Deep Amazon Sharks

Rating: 7/10 (17 November 2006)

I've seen this thing countless of times since I was young. In fact, it was my mother's favorite and was the first movie that we ever rented as soon as they were available on the market in the early 80s. And there were two scenes that just HORRIFIED me and still produce a shock each time -- the part where the head pops out of the sunken boat and the part where the Skipper gets his. Since then the part where the guy's leg falls off into the ocean floor has pretty much rivaled that scene's scariness.
However none of those were very realistic attacks. The most realistic one was the first one -- the girl in the bay. There's probably attacks like that in seaside resorts all over every whenever. And that is the part where you learn not to trick a shark into thinking you are a seal.
However, in none of these were mentions of the very FACT that a shark CAN swim anywhere up to half-way down the Amazon and even into the New Jersey channel as long as the water remains, "brackish" -- that is, a hybrid of salt & fresh water. And my question is, "why?" It would seem logical. After all, Spielberg and Benchley would have you believe that a shark intentionally seeks out a human or even boat victim like it had a radar or something when that's the furthest thing from reality. One such race of shark is the bull-shark, though there are others, and I wouldn't doubt that the Great White would be among them. Yet, nowhere in the film did it even think of doing such things as has been found in real-life, supposedly.
7 is the highest rating that I've gave a film so far, and I probably won't go much further than that because no film's perfect. However this one, for a mid-70s thriller, isn't bad. It's just a bit repetitive because it's over 30 and is on all the time. So I gave it that because it has never really worn out and still manages to have its moments at least. However, I had to knock off points because it too is capable of insulting my intelligence and has also been somewhat responsible for genocide of sharks worldwide. At least though, it did inspire others to learn more about them.
An overall very powerful and unique film and book alike.