Studio: Warner Bros. Genre: Documentary Street Date: April 8, 2008 Director: Rob Stewart Number of Discs: 1 MPAA Rating: PG Cast: Rob Stewart, Erich Ritter, Patrick Moore, Paul Watson, Boris Worm Running Time: 90 minutes Format: DVD Specs: Video:
Widescreen 1.85:1 Color (Anamorphic)
Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Stereo
FRENCH: Dolby Digital 5.1
FRENCH: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles:
English Special Features: - Beneath The Surface Featurette
- Shark Defense Naval Training Film
- Theatrical Trailer & TV Spots Version: Standard Review: The month of April for me as been a string of documentaries. Some on the cutting edge of filming techniques, others a harsh look at our negative impact on the planet, and all of them extraordinary.
While all of them are amazing and some of them so intricately shot that it overloads your optical nerve centers. However of all the documentary films I’ve watched Sharkwater is the one that is haunting me the most, the one I’ve talked about the most, and had the most impact on me.
I consider myself to be very well educated on the subject of Sharks, I have to be my 7 year has been obsessed with Sharks for years now. We have books upon books, DVD’s, we live every week like it’s Shark Week! A few years ago we took him on a trip to the Montery Bay Aquarium and of course he was one happy camper but on the trip we took him into one of the theaters to watch a film about Sharks as an endangered species…even at the tender age of 4 he walked out of that telling me that people were the bad guys in that movie. It blew my mind. If a 4 year old can understand that why can’t the rest of us?
Rob Stewart is hoping we can.
Sharkwater is a beautiful film, seeing Rob swimming with these sharks is amazing and just so vividly colorful that it becomes a punch to the mind grapes when taken in with the shocking evidence of what Sharks mean to this planet and how we killing them relentlessly. Honestly who’d want to save sharks? Most people tend to fear them and lets be honest they ain’t the most cuddly creature on the planet. So in most people’s mind a dead shark is a good shark. But there in lies the problem with humans; we think we are the top of the food chain and therefore allowed to pick and chose who survives without looking at the bigger picture of where that life form fits into the balance of nature.
Watching everything Rob and his team does to help bring the truth to the surface is heartbreaking as they encounter resistance, corruption, finding themselves on the “wrong” side of the law, even a medical scare that threatens to take Rob’s leg and possibly his life. You get the feeling that he wasn’t far from making the choice of just having the leg lobbed off so he could hurry up and get back to the job at hand. Its dedication and resolve few people ever show in their lifetime.
The best documentaries are one’s that take you on a ride to the information. Nobody wants to be preached to and shamed into doing something. And fewer want to sit and watch something that makes them feel like a kid in school being punished. Sharkwater is a ride, by the time it’s over you’ll understand where Rob Stewart is coming from and what he’s trying like hell to teach you about the true nature of Sharks. Entertaining and educational…a full balanced meal!
As I’ve said I though I knew quite a bit about sharks, but I can honestly say that people like Rob have forgotten more about them than most people ever know. It might be a bold statement but it’s accurate nonetheless. Buy It Now: Rating:
