Watching the Tide Come In: Thoughts on Going Places with Lowell Thomas #25

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, it depends on how much you like old footage of mud and water. If you’re into early 20th-century travelogues, you’ll find this pretty neat. If you need a plot or actual characters, skip it.

It’s the kind of thing they’d show in a theater before the main feature back in the day. It’s quiet, polite, and doesn't ask much from your brain. 🌊

The Tides are the Star

The whole thing is basically obsessed with the water. The way the tide in the Bay of Fundy rushes in is actually kind of wild to watch, even in this grainy format. It looks less like a gentle ocean wave and more like a river suddenly deciding to change its mind and go the other way.

I found myself wondering how many hours they spent sitting in the mud just to catch that specific shot. There’s a patience here that modern YouTube travel vlogs just don't have.

A Strange Little Time Capsule

It’s not as funny as Goofy Movies Number Nine, and it certainly isn't as dramatic as The Ring and the Man. It’s just… Canada. In black and white. Which is fine.

The narration is a bit stiff, but that’s the charm. It feels like someone reading a geography textbook while holding a microphone in a very small room.

• The water movement is legitimately cool to see.
• The edit is super fast, which is weird for a nature documentary.
• The whole thing ends before you realize it started.

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s barely a movie. But there’s something nice about seeing how people looked at the world through a camera lens nearly a century ago. 🎞️

Maybe pair it with a coffee? It’s a very early morning kind of watch.