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The Bermuda Depths is a movie most appreciated by those of us who saw it first as children. If you watched The Bermuda Depths first in 1978, when it was a made-for-TV movie, you won't be disappointed with this DVD, since it is the best copy of this movie out there. Previously only available on garbled VHS tapes, this is the best DVD for people who signed the online petition for it to be published again.
It took me over ten years to remember the name of this movie, but I never gave up the search. I can't be sure what brings many people back to search for this movie, but I can list what sticks in my memory: the beautiful ocean and beach scenes; the opening sequence of music and underwater swimming; the mysterious love story between the main character and the mermaid-type woman; the sad fact that the two are lost to each other several times; the link between them and the giant sea turtle; and the haunting back-story of an ancient pact made by the woman requiring her to live forever in the ocean's depths.
To those of us who loved this movie as children, it is a charming revisit to childhood days, but as a note to those who never saw it: it is not a slick CGI presentation. This is a movie who's dramatic action scenes include obviously miniature boats shot in small pools of water, and a toy helicopter crash. In addition to quirky action scenes, it has a large portion of slow moving sequences with sparse dialogue. As children, when the attention span lags, diversions can be found until the movie gets interesting again, but for adults trying to watch the whole movie, it can be boring. Also, some of the actors seem to over-act to make the scanty dialogue interesting.
All that aside, I still recommend the movie to people who first saw it as children. If you think back and remember a movie with a beautiful dark-haired girl with green glowing eyes, or a giant turtle reminiscent of old Godzilla movies, you'll want to see this. When recalling childhood memories, often the important aspects stay with you and the less important fall away. This movie is a great example of that. I remembered the beautiful and mysterious music and images that haunt and intrigue, and I forgot the boring dialogue and hokey special affects. Maybe to children of the 70's, the special effects were great back then. If you buy this, enjoy watching a great memory from your past, and don't forget to look for the initials on the giant turtle at the end. If you never saw it before, try to appreciate what it does offer: beautiful, poetic, and haunting music and imagery courtesy of Rankin and Bass.
Rankin and Bass are also famous for the Rudolph Christmas special animated with puppets and many other specials like it. The Bermuda Depths is an interesting anomaly to most of their work. There are many books written in detail about the totality of their work, and I recommend reading them since it will introduce you to a landslide of charming stories and DVD's. Enjoy!
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Reviews with images
Excellent movie, great Blu-ray picture and sound, poor commentary track
The word unique is overused, and usually not used correctly. This movie is though literally unique. There is just nothing like it. It is an eerie combination of sentimentality and romantic yearning, Gothic romance, fantasy, and folklore. The dreamlike combination of miniature set pieces and live action only adds to the effect. One of the best of the 1970s made for TV supernatural genre flicks.The Warner Bros archive collection Blu-ray has a surprisingly good image - very sharp, with well-defined colors. It's far, far better than I would have ever expected. The sound is also clear. This is surely the best this movie has ever looked.The disc includes the widescreen European theatrical edition as well as the American 1:37 aspect ratio version. It looks like the European edition enlarged the picture and cropped the top and bottom off, which means you're actually better off watching made for TV version and it's full screen form. The aspect ratio is confusing to me because the movie was filmed in panavision, which is a widescreen format. So perhaps it was originally filmed as a theatrical release and then released to television instead? In any case, the disc includes both versions.The commentary is not very good. It starts out really strong and with some very interesting insights and analysis but then goes completely off the rails as the two people on the commentary go off on all kinds of tangents that have little to do with the movie. There are also insufferable, long passages where the two are bantering and babbling about Burl Ives' beard and other completely inane topics. So unfortunate because it is clear that the woman on the commentary knows a lot about 1970s made for TV movies (the guy on the commentary offers next to nothing of value), but she mostly talks about movies other than the one we are watching. It's baffling to me how a commentary like this ever winds up on a disc or why the people doing the commentary don't realize that they are literally ignoring the movie they are supposed to be commenting on. Anyway, the movie is worth the cost of the disc, but it is too bad that the commentary is almost a complete waste of time. I would listen to the first 10 or 20 minutes and when they seem to be going off on a tangent you can assume that the rest of the commentary is not worth much.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2009
Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2023
I've been a fan of this movie since I was 15 and it came on TV, 45 years ago. I've just done this review to let those who bought the DVD when it came out that the blu ray upgrade is worth it. I tried watching my old DVD last week and got frustrated with the image on my 65" 4K TV. Pics I've included are only from this blu ray (new to me), which I immediately ordered after turning off the DVD last week. Image is sharp and clear as you can see. Also, this blu ray includes a "wide screen" version. But you're not gaining anything with that. I doubt a transfer exists with more to the side images... as this was a TV movie in the 70s it was probably shot like this, in 4:3 ratio. "Wide-screen" (16:9) on this disc is achieved by cutting off the top and bottom of the image. So you gain nothing, actually losing part of the image. I'll watch this in 4:3, as originally intended.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2016
