The Great White (1981)

"A quiet, restful summer in the lazy coastal town of Port Harbor is abruptly about to end"

Plot

A giant great white shark stakes its claims to the waters off the coast of Port Harbor, a peaceful fishing village. The mayor stubbornly wants to keep the beaches open for the annual Regatta and refuses to believe there is a problem. However, when one of his daughter’s friends fails to return from sailboarding, writer Peter Benton and his fishermen friend Ron Hamer know they have to take matters into their own hands to destroy the beast before it kills again.

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If ever there was an award for the most blatant rip-off ever made then surely The Great White would win hands down. The Italians were noted for their ability to shamelessly exploit popular American releases by making cheap and nasty versions, not afraid of little things like copyright and intellectual properties. One of their favourite films to ‘mimic’ was Steven Spielberg’s classic 1975 blockbuster Jaws and the country released a handful of pathetic knock-offs in the following years But none were more blatant than The Great White, a film which follows the structure and plot of Jaws to the point where it’s almost scene-for-scene at times. So much so that Universal attempted to block its release in the States before this initial request was denied in court as they didn't believe there was a case to answer. The Great White had its debut in March, quickly grossing over $18m in its first month. But then I guess a judge or two actually watched it, realised that it was too similar to Jaws and reversed the initial ruling. An injunction was put in place banning it for copyright infringement and it was promptly pulled from theaters, only being available in the States on dodgy bootlegs from Europe and Japan ever since. It was only in 2013 that The Great White finally saw an official release on DVD, with a brief limited edition run in America. More recently in the UK, it's about to receive its first-ever blu-ray release in 2025 and I for one can't wait.

The Great White does live up to its reputation as a Jaws rip-off, with every major story from the original included, as well as some stuff from Jaws 2 thrown in for good measure. But that’s about as far as the similarities go because the film has nothing else in common with Jaws. The production values are second rate, the characters are fairly dull to hold interest without the shark on screen, there’s no iconic John Williams soundtrack and you haven’t got one of the most beloved and acclaimed directors of all time sitting in the chair in the form of Steven Spielberg. Given all of the production problems with Jaws, the film caught lightning in a bottle and any attempts to recreate that, either officially with sequels/remakes or with knock-offs like this was always going to be doomed to fail. The Great White just feels like its got the contents but without the instructions on how to put it all together.

One of the strengths of Jaws was that when the film was landlocked or the shark wasn’t on the screen, the characters were able to hold your interest. In Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw, you had a trio of great actors who all managed to captivate the audience and at times, their interplay was so good that the meddling of the shark was sometimes something of a disappointment to break-up the banter. There’s nothing of the like here and despite James Franciscus and Vic Morrow doing their best Chief Brodie/Matt Hooper (Franciscus is a combination of the two) and Quint impressions (Morrow chews the scenery like a grumpy madman), the script never makes their exchanges anything more than plodding filler in between attacks.

The highlight and the problem of The Great White is the same thing: the shark. There’s no question that it looks terribly phoney. It has little movement apart from opening and closing its jaws and seems to only move forward in a slow, jerky fashion. Plus it roars. And it doesn’t bare much resemblance to a real shark at all. But that’s precisely the fun of it – the shark looks terrible but at least it’s physically there. No CGI or stock footage sharks here, just an old school model (though stock footage is used for shots of the shark swimming) Dummies are thrown into its mouth when it’s chewing its victims up and the shark gets well fed. This leads to all manner of gory moments as people are bitten in half or have their legs ripped off; everything you’d expect from a schlocky Italian horror. If you want silly shark action, then you're in for a treat because you won't be disappointed.

Half of the fun in The Great White is seeing which scenes they copy from Jaws and how they will go about presenting them. Some are almost shot-for-shot. Others have more artistic licence over the material. Though not content with Jaws, the film also throws in a few bits from Jaws 2 as well just in case they didn’t feel like Universal had enough to sue them with. You won’t get anywhere near the level of tension or suspense in any of the shark scenes as you did in Jaws; like most of these Italian knock-offs, subtlety was never their forte. The attack on the regatta has shades of the estuary attack, coupled with the teenagers in peril scenes from Jaws 2. The finale aboard the broken off dock is particularly memorable for an icky moment but this review wouldn’t be complete without mention of the helicopter attack. The logistics of trying to catch a shark by dangling a piece of meat out of a helicopter hovering above the water have to be seen to be believed and the resultant use of a miniature helicopter to film the aftermath is the highlight set piece. Believability and credibility is stretched to the very end but its all done in good faith.

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Final Verdict

I guess your enjoyment of The Great White will come on whether you have a tolerance for something as trashy and as blatantly exploitative as this and you desperately want to see an Italian Jaws knock-off. There's no question that this is low grade junk but it’s done in the sincerest way and, above all, is wholly entertaining for what it is. And at least it's still better than Jaws 3-D and Jaws: The Revenge.

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The Great White Also Known As: The Last Shark Director(s): Enzo G. Castellari Writer(s): Vincenzo Mannino (screenplay), Marc Princi, Ugo Tucci (story) Actor(s): James Franciscus, Vic Morrow, Micaela Pignatelli, Joshua Sinclair, Giancarlo Prete, Stefania Girolami Goodwin, Gian Marco Lari Duration: 88 mins