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End of the Line, The

7/10

Stars: Narrator: Ted Danson

Director: Rupert Murray

In a week when a supermarket chain has announced they are giving fish-finger sandwiches a trial it could be argued that Murray’s polemic warning about the dangers of over-fishing in a world already facing increasing food shortages has been released at just the right time, especially as another British supermarket operation, Waitrose, is supporting the film’s release following “a long-term commitment by the retailer to drive sustainability”.

Murray’s undoubtedly sincere documentary, which is based on the book by one-time ‘Daily Telegraph’ journalist Charles Clover, filmed over a period of two years, intercuts lyrical, beautiful and beautifully photographed underwater scenes featuring fish that make the variegated cast of Finding Nemo seem drab by comparison, with upsetting sequences of excessive fishing and piscine slaughter.

Result? A sandwich shop chain in Britain has removed tuna from its sushi and you may never be able to look a plate of cod and chips in the (battered?) eye again as Murray exposes the decimation of future fish stocks.

Its message is a great deal more credible that that propounded by Al Gore, in need of a new career after the failure of his presidential bid, with his scientifically dubious ‘we are doomed’ diatribe against global warming in An Inconvenient Truth. Murray appears to have told it the way it is. (And only a cynic would question the validity of a quote in the notes from notoriously publicity-shy former politician Bill Clinton).

Alan Frank

USA 2009. UK Distributor: Dogwoof. Colour.
83 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: PG.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 14 Jun 2009