, as Watson urgently vents into a telephone at some hapless reporter, thousands of whales have died due to that inaction.

This is an often bracingly scenic trip through frozen worlds of ice and a barren, blue-white beauty. The grimy interior of the Sea Shepherd ships finds a bit of relief in the spare but gorgeous environments they plow through, and that scenic wonder helps to alleviate some of the lingering questions lying just beneath the frigid surface of At the Edge of the World.

At the Edge of the World Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

At the Edge of the World is offered on Blu-ray with a MPEG-2 encoded 1080p image in 1.78:1 (for the most part—some source material is in different aspect ratios). It's unfortunate that a documentary this scenic is not presented with better image quality, for this is sadly filled with artifacts of various kinds, including, strangely for a progressive presentation, combing artifacts. I personally don't usually get very bothered by edge enhancement, but it's so fully on display throughout this feature, with attendant haloing, that it's hard to ignore. The image here is often quite fuzzy and devoid of much detail. Things do snap into relative sharpness on a couple of occasions, notably the up close and personal interviews with Watson, which finally reveal something akin to a good, if not spectacular, hi-def image. Colors are the best thing about this presentation, even in the softer sections, as they bristle with saturation and some exquisite shades in the water scenes.

At the Edge of the World Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Neither of the lossy Dolby tracks here (5.1 and 2.0) is horrible, but there's certainly nothing to write home about, either. The 5.1 track is decently separated, with good discrete channel utilization in several segments, notably a lot of the outdoor footage, where everything from the rotors of a helicopter to the vroom of a Zodiac raft pan nicely through the sides and rear. Dialogue can actually be a bit too spatially disbursed in the 5.1 mix at times, and for that reason I actually opted for the 2.0 in some of the cockpit dialogue sections. Fidelity is excellent, and embedded subtitles help to navigate the international waters when some non-native English speakers are talking.

At the Edge of the World Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This is a bare bones home video release, with no supplements, no main menu, no pop-up menu, no chapter stops, nada.

At the Edge of the World Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

At the Edge of the World may strike some as too self-serving, a big screen version of Sea Shepherd's Whale Wars television series. But there's no arguing with the fact that illegal whaling has decimated a once populous species. It's all about the end justifying the means, and your reaction to this piece will probably depend largely on how you personally feel about how far an environmental group should go to achieve a laudable result. This Blu-ray is lacking in image and audio quality, so my advice is to rent this title first if you have an interest in the subject matter.