We featured the trailer for Don’t Be Prey this week, and it didn’t really interest me. However, I was asked to review it, so I watched it; I do like a good documentary. To my pleasant surprise, I found it really interesting.
I’m not going to list the ‘cast’ of people, as they are all real people, and you meet them all throughout the documentary.
The Story
The main focus of Don’t Be Prey is a swimming challenge.
Across five continents and seven ocean channels, one man confronts fear, uncertainty, and trauma in a fight to reclaim his life.
We meet Mark Sowerby in Australia. He’s a very well-to-do businessman who’s at the peak of his career. He runs a successful business, and life is good. However, he also realises he’s not being a good father and becoming a ‘dick’, his words.
He steps back from the business, only to have it all implode, and he’s publicly accused of being the man responsible. It hits him hard to the point where he wanted to take his own life. He found solace in swimming, where he could just swim and forget his troubles.
Mark decides to try to swim the English Channel, from England to France. It’s a journey of about 20 miles and can be completed in a day. I say a day, Mark ends up in the water for 14 hours, and makes it to France.
As he gets out of the water, he’s exhausted, obviously (I’m out of breath watching it). And it takes him about 18 months to fully recover. However, he wants to push himself for other challenges.
The Seven Oceans
There’s a community of extreme swimmers all over the world that came up with a Seven Ocean Challenge. This is some of the most extreme swims in the world, dealing with everything from freezing temperatures to cookie-cutter sharks.
These sharks basically swim up from below, take a chunk out of you, then disappear again. They are small, but they take a good chunk. On top of that, there are jellyfish, other sharks, and the mind-numbing boredom of just swimming for many hours. It’s not for everyone.
We all face challenges, from going to work, dealing with heartache, or battling our own demons. We all fight and cope in our own way. The people in Don’t Be Prey deal with it by swimming. They all have a reason to do the challenge.
You’re With Them
As I said, this didn’t really interest me from the outset, but a good documentary is a good documentary. Don’t Be Prey is a good documentary. I was with everyone on their journey, and what they accomplished, while not being anything I would do, was interesting to see others do it.
I love how there is a process to things. This isn’t just about ‘I’m going to swim from England to France’; there are months of training and planning. The cost of each of the seven challenges is expensive.
You need a coach, a boat to follow you, hotels, travel, and a host of other things. You need to think about the weather, the tides, and the winds. All of this I genuinely found fascinating.
Then, while in the water, you have to think about chaffing, food and water, and then all of the animals that can do you harm.
One of the female swimmers, while ocean swimming, gets attacked by a jellyfish. It’s not pretty! It’s horrendous, and she had to stop the challenge and go to the hospital. However, she carries on swimming afterwards.
Overall
If you like a good documentary, I would say give Don’t Be Prey a go. I can’t imagine there are many people that know much about extreme swimming, but I was hooked by the entire thing.
I’m not someone who’s going to be remembered; I’m happy to be an ‘average Joe’ and only leave a small dent in people’s memories. The people in Don’t Be Prey aren’t like me at all; they want to push themselves and accomplish something great. I say great, it’s great in their community.
That’s not taking away what they do, though. It’s impressive to see people accomplish something you can’t do. I could not do any of the Seven Ocean challenges.
I’m giving Don’t Be Prey a solid 3.5 out of 5 stars. I can’t say I would watch it again, but I’m glad I’ve seen it. It was inspiring and interesting.
Don’t Be Prey is in selected UK cinemas from today.
