Blue Water, White DeathEven to those who never venture into the deep blue ocean, sharks have always been one of our most feared predators – silent assassins who strike without warning and without mercy. The Great White, in particular, manages to invoke blind terror into the hearts of people with the mere mention of its name, and this superb documentary was the first time the species was filmed up close and personal in its natural habitat. Shot between 1969-70 in various locales from South Africa to South Australia, Blue Water, White Death follows underwater photographer Peter Gimbel in his quest to understand and enter the lair of the Great White, and come out still in one piece to talk about it. Assembling a crew that included famed Australian underwater photography husband and wife duo Ron and Valerie Taylor, Gimbel began his quest in South Africa, following the whale hunters in the belief that the offal and blood spilt would attract their quarry. When that fails, what follows is nine months of dead ends, frustrating near misses, personal tension and the imminent collapse of the entire project, before the crew finally strike pay dirt off the coast of South Australia, submerging themselves in fragile looking cages and pointing their cameras while enormous Great Whites swim within arm’s length of them, snapping at the bars of the cages and threatening to break them apart as if they were toothpicks. The combination of grace and sheer strength which these creatures exhibit is both horrifying and hypnotically beautiful, and it’s easy to understand the filmmakers’ fascination for wanting to get as physically close to them as possible. Not just a documentary on the behaviour of sharks, Blue Water, White Death is also a testament to the will and determination of Gimbel, whose project faced disaster and failure at many points. An heir to his family’s department store chain, Gimbel gave up a life of safe luxury for that of a thrillseeking adventurer after his twin brother died young. He once parachuted into the Peruvian Andes in search of a lost Inca city, and in the 1950s was the first person the explore the wreck of the sunken Italian liner the Andrea Doria (Gimbel’s photographs of the wreck were published in the August 1956 issue of Life magazine, and in 1984 he opened the safe of the liner live on American television). Visually, Blue Water, White Death is an often stunning piece of work, with the photography really shining through in the remastered widescreen print featured on this DVD release. Naturally, blue is the dominant colour here, and the image is often so crisp you can almost feel the salt water spray hitting you in the face. While some of the footage of the South African whale hunting yards may be hard to take, and the music by folk singer Tom Chapin (who also accompanied the crew on their voyage) really dates the film, this is a truly groundbreaking documentary, at times as riveting and tense as any Hollywood thriller that has exploited mans’ fear of the Great White, and the influence which it had on Steven Spielberg’s Jaws is obvious and pronounced (the scenes with the cages in particular are very evocative of the moment in Jaws when Richard Dreyfuss submerges himself in his “anti-shark cage” in a desperate attempt to slay the white dragon). Of course, Ron and Valerie Taylor also acted as underwater photographers and consultants on Jaws, making the link between the two films even stronger. Umbrella’s DVD release of Blue Water, White Death comes complete with an audio commentary track by Rodney Fox (an Australia survivor of a Great White attack who also features in the film), photographer Stan Waterman, and the Taylors. There’s also a nice featurette, Diving Into Blue Water, White Death, which re-unites most of the surviving crew members (Peter Gimbel died at age 60 in 1987).
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