Blue Water, White Death

A surprisingly little-known documentary about sharks that was a big inspiration for Peter Benchley when writing “Jaws” (some of the crew even provided underwater footage for Spielberg's film adaptation). This is not a traditional educational documentary, but a first-hand account of the adventurous expedition of a few daredevils. In the 1960s, when a bored millionaire hired a group of people to go out to sea in search of the great white shark, which at the time had never been filmed in its natural habitat. The crew consists of divers, shark experts, and even a folk singer who plays guitar during the voyage (yes, just like in The Life Aquatic). Blue Water, White Death feels more like a realistic adventure film. For a documentary, it is unusually suspenseful (and widescreen). It doesn't intrude with any descriptive commentary. It makes you feel like you've actually spent some time with the crew of the ship. You gradually get to know all of its members, who you then worry about as they leave the safety of the ship and eventually the diving cages while dozens of hungry sharks circle around them. It took them several months to find the great white shark, but in the process they managed to film a large number of other sharks (and the then still permitted whaling, which is not a pleasant sight). But the whole film also makes you anxiously await the moment when you finally get a glimpse of the promised man-eater. Blue Water, White Death has an almost horror-like atmosphere at certain moments, the likes of which you don't often experience in nature documentaries. Nowadays such dives are quite common even for tourists taking selfies with the sharks, but in its time it was something groundbreaking, and you can feel it in the film. You're not likely to find a more evocative documentary on the subject (22.06.2017)