AKA L’ultimo Squalo / The Last Jaws / Great White / White Death / Jaws Returns / Jaws 81
Director: Enzo G. Castellari
Warmer weather is almost upon us and it’s at this time of year most people start to think about descending on their nearest beach for swimming, sun worshiping and various boating activities. Obviously this year things are a little bit different, however, it felt like the right time to indulge in another shark movie so even though we can’t go to the seaside, we can at least watch other people enjoying themselves… and then dying.
“The Last Shark” is brought to us by Enzo G. Castellari (director of “The Bronx Warriors” trilogy) and is probably most famous for the plagiarism lawsuit Universal Pictures made against the filmmakers due to its similarities to – you guessed it: “Jaws”. Although, you could argue it also rips off “Jaws 2” but more on that later. Due to this lawsuit, the film has had a chequered release history, both theatrically and on home video/DVD, hence my rather ropey pirate DVD version I bought years ago which looks like a VHS rip. Despite that, the movie had a fantastic selection of artwork created to promote it, so much so I couldn’t just decide on a couple to show, so here are the rest of them!
You can probably guess the plot, so I’ll keep it brief, but it’s safe to say it’s exactly what you think it is. At the beginning of the film, a teenager out windsurfing is killed by a shark. A local writer and a weary shark hunter set out to persuade the local governor to cancel the forthcoming windsurfing regatta. Of course he doesn’t and even with the added precautions of underwater caging and nets surrounding the race site, the shark still manages to get in and kill a few more people. The characters then go off to try kill the shark in various idiotic ways, until one of them works and the film ends.
There’s not much more to say about the plot really but there’s plenty more to say about the shark! As you will know from my “Jaws The Revenge” review, I’m quite a fan of the model sharks used in these types of films, good or bad, and in the case of “The Last Shark”, they are mostly bad. Don’t get me wrong, if I were swimming and that sucker popped up nearby I would still shit my speedos but the way it is covered in the film isn’t great. As with most shark movies of the era, the shark is shown too much, at least too much to remain credible anyway but at least they tried. The problems Spielberg faced getting the shark model to work in “Jaws” are legendary so the fact that a small Italian team managed to get any footage of the model working is something to be admired, even if it does look at bit goofy.
The main shark model has a plastic look and the colour looks a bit odd; I know they are called great white sharks but are they really that white? The shark also breaches the water in a slightly odd upright position as if its eyes are in its mouth. The model has limited movement but can do the necessary shunting and bumping and even open its mouth to a fairly decent extent. There is an unfortunate fold of rubber visible at points though but that’s nothing we haven’t seen before in the likes of “Jaws 2” and “Jaws 3”. There is a “full body” model used for the underwater scenes which on my shitty copy looked ok but I’ve since scene a clearer image and it sadly doesn’t hold up. This model looks a lot different to the main one we see for the majority of the film (when stock footage isn’t used) so it is a bit jarring… but again… at least they tried.
Many of the shark attacks seem to have been achieved by setting off a small explosive in the water and then a stuntman (or in one hilarious scene, a very obvious dummy) gets shot up into the air. There’s also a very enjoyable riff on the helicopter scene from “Jaws 2”, this time with the governor dangling a piece of meat into the water before he gets knock out of the cabin with his legs dangling above the water. Of course, the shark has a feast on the governor’s trousered meat sticks before pulling the helicopter into the water. Budget constraints are obvious in scenes like this, as when the helicopter hits the water its clearly just a toy. I do have to ask the question though, what was he planning to do once the shark had latched onto the meat? Pull it out of the water and take it to shore?! The governor isn’t the only character to try this method as prior to his failed attempt a group of teens also use meat to lure the shark, only to then shoot at it from a boat. Clearly the tight perms a lot of the characters seem to be sporting affect their IQ.
At times the model shark is accompanied by some sort of loud noise which is likely to be the sound of the mechanics running it but it also gives it a slight roaring shark feel a la “Jaws The Revenge”. Either way, it seems a strange choice to leave it in rather than adding the audio in after. Maybe they just thought “fuck it, the shark looks fake, it makes no difference if you can hear the engine running as well” (but in Italian obviously).
The use of stock footage, and there is a lot of it, doesn’t work. There’s even a scene when a couple of news reporters are looking over footage they have captured of one of the shark attacks and are complaining they didn’t quite catch the shark on camera (even though it’s clear as day) and the other guy suggests just using stock footage instead, which given the film they are in feels strangely on the nose! I have the view that you’ve made a fully functioning (kind of), to scale shark model so use it, even if all of the shots don’t work and lord knows not all of them do here. “Jaws” cleverly used the barrels attached to the shark to convey its approach which meant they didn’t need to always rely on the model. It was just as scary letting your mind imagine the great creature travelling underneath the surface. Here, they use a similar trick in one scene using a buoy and it works just the same, but then they quickly go back to using the model again which in the case of this movie, slightly undoes the tension created by using that technique. But the fact remains they tried and I’ve got endless respect for the filmmakers for bravely (or stupidly depending on your opinion) attempting to use a full scale shark model, especially given the fact that it was almost the downfall of “Jaws” which was really only salvaged using clever tricks such as the barrel and tight editing.
There are some points where the pace of the film slows down a bit too much, such as when the shark breaches the nets the night before the windsurfing regatta when people are skinny dipping. The scene is virtually all played out in slow motion alongside some pleasingly odd music. Another slow moving scene takes place underwater where the shark seems to move rocks by picking them up in his mouth to trap a diver in a cave. The fact it is so dark doesn’t help but I can’t say if that’s just the poor quality of my copy or if it is actually meant to be like that.
The acting is pretty hammy across of the board; James Franciscus (“The Cat O’Nine Tails”) plays writer “Peter Benton”. He doesn’t quite work in the lead role and comes across as pretty cheesy, especially his “heroic” dive into the water in the films finale, which doesn’t make a lot of sense. The shark is bobbing up and down in the water with a bomb in it’s mouth so Peter decides to throw himself into the water, shouting “Damn you!” at the shark whilst detonating the explosive. What if the bomb hadn’t gone off? He would have been gobbled up like the rest of them! Actually, that would have been a pretty funny ending. Speaking of the ending; it’s amusing that Universal would use a similar set up for their climax of “Jaws 3” released two years later. Vic Morrow plays the shark hunter “Ron Hammer” (great name) and does his best with what he is given but there is no way around it; he is a Poundland “Quint” and there is little else he can do but try and emulate Robert Shaw from the original “Jaws”. “The Last Shark” came pretty late on in Morrow’s career and whilst never being a huge star, he did feature in nearly a hundred movies and tv shows (including director Castellari’s “1990: The Bronx Warriors”). His life came to a tragic end when shooting a scene for John Landis’s segment of “The Twilight Zone” movie where he was decapitated by a helicopter blade, at the age of 53.
The score by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis (“A Blade In The Dark”, “Torso”, “Alien 2: On Earth” etc) is cheap sounding and (you guessed it) cheesier than a block of stilton in a packet of Wotsits but it works just fine and matches the silliness of the action on screen. The pop song that accompanies the opening of the film is very catchy too. In fact, given how up-beat and camp the film begins, the ending is very sombre in comparison, probably unnecessarily so.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get a lot of enjoyment out of this film; maybe I just have a thing for shit shark movies, and there are plenty of them, but I have no interest when the sharks are CGI or the film is self-aware and this certainly isn’t the case here. The film is played deadly straight, and that only adds to the fun. Situations and lines of dialogue are borderline carbon copies from “Jaws” and “Jaws 2”, and when this happens it is hilarious and you could probably make quite a good drinking game out of “spot the reference”.
The shark model is naff, but that just makes me love it even more. Come on Universal, it’s time to let this film get a decent release with some interesting extras (other than the extremely hard to find RetroVision release) and believe me, “The Last Shark” is hardly a huge drop in quality when compared to Universal’s own “Jaws” sequels! There are rumours of some deleted scenes floating about too which would be great to see. After all this talk of plagiarism, it’s important to remember that “The Last Shark” is nothing when compared to Bruno Mattei’s “Jaws 5” AKA “Cruel Jaws”, which not only outright brands itself as a sequel to “Jaws” but also uses shark footage from “The Last Shark”, “Jaws” and “Jaws 2” whilst also having the same plot. Despite that, “Cruel Jaws” doesn’t seem to have a problem getting a proper release but “The Last Shark” does – go figure. In the meantime, track down one of the various bootleg releases or downloads and strap yourself in for some cheesy (or should that be fishy) action!
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