Swimming With Sharks –
10th Anniversary Edition
Picture: B-
Sound: B Extras: B Film: B
When George Huang’s Swimming With Sharks came out
in 1994, it did this in the midst of two types of bad movie cycles. There were the bad films that thought they
knew everything about film and Hollywood, then there was the cycle of films
that went way out of their way to show shallow, angry, evil, stereotypical
people who fight, argue, mutilate, humiliate and even kill because that is
somehow the only thing the human race is capable of. Well, his film should have been a big hit, but being smashed
between those two idiotic trends, had a quality that managed to make it an
independent hit.
No one knew who Kevin Spacey was and Frank Whaley was
getting seen in many films, big and small.
The story involves an intern (Whaley) and his arrogant Hollywood boss
(Spacey) and how the intern cannot deal with the verbal abuse and humiliation
anymore. He acts out his anger by
kidnapping and torturing his boss to the point of no return. This is in context to the drama, but when it
goes on longer than it should, it does start to delve into the celebrated
ugliness zone too much. It is for that reason
that too many people misinterpret the film as some kind of “how-to” film instead
of seeing the bigger picture and missing the point of the conclusion because
they are cinematic illiterates and people with issues.
Michelle Forbes and Benicio Del Toro also star in the film
the DVD text considers a cult classic, but with the influx of digital “film”
making, it is more vital a work than ever.
It is not about shooting something on digital quick and cheap,
filmmaking is about a love of an art form and doing it right. Too bad money crunchers and people who just
don’t care are in the majority in filmmaking today. Huang’s film may not totally succeed as the cautionary tale he
wanted it to be, but it may just turn out to be ahead of its time in telling it
like it is about a new era of Hollywood’s dark side.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is not bad, but
is slightly soft and shows the age of the film print used. It still plays back nicely, but a tad more
sharpness would have been nice.
Cinematographer Steven Finestone kept the film from being
form-challenged and knows how to focus on the actors without overdoing it. The color is consistent too. The sound is even better, offered in Dolby
Digital 2.0 Stereo with Pro Logic surrounds, Dolby 5.1 and especially DTS 5.1
that brings the film alive. The film
was originally issued in Dolby’s old A-type analog theatrical sound at the
time, but the remixes here update the sound.
In the DTS case, the lines that might seem tired, played out or a spoof
of what they were suddenly regain their power in the narrative. The actors benefit too, as you can hear them
far more clearly and the performances have more impact as a result.
The extras are terrific, including three audio
commentaries that somehow did not hurt the sound. Spacey does one, Huang does the other two, one of which Whaley joins
him on. They are all impressive and all
worth listening to, sharing all kind of valuable and even priceless stories and
facts throughout. Huang is a good
speaker and very funny. The original
Trimark theatrical trailer, trailers for six other Lion’s Gate titles, seven
deleted scenes with optional Huang commentary and three featurettes worth
looking at including Back To The Tank: Swimming 10 Years Later at about
23 minutes Shark Tales: Life As A Hollywood Assistant at 9:22 and Let’s
Do Lunch at 6:33 are also included.
That adds up to one of Lion’s Gate’s best special edition DVDs to date.
- Nicholas Sheffo
