The Shark Is Still Working (2007)

Directed by: Erik Hollander | 100 minutes | documentary | Starring: Steven Spielberg, Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Rodriguez, Eli Roth, Tom Savini, Kevin Smith, Bryan Singer, M. Night Shyamalan, John Williams, Richard D. Zanuck

Is ‘The Shark Is Still Working’ perhaps the best documentary ever made about the impact of a film? It could be, because this documentary is one big party from start to finish. And really not just a feast of recognition, because the makers effortlessly manage to turn up a treasure trove of trivia that even the biggest fan will be able to learn from.

It is a nice connection to the already superior documentary ‘The Making of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws’ from 1995. Where that documentary was about how the film itself came about exactly, ‘The Shark Is Still Working’ is mainly about how the film all records shattered when ‘Jaws’ came out in 1975, setting a new standard for the summer blockbuster and how much the film still has a huge cultural impact thirty years later. All kinds of people from the front and behind the scenes have their say. Not only the “usual suspects”, such as director Steven Spielberg himself, but also other directors such as Bryan Singer (indeed, the director of …), who even named his production company “Bad hat Harry” after a quote from ‘Jaws’, Kevin Smith , Eli Roth, Steven Soderbergh and others. Also, not only the more famous faces from the cast that get attention, such as Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss, but also Quint’s grubby sidekick who can only be seen in a few scenes, or actors who only have one line of text. A line of text that is sometimes so memorable that they are still reminded of it after 30 years. The commentary is from Roy Scheider, Commissioner Brody himself, who looks frail in his interview and would die two years later.

The makers pay a lot of attention to Martha’s Vinyard, which served as the model for the fictional town/island of Amity, and have dug up even the most unlikely extras (the guitar player in the opening scene). These were often local residents, who were assigned small roles. Even the daughter of Craig Kingsbury, a Vinyard fisherman who starred in the movie Ben Gardner and was an inspiration for the character Quint, speaks. She tells with great taste about how her now deceased father actor Robert Shaw (who played Quint) told all kinds of things about Martha’s Vinyard and its inhabitants. Also amusing is the anecdote of Lee Fierro, who in ‘Jaws’ Mrs. Kintner and in one famous scene punches Commissioner Brody (Schheider) in the face. Fierro appetizingly tells how in all the years since then she has been asked to punch fans in the face in the same way. It is hilarious that this is larded with a montage of hits that she has handed out.
It does indicate how much the film is still alive among fans. Examples of this are in the documentary legion: collectors of the most outrageous paraphernalia related to the film, the “JawsFest” organized on Martha’s Vinyard – which attracts 3000 people, including Quint impersonators and which of course includes a screening of the movie takes place.

There is also a touching segment about Chris Rebello, who played Brody’s eldest son Michael (his only film role) and who passed away in 2000 at the age of 37. Robert Shaw, who died long before that (in 1978), is also beautifully portrayed. His difficult sides – partly due to alcohol abuse – are not shunned, but his phenomenal talent as an actor (and playwright) are rightly praised by the people who worked with him for ‘Jaws’.

These and many more wonderful stories about the film and its impact ensure that the long running time does not bore for a second. It is remarkable that the story of the recordings themselves is relatively short and then manages to reveal all kinds of new fascinating facts that are not even discussed in ‘The Making of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws’. The lion’s share of the time, however, is on the stories behind the stories, on Carl Gottlieb’s classic “The Jaws Log” (which is called a filmmaking manual), on an astonishing home video of Spielberg nervously watching the Oscar nominations and his obvious disappointment that he was not nominated for “best director” to the almost heartbreaking story of the same Spielberg about what happened to the original boat the Orca.

Is it too much to absorb in one sitting? Absolute. Do the makers go on digging into every facet for too long? Of course. Is the documentary an attack on the viewer’s senses and stamina? No doubt. The love that the documentary radiates makes such critical notes powerless. And that love ensures that the documentary is delicious from start to finish. Then you as a viewer, as fans of ‘Jaws’ just can’t get enough of it.

The ambiguous title is not only a powerful statement about how much ‘Jaws’ is still alive, but also a playful reference to the problems that the mechanical shark caused during the recordings. Richard Dreyfuss happily mimics (just like in ‘The Making of…’ by the way) the commentary over the walkie talkies: “krrrrghhh… the shark isn’t working. Krggghhh… I repeat: the shark is not working.”
Until one day it crackled: “the shark is working.”
And he still does.