A lesson in geography, which concludes that although the Great Lakes have had their ups and downs, nothing has been harder to take than what humans have done to them lately. In the film, a lone canoeist lives through the changes of geological history, through Ice Age and flood, only to find himself in the end trapped in a sea of scum.
The Great Lakes cover over 94,000 square miles between the USA and Canada, and for fifteen minutes Bill Mason provides the imagery and Bruce Mackay the lyrics of some daft songs and their efforts combine to provide us with an entertaining appraisal of just how the lakes were formed by glacial activities aeons ago. All the while we follow the intrepid travels of enthusiastic and agile canoeist Blake James who has his fair share of light-hearted escapades with his kayak as he avoids alligators and explores the huge variety of landscapes that survive as a direct result of these huge great volumes of fresh water. Then, of course, mankind arrives and brings his destructive engineering and construction skills with him. As ever with Mason, there's some considered and patient photography gone into this production and the cheerfully informative and sometimes quite sarcastic poetry contained with this accompanying songs makes a gentle point about our encroachment into this area of natural beauty subtly, but forcefully, and James plays the role of the comedy-canoeist with spirit, too.