Besides seeing Blue Water, White Death in a theater in 1971, I first saw a preview of segments of this film some months before its premiere at the first Our World Underwater film festival in Chicago. The preview was narrated live by cameraman Stan Waterman and he took questions after the preview. Everyone in attendance was sitting on the edge of their seats, because no one had ever filmed Great White Sharks before.
In today's world of dozens of documentaries on Great White Sharks and Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, the shark footage can seem a little tame. But the significance of this film shouldn't be minimized. At the time this expedition took place, very little was known about Great White Sharks and most experts of the day thought that getting in the water with a Great White was instant death. This film (with its accompanying book, Blue Meridian), were Peter Benchley's inspirations in writing Jaws.
This excellent film would be a worthy addition to any wildlife documentary aficionado's library, if only it were available on VHS or DVD (I'm just glad I taped it off of TV many years ago). With all the retread junk that's being released on DVDs today, why isn't a great film like this available?
In today's world of dozens of documentaries on Great White Sharks and Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, the shark footage can seem a little tame. But the significance of this film shouldn't be minimized. At the time this expedition took place, very little was known about Great White Sharks and most experts of the day thought that getting in the water with a Great White was instant death. This film (with its accompanying book, Blue Meridian), were Peter Benchley's inspirations in writing Jaws.
This excellent film would be a worthy addition to any wildlife documentary aficionado's library, if only it were available on VHS or DVD (I'm just glad I taped it off of TV many years ago). With all the retread junk that's being released on DVDs today, why isn't a great film like this available?
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