7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
'At the Edge of the World' chronicles the controversial Sea Shepherd Antarctic Campaign against a Japanese whaling fleet.
Director: Dan StoneDocumentary | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-2
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
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
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.
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.
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 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.