Great White (film)
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| Great White | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Enzo G. Castellari |
| Produced by | Edward L. Montoro Ugo Tucci |
| Written by | Marc Princi |
| Starring | James Franciscus Vic Morrow Micaela Pignatelli Joshua Sinclair Giancarlo Prete Stefania Girolami Goodwin |
| Music by | Morton Stevens (USA) |
| Distributed by | Film Ventures International |
| Release date(s) | March, 1982 (USA) |
| Running time | 88 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Great White (original title: L'Ultimo Squalo) is an Italian 1980 horror film by Enzo G. Castellari. It is infamous for plagiarizing Jaws. The movie stars James Franciscus and Vic Morrow.
Taglines::
- A quiet, restful summer in the lazy coastal town of Port Harbor is abruptly about to end.
- You're what's for dinner.
[edit] Plot
The plot is a classic of the Jaws-like genre: an enormous and angry 35-foot Great White Shark takes revenge on humans when they build a beach just for swimmers by a coastal town. Despite the several shark attacks, the mayor does nothing to stop it as he doesn't want tourists to hear about it and quit coming. Enter the heroes: Peter Benton (James Franciscus), a novelist who writes a book about sharks, and Ron Hamer (Vic Morrow), an old seadog who has a personal grudge against the shark and wants it dead. They set sail in order to stop the monster.
[edit] Criticism
- The movie's similarities with Jaws are very obvious to anyone who has seen Steven Spielberg's classic. Not only is the premise similar to the latter, but the characters are quite too, and several scenes look to have been essentially copied from the original movie (such as the buoy-attached-to-the-shark scene). This especially infuriated Universal Pictures, who sued to have the release of this movie in North America blocked because they claimed it was a Jaws rip-off. Universal Pictures won the case, and the movie was pulled from North American theaters shortly after its release. This also has meant that the film has never been legally released on video in North America, nor shown on North American television.
- The special effects are very cheap. Only the head of the shark is seen in the film, and it looks very plastic-like and stiff. When the victims are being attacked, they are obviously dummies.
- Stock footage from aquatic life documentaries is used in underwater shark scenes. Not only is the film quality different, but the shark depicted is often of a different species. While the film concerns a Great White, the stock footage variously depicts a catshark (this one just after it appeared as a Great White), a Hammerhead shark, and even a dolphin.
- As is a typical trait of Castellari's movies, slow motion is heavily used.
- The movie was featured in the 2004 documentary The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made.
- The name of one of the heroes, Peter Benton, may have ben inspired by real-life shark enthusiast and author, Peter Benchley. Benchley was the author of Jaws.
