Susan Granger’s review of “AMAZING CAVES” (IMAX) – opens June 15th
Headlining the summer season at the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, “Journey into Amazing Caves” is another wondrous, eye-popping IMAX excursion – this time deep under the earth’s surface to reveal some of our last unexplored frontiers. The subterranean adventure-science expedition is headed by two intrepid women: British microbiologist Hazel Barton and her guide Nancy Aulenbach from Georgia. Dr. Barton caves to save lives. Like an ancient explorer looking for new worlds, she searches remote, hostile environments for undiscovered micro-organisms, called “extremophiles,” that might hold new medical applications, including next-generation medicines to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis. Her partner, Ms. Aulenbach, is a grade-school teacher and experienced cave-rescuer whose petite size enables her to slip through small openings. Narrated by Liam Neeson, the journey begins as the athletic scientists rappel 300 feet down steep cliffs and rope across open canyons to reach the remote limestone caves of the Little Colorado River gorge near the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Within the rugged red rocks are rooms as big as cathedrals and a fragile treasure-trove of natural beauty. “Good cavers move gently underground,” they caution, while extolling the virtues of underappreciated creatures like bats. Then they’re off to the Arctic Circle to don crampons and join French caver Janot Lamberton, his son Mael and French glaciologist Dr. Luc Moreau on a formidable, dangerous drop into the seductively eerie blue glaciers of Greenland, where frozen walls of ice can break away at any moment. “Ice adds an element of unpredictable risk,” they note, while the sparkling chasms reflect a winter fantasyland as the filtered light creates otherworldly halos and auras. Janot and Mael Lamberton hold the world record for the deepest descent into an ice cave: 665 feet. But the most treacherous, and the most breath-taking, is the third segment, showing Barton’s underwater dive in Tulum on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, near Dos Ojos, south of Cancun. “Here I go again – into the black void,” she chirps. Donning scuba gear and utilizing a dive line, she encounters bizarre blind fish as she searches labyrinthine, water-filled caves for an elusive halocline – the blurry, surreal zone where the ocean’s saltwater and the jungle’s freshwater meet beneath the area’s limestone crust, creating a mystifying, mirage-like shimmering effect.. The film was produced by MacGillivary Freeman, whose previous work includes “Dolphins,” “The Living Sea,” and the longest-running, highest-grossing IMAX film, “Everest.” Classic rock music was provided by Moody Blues, who have written and recorded two new songs, along with reorchestrations of others, including “Nights in White Satin.” What’s missing, unfortunately, are shots of the daring Imax team who went everywhere with the cavers, carrying their bulky, 65-pound cameras and film canisters. I wish director Stephen Judson had included some recognition of their contribution. And, timed at 40 minutes, this presentation feels too short. On the Granger Movie Gauge of IMAX films, “Journey into Amazing Caves” is a spectacular, exhilarating 8. Tickets are $6.75 for adults, $5.75 for seniors, and $5 for children 2-12. Members receive a $2 discount. Discounted “combination tickets” that include Aquarium admission are also available. And if you want to delve further into the precarious sport of caving, plucky Dr. Barton will deliver two lectures with slides on Thursday, July 19 at 3 and 7:30 p.m. For more information about her lecture and the IMAX movies call The Maritime Aquarium (203) 852-0700 or go on-line to www.maritimeaquarium.org.
