Another of the James Cameron documentaries that are on Disney Plus as part of the National Geographic strand, "Atlantis Rising" sees Cameron . . . away making Avatar sequels, whilst his collaborator, Simcha Jacobvici does the work and reports in.
Since it's mention in a book by Plato, the "lost continent of Atlantis" has been inspiration for fiction. Here, Simcha Jacobvici begins a quest leaping around the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, tracking down various leads to work out where it might have been. With a degree of speculation, Simcha makes some interesting discoveries and explores some theories. He reports back to James Cameron every so often on his progress and they analyse the ideas.
It's not much of a spoiler, as it might have made the news had he actually done it, but the team don't manage to find definitive proof of Atlantis. They do make some significate discoveries, mostly the discovery of anchor stones in various locations that they perhaps wouldn't have been expected, suggesting the location of islands that operated almost like weigh stations, before ships would move the actual ports. They also find some evidence that that distance travelled by people at various points in history might actually be much further than previously thought.
But, and I say this with the full acknowledgement that I don't have any significant studies of history, particularly cultural history - but some of the film's ideas felt like a stretch to me. Scratches in ancient rocks are taken to be pictures of Atlantis, or an odd shape is a boat. Trying to build links between the various disparate cultures around the Med' feels, to me more like coincidence - or best practice, rather than a proof of refugee's starting a new life.
But, unlike some of the other similar documentaries I've been watching recently, at least with this one I was entertained all the way though. A follow up, with the continued research, would be worthwhile.
