Review: End of the Line

Produced by ecological advocacy group Ocean Now, End of the Line examines the environmental and economic crises created by the industrialization of fishing. Specifically, how international regulations have been corrupted, skirted and flat out ignored. The near extinction of bluefin tuna has only made it chicer among the London sushi set. The financial impact on communities that thrived on small, locally-controlled fishing is severe, as technological developments now require fewer workers to capture a higher quantity of sealife. Ultimately, the environmental impact of disrupting underwater ecosystems is high and dire.  

Having made the benignly non-credible Unknown White Male in 2005, Rupert Murray is a good choice for a work-for-hire film. Based on Charles Clover's book by the same title, the film moves briskly and blessedly relies very little on graphic images of animals being gutted to make its points. 

Since the film begins with a stated objective, one can't help but receive the statistics and panicked tone with some suspicion. But the flip side to documentaries financed through advocacy groups is that in 9 out of 10 cases they have much better funding than investigative pieces would. And because every famous person needs a cause, these films easily attract celebrity involvement in voice-overs and promotion, often making them more appealing to a broader audience. Let's all note the critical, commercial and awards circuit success of this year's dolphin-killer expose The Cove. In End of the Line, Ted Danson takes up the cause.

Those fundraising dollars show up beautifully on screen here. The film boasts some of the most breathtaking underwater cinematography since the BBC series "Blue Planet". Murray also effectively uses animated sequences to convey the enormous scale of fishing vessels raking the ocean floor. 

End of the Line gracefully sidesteps one of the most common pratfalls ecology- and animal rights-focused documentaries fall into by aligning itself early on with the people working on the lowest rungs of the fishing industry. It opens by showing the devastating effect industrialization had on the cod fishing industry in Newfoundland in the mid-1980s.

Matthew Galkin's I Am An Animal: the Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA, being a recent study in what not to do in these circumstances. It never ceases to baffle how organizations with a clear, well-defined social agenda cannot be bothered to build affinity groups with that little known conglomerate known as humanity. It not only undercuts their recruiting efforts, it calls into question the film-maker's and organization's most basic intellectual function to try to cast workers earning minimum wage in horrifically dangerous work as bloodthirsty butchers getting wealthy from animal abuse.

The film's populist sensibilities ultimately make it quite pleasing. Instead of focusing on what everyone is doing incorrectly, it (politely) skewers hyper-consuming yuppies by showing the devastating effects of an endless quest for eccentricity and Omega-3 fats. As a result, those of us who are ordinary (meaning, we don't dine at Nobu on a regular occasion) feel quite superior. How about them apples?

RIYL: Collapse, FLOW: For Love of Water, Sharkwater, An Inconvenient Truth.

End of the Line is playing in select cities around the US. In Portland at the Living Room Theaters.