a.k.a. L’ULTIMO SQUALO / GREAT WHITE
Film Ventures [1981] 88′
country: Italy
director: ENZO G. CASTELLARI
cast: JAMES FRANCISCUS, VIC MORROW,
cast: MICHAELA PIGNATELLI, JOSHUA SINCLAIR
I find it doubtful that any single film in history has been emulated quite so routinely as Steven Spielberg’s smash success JAWS. The young Spielberg couldn’t possibly have foreseen the incalculable impact his picture would have on the film industry as a whole, that it would be the first production ever to receive a wide release and the first summer blockbuster. Its pitch perfect blend of high seas adventure and high concept horror translated to big bucks at the 1975 box office and cold feet for whole generations of beach goers. Needless to say, Universal Pictures was pleased.
But JAWS caught more than just the attention of the multitudes of film goers – exploitation producers around the world were impressed as well, and hungry for a piece of the profits. By the time JAWS 2 rolled around in 1978, the minions of the exploitation industry were already hard at work. While a few of the movies produced in its image were quite good – PIRANHA in 1978, most notably – the majority ranged anywhere from ‘so-so’ on down. Most trend riders were smart enough to change either the monster [TENTACLES], the setting, or both [JAWS OF SATAN, GRIZZLY]. Others were not so much. It’s safe to assume that the makers of THE LAST SHARK belonged squarely with the latter.
Directed by Italian cash-in king Enzo G. Castellari [the original THE INGLORIOUS BASTARDS, SINBAD OF THE SEVEN SEAS, BRONX WARRIORS] and cast with just enough familiar faces to confuse Americans into thinking it might be a domestic product, THE LAST SHARK was heavily marketed and released to US theaters in 1982 under the title GREAT WHITE. Needless to say, Universal Pictures [who already had JAWS 3-D in the works] was not pleased.
The story is par for the course for a JAWS cash-in – a sea-side town on the East coast of the United States is preparing for a big tourist-attracting event [here a windsurfing race] when it is invaded by a great white shark. Political guys keep the mounting shark attacks hush-hush and let the big tourist-attracting event go as planned, with disastrous results, and are forced to hire professionals to hunt and kill the offending fish.
Similarities to Spielberg’s film are plentiful in the Ugo Tucci [producer, ZOMBI 2] / Marc Princi / Vincenzo Mannino [THE NEW YORK RIPPER] screenplay. Vic Morrow’s shark-obsessed Ron Hamer is a dead ringer for the original’s Quint, while James Franciscus’ Peter Benton manages to encapsulate both the characters of Brody and Hooper [he's a well-respected author, expert on sharks, and confidant of the Mayor] and make reference to the writer of the original book [Peter Benchley] as well. As in JAWS, Hamer dies at the hands [teeth?] of the shark, leaving Benton to fight it on his own during the conclusion. Both sharks also meet similar explosive ends.
It’s no big surprise that Universal Pictures took such a strong stance against THE LAST SHARK when it was released stateside [amidst much advertising by Film Ventures International] in March of 1982. The company quite publicly sued the distributors of THE LAST SHARK and, within a month, the film had been pulled from American screens by order of the court. Since then the film has never aired on television or been released to home video here – allowing a certain aura of mystique to develop around the production. I mean, if it was sued into oblivion by a major Hollywood studio then it has to be awesome, right?
Unfortunately no, though it does offer up an amount of unintentional hilarity. The shark’s preferred method of attack is to smash into things from below, leading to numerous slow-motion shots of surf boards, boats, and mannequins sailing through the air amidst spumes of ocean spray. There are lots of slow-motion shots in general – a norm, I’m realizing, for a Castellari film. Then there’s the dialogue, particularly on the part of Hamer – his slide show presentation about great white sharks and their motivations is not to be missed. Then, of course, there is the shark. When not busy being portrayed by library footage [some of which is rather obviously not of a great white] the shark is either a terrible miniature amongst other terrible miniatures or a slightly less terrible full-size head.
The best part of the show is undoubtedly when the Mayor [a much more pro-active character than in the original JAWS - he at least takes precautions, using shark nets and posting guards and the like, before letting the windsurfing spectacular go down] tries to kill the shark from his personal helicopter. At least I think he’s trying to kill it – the movie doesn’t make it terribly clear. Whatever his motivations, the scene begins with the Mayor dangling shark bait from a wench and ends with the helicopter crashing into the sea – what happens in between is worth the price of admission alone, and I’ll not spoil it here. The conclusion, which has James Franciscus leaping into the water [in slow motion, naturally] as the shark anti-climactically explodes [see the pictures to the right] is also not to be missed.
But other than a few moments of unintended high hilarity, THE LAST SHARK really doesn’t have much to offer. It fails as both horror and adventure, and the few gorier moments are nothing to write home about. While it may never reach the levels of shear awfulness attained by the likes of Bruno Mattei’s CRUEL JAWS, it also never becomes as entertaining as better produced bombs like ORCA or JAWS – THE REVENGE. Castellari’s direction is uninspired, and it’s obvious he had no particular personal connection to the material he was given to work with. In the end, he probably gave producer Edmondo Amati [LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE, CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE, HOLOCAUST 2000] just what he wanted – a film just competent enough to advertise the hell out of and make a quick buck on. Were it not for the Universal Pictures lawsuit it may have remained as unimportant as that forever.
As was mentioned earlier, THE LAST SHARK has no official home video release in the United States – given Universal’s actions in the past regarding it, I doubt anyone will be attempting such in the future. The best option for those who desperately wish to see it is a Swedish disc recently released as part of a killer creatures 3 pack [alongside Bruno Mattei's RATS and Ovidio G. Assonitis' TENTACLES]. That disc presents the film in a fine enhanced 1.85:1 widescreen transfer with the original monophonic English dialogue track. Releases are also available from Denmark and Italy, though I haven’t seen them and can’t comment on their quality [I expect that the Swedish and Danish discs may be one in the same, as they look to offer the same wide-ranging subtitle options].
Enzo G. Castellari is best remembered for his crime and action pictures – this reviewer suggests that it stay that way. He wasn’t in top form here, and it shows. There’s nothing much to separate THE LAST SHARK from the copious JAWS rip-offs that came before or afterwards, and nothing much to warrant recommending it. See it for the funny bits if you must, otherwise steer clear.
