Cinema Crazed

2006

Rated: PG

Genre: Documentary

Directed By: Rob Stewart

Running Time: 1:29

Review by: William Garcia

Review Date: 7/1/08

SHARKWATER

Expecting to find a stale, repetitive documentary filled with the same old information you see every year on the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week or a highly dramatized and choreographed ego-fuelled adventure masquerading as a reference too, I’m happy to say that Sharkwater is none of these and yet the best of both of these examples.

Filmmaker Rob Stewart starts off with the intent to film sharks in their natural habitat and becomes entwined in the lives of sharks and the effort to save these misunderstood creatures. From daily swims with the sharks to travelling with conservationists, we see that sometimes our fellow human is more dangerous than any creature of the deep. Stewart is an instantly likable person and it is truly moving to see how concerned he is about sharks. Never does he come across as a fabricated neo-hero for the bohemian mindset but is a passionate and all too human being who just wants to make a difference through education of these quite alien predators.

The film offers some sobering facts, like how 90 percent of the world’s shark population has been killed off and how over one million sharks are destroyed a day. Sharkwater also makes its point by showing some very repelling and sobering scenes of these creatures slaughtered by the boatfuls. Seeing an advocate of the extermination of sharks spout his rhetoric, as you will in this film, and then seeing the needless death of many sharks really are very powerful scenes.

You can’t help but feel enraged at those people that refer to sharks over and over again as killers when all you see are people hoisting bleeding sharks onto boats. The film makes a strong, driven point of questioning who the real monsters are…who the real threat to our environment is, in which a definitive answer is shown to the viewer numerous times.

It’s hard to get mad at Stewart for driving his passionate point home over and over again, seeing all that he’s gone through for this movie as well as his own spiritual journey of understanding. There are some truly spectacular shots of such exotic places as the Galapagos Islands and Costa Rica, but all that is secondary to the extremely dangerous, and some may say foolhardy, quest of Stewart’s and shark conservationist Paul Wilson to foil shark poachers wherever they may roam. Stewart is a very amazing individual, keeping to this colossal and never ending task in spite of getting shot at, arrested and rammed by poachers, all this with a sizable bounty on his head as well.

Stewart may be a bit monotonous in his delivery and very dry on camera but it’s the education he presents that is the real reason to watch the film. Great care is taken when facts are presented that all sharks are part of this planet’s system and the world’s oceans will suffer with their eventual extinction unless something is done to stop it. Movies such as “Jaws” or “Deep Blue Sea” are hard to forget when sharks are thought about, but Stewart takes great pains to present them as natural predators but far from the unthinking killing machines we may see in movies.

Sharkwater comes on strong much of the time. The central idea of the horrible shark atrocities is accompanied by almost relentless shock images of needless shark slaughter. It comes on fast and it comes on strong and is a bit much to take at times. It is definitely the point of the film to drive this point home but the scenes are hard to take when you see real life snuffed out carelessly and needlessly and it becomes overbearing at times. I wouldn’t be surprised if many people found the footage upsetting and too much to bear, but Stewart seems to need us to be disgusted for us to understand. I disagree that repulsion brings caring and his overall point, as well as his message, may be lost to many people who watch this film expecting a celebration of these creatures only to find an upsetting slaughterhouse of footage.

The Blu-Ray release of Sharkwater is a bit of a mixed bag. The HD underwater footage is amazing with vibrant colors that are crisp and clear and almost absorb you into the depths. The almost 3-D effect is amazing with incredible detail present in every shot. Noise and artifacting are virtually non-existent with only a thin bit of film grain evident. The standard definition footage, which consists of everything above the water from interviews to handheld camera shots, looks pretty bad, appearing very flat and lifeless with a bland color palette. The Blu-Ray release looks light years ahead of the Standard Edition though and is well worth the purchase just for the breathtaking underwater vistas alone.

There is one particular special feature of note, which is “Shark Defense” a Naval training film which is immediately hysterical with its uninformative techniques to repel a shark attack. It is too bad that the novelty wears off long before the 11 minute running time ends. The short is packed with intense melodrama and is filled with absolutely nothing but incorrect facts about sharks and what you can do to get rid of them, like rub your finger on your life vest because nothing on Earth really likes that noise.

Sharkwater is a sobering film that is sometimes uncomfortable to watch. Stewart runs the risk of alienating many viewers with his gruesome images no matter how noble his cause may be. The film is a disturbing look at the horrible aspects of life and human nature that these creatures need to triumph over. The poachers are truly despicable people and it is absolutely horrible to see what is going on, virtually unchecked.

This is required viewing for anyone interested in ecology and nature, and recommended viewing for anyone who wants more understanding of or finds sharks to be fascinating masters of the deep. Sharkwater is an extremely informative and fascinating movie which will open a lot of eyes and tug at many hearts. A strong stomach is required, or potential viewers may find it hard to make it through the film. Society has always claimed that man is master of his domain, but Sharkwater shows mankind for the scourge of the planet that we can frequently be.

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