Sharks in Movies: From Sharksploitation to Shark Heroism

Until the late 1960s, moviegoers could stay riveted to their seats with no popcorn or bathroom break and still miss the shark. Hollywood rarely thought to include these film star naturals in movies. Perhaps it was best not to go there.

But 1969's Shark, starring Burt Reynolds, changed that, showing its sex symbol star with furrowed brow coolly smoking improbably lit cigarettes in his wet suit. Actual sharks were used during the making of the movie, as evidenced by the fact that one stuntman died while filming a scene in shark-infested waters. Even with that unfortunate debut, Hollywood really didn't go there until … duh-da duh-da duh-da duh duh …

Director Steven Spielberg's thriller Jaws became the must-see film in the summer of 1975. Its popularity hit like an earthquake, sending ripples of shark-induced fear throughout the world. The opening scene, rated as one of the scariest moments ever filmed, sets the arm hair-raising tone. Young, blonde Chrissie Watkins leaves a night beach party on Amity Island and heads out for a swim. While in the ocean, she feels some unseen force biting and pulling at her body. Soon, no Chrissie. Her remains wash onshore the next morning.

That moment, along with other memorable scenes from the film, somehow burned their impact into viewers' minds. Just as taking a shower was never quite the same after Janet Leigh's bloody demise in Hitchcock's Psycho, relaxing summer swims took on a new level of wary concern. Rambling, shark-hunting Captain Quint's words were hard to forget:

"Sometimes that shark he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about a shark ... he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living ... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then ... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they ... rip you to pieces."

And yet, where was the shark? Like the wizard in The Wizard of Oz, the revelation comes at the end, and it is pretty lame - a mechanical beast (image right) that, if real, would never have won an Academy Award. Somehow the shark did not matter. The movie's creators cleverly manipulated viewers with the great unknown.

Because valid information on sharks was scarce, at least in the media, directors then had a field day after Jaws. "Sharksploitation" became all the rage. Think of the mutant sharks in the Shark Attack films, the Bond villain-like brainy sharks of the Deep Blue Sea, and the pseudo gothic creatures of Dark Waters. The plots somewhat differed, but the basic premise revolved around scary destructive sharks with a hunger for humans.

However, a new type of shark movie is emerging, one where sharks and conservationists are the heroes. The feature-film documentary "Sharkwater," scheduled for release in U.S. theaters this fall, is poised to take on this gauntlet. (See photo of hammerhead sharks from the film, at right.) Filmmaker Rob Stewart said he "almost died a half dozen times" during the making of the film, although in each case humans were to blame.

Stewart and Paul Watson, of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, battle real-life shark poachers from their ship, the Ocean Warrior. Their encounters result in pirate-boat rammings, gunboat chases, mafia espionage and even attempted murder charges that force the two men to flee for their lives. During the filming, Stewart also came down with flesh-eating disease, dengue fever, West Nile virus and tuberculosis, practically all at the same time. Real life, as it turns out, can be scarier than Hollywood shark depictions.

Stewart thinks past directors did not understand the environmental consequences of their works, which he said, "united the public against these so-called shark monsters." Now, with nearly all shark species suffering dangerously low population counts, Stewart and other like-minded filmmakers hope to turn the tide.

"I wanted to make a film that shows sharks the way they really are, as beautiful and magnificent creatures that don't want to hurt humans, and to show how our fear has blinded us to the fact that their populations have been reduced by 90 percent over the past 50 years," he explained. "I believe we need a new relationship with the natural world. For humans to survive on Earth beyond the next hundred years, caring for the environment has to become cool."

In the meantime, shark film classics continue to generate thrills, goose bumps and maybe even a few unintended laughs. It's hard not to enjoy the campy 1958 cult flick, She Gods of Shark Reef, where nubile young women save a pair of shipwrecked fugitives from shark-infested waters. Virgin sacrifices to a shark god dial up the delicious camp factor.