Production notes

Besson was initially unsure of whom to cast in the main role of Mayol. He initially offered the role to Christopher Lambert and Mickey Rourke and even considered himself for the role until someone suggested Jean-Marc Barr. Besson has a cameo appearance as one of the divers in the film. The Big Blue was the most financially successful French film of the 1980s, selling 9,193,873 tickets in France alone, and played in French theaters for a year. With its extensive underwater scenes and languid score (as with nearly all of Besson's films, the soundtrack was composed by Éric Serra), the film has been both praised as beautiful and serene, and in equal measure criticized as being too drawn out, overly reflective and introspective. While popular in Europe, the film was a commercial failure in North America. The American version was recut to include a simplified "happy" ending, and Serra's score was replaced with a soundtrack composed by Bill Conti. This version was only available on VHS and LaserDisc in the United States (both with 4×3 pan-and-scan transfers) and is currently out of print. The director later released a longer director's cut on DVD, featuring the original ending and an extended version of the Serra score. Much of the film was shot on the Greek island of Amorgos, where Agia Anna and the monastery of Panagia Hozoviotissa can be seen. The film was dedicated to his daughter Juliette Besson, who required surgery after becoming ill during filming.

Maisons-Laffitte (France), piscine municipale (opening scene in swimming pool) Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States Manganari, Ios, Cyclades, Greece 36°38′51″N 25°22′17″E Agia Anna, Amorgos, Cyclades, Greece Kalotaritissa bay, Amorgos, Cyclades, Greece Marineland (Antibes), Antibes, Alpes-Maritimes, France Peru St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands Taormina, Messina, Sicily, Italy Lac du Chardonnet, Tignes, Savoie, Rhône-Alpes, France (lake diving under the ice in Peru) Cádiz, Spain Deutsche Bank Building, New York City, United States Giens, Hyeres France

The film was met with positive reviews in Europe, where it was described as "one of the most significant cult movies of the 1980s" by French Cinema historian Rémi Lanzoni, who described it as "ooz[ing] with a sensuous beauty unlike any other film at the time". The film was slightly edited for US release to have a new, positive ending and the original score was also replaced. The US release was met with above average reviews. The film aggregator, Rotten Tomatoes gave it 62%, based on 21 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Though this movie features beautiful cinematography, it drags on, being way too overblown and melodramatic." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 35 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times, praised its cinematography, but warned viewers to "be prepared to want to come up for air only minutes into [the film]", referring to the film's pointless plot. The film sold only 97,817 tickets in its opening week in and around Paris but went on to become one of the most popular French films of all time in France with admissions of 9.2 million.