Search for the Great Sharks
The documentary “Search for the Great Sharks” is an interesting look into the study of Roy Scheider’s longtime nemesis — the shark. You don’t get it? You say you haven’t seen “Jaws?" The movie about a killer shark, at the end of which SPOILER ALERT EVEN 36 YEARS LATER Scheider utters the cheesy but memorable line, “Smile, you sonofabitch!” before shooting the oxygen tank and blowing the shark up? That’s a shame.
“Search for The Great Sharks” follows Dr. Eugenie Clark and Rodney Fox as they continue their studies to disprove the misconception that these creatures are unstoppable killing machines.
The documentary is appealing because the main subjects are funny and interesting. They’re not Morgan Freeman, but they are appealing nonetheless. Both researchers have been working with sharks for more than 50 years and are quite entertaining because they’re both in their 70s and still have no problem diving right in with sharks. Clark discusses how her students are shocked at the fact that she still continues to do field work at her age. Clark is endearing because she reminds me of that generic grandma figure everyone can relate to their own grandmother. She is really outgoing and nurturing at the same time. Fox is one of the more intriguing characters — not because of his age, but because he had a pretty horrific shark attack earlier in his life and still comes back for more.
The other interesting point of the documentary is that Fox is trying to create a shark repellant to help deter humans from being attacked. The beginning introduces the viewer to a lab trial of the repellant. Fox and his fellow associates disperse the repellant into a water tank and then release a small tiger shark into the tank. The shark itself seems to swim away from the area in which the repellant was dispersed, so the team moves on to the next test in the wild. It was fascinating to see the crew underwater luring sharks to the area and funny to see that the shark exposed to the repellant seemed to be more stimulated by it than deterred.
The biggest problem with the documentary is that the subject seems too large for such a short documentary. The overall topic of their research is the creation and test of the shark repellant and that is strong throughout, but there isn’t enough time to thoroughly introduce the viewers to these researchers and give enough background on their subject to make the experience complete.
The special features on the Blu-ray release are as elusive as the great white because there aren’t any in sight.
“Search for the Great Sharks” is interesting enough for a viewing, but while it has interesting subjects, it lacks the bite of Discovery Channel’s ever popular Shark Week.
Film: 2.5 yaps