The Deep (1977)

0:02 You're lucky. Five people have died over the last thirty years trying to crawl inside that ship, blew themselves up, talking torches around. There's enough live ammo down there to blow up half the island. Come on, when somebody just cut the crap blew themselves. Up for Whatliath was a military ship, so he went down with munitions and medical supplies. Well, so they say they're they're all right, all right? What's there? Morphine ninety eight thousand ambulans. Welcome to the Cinematic Flashback Podcast. Get ready to hop into the wayback machine as we journey through the wild, bold, and unforgettable films of the nineteen seventies. Each episode, we break down a classic movie or forgotten Jim by exploring the who's who of each film, diving into the premise and plot, seeing how performed then and now, and wrapping things up by asking did a group through the deck or did it lose its feep? Today we're taking the plunge into Peter Yates's nineteen seventy seven underwater thriller The Deep, based on the book by Jaws author Peter Benchley, and joining me again is Jeff Johnson from a film by podcast Sporting is scuba gear and white T shirt. Welcome to the show, Jeff.

1:20 Yeah, you got address for the occasion, right, Chuck. Well, it's always appropriate to dress to the film, you know. I know we will discuss the shirt, like when we get there, I do want to discuss another shirt because I'm just I'm confused. I really am. Definitely, definitely we can get into there. Hey. By the way, I just wanted to say congratulations on the relaunch of your YouTube channel. That's been awesome. What do you got going on over there? Yeah, Chuck, we actually had the channel, but we just never really did anything with it until back in October. We go to Scarefest weekend. We had an amazing time. We were invited as a media guest, so we've got all these amazing interviews on camera with some really just awesome celebrities, and then we thought, well, what were we going to do with this stuff? David had this great coverage, so We're like, let's do some YouTube stuff, let's create some special So we kind of relaunched the channel a couple months ago and happy to see it growing and starting to take a life of its own. So Chuck, you know, this like you start with a podcast, then you've got to have the social media, then you got to have the the Patreon, and then you've got to have the YouTube channel, and you just it just keeps expanding, right.

2:26 It keeps growing. Yes, all the things. Chuck it you know back in October if I could, it expands it oozes right like the Blob. Oh what you know something about because you were on one of our most downloaded episodes in October when you joined us for The Blob. I'm telling you, Chuck Russell and The Blob. I had forgotten how much I really liked that film and how much fun it was. The other thing that was a lot of fun was Deadly Blessing with a managing. Our deadly friend Amanagantic, the slasher girl. Oh, she's always a great time. One of the interviews that you had was with Michael Berryman, who played in Deadly Blessing. That was really cool to see that. I think someone like him. He's always quick to answer questions about the Hills Have Eyes or the smoke in the boys room, Motley Crue video, things that he's always asked about. So when I said, hey, let's talk about Deadly Blessing. He kind of perked up. He's like, okay, okay, we'll talk about Deadly Blessing. I got a story for you.

3:20 So it's always fun when you get something that they're not prepared for. If you want to hear that story for Deadly Blessing, go back over and listen to the Deadly Blessing episode over at a film buy. So The Deep was not on my radar for the first season of Cinematic Flashback until you mentioned it. Tell me why this film and when was the first time you remember seeing it. I know I probably would have been maybe my teens. This one came from Blockbuster scanning the aisles, and I was like, from the guy that wrote Jaws. It's got that iconic box cover where they kind of take the Jaws artwork and instead of the shark, it's the girl in the white shirt and the black bikini bottoms and she's like struggling to get to the surface. So it has that ominous feeling remind you of Jaws. I was like, wait, Quint from Jaws is in it, and Noulty who's a stud and Jacque Limbussett all right, I'm in So yeah, I saw this in my teenage years and absolutely loved it.

4:24 I don't know, it just it hits all the notes for me. It's you know, it's a little bit of a thriller, it's an adventure, and the cinematography's gorgeous. Oh yeah. I remember when the Cinematic Flashback podcast started and you made a call to the listeners on social media and you're like, hey, tell us if there's something out there, and I was like, Hey, how about The Deep? And then I heard, you know, it's like people, hey, we're still looking breapast. I was like, Chuck, come on, man, the Deep it's a seventies gym. Man, Like, I can't pay hard for this one. I will admit that you're talking about. You start off with the podcast and then you go into social media and you forgot one step, which is at some point you actually make a schedule. Yeah, of like, this is what we're going to do, this is when we're going to record, this is when it's going to release, because if you don't, you're just kind of you know what's next.

5:14 And that's how we started until we figured out that our regular schedule is a lot better for everybody. I get it, man, Our schedule is finished for next year already. I have just shared our film lineup for next season, so stay tuned. I'm excited man. Before we dive in, I want to give a quick spoiler warning. The Deep isn't streaming free right now, but you can rent it almost anywhere if you want to watch it first, go ahead and hit pause, because we're going to talk about various plot details of the film that might ruin certain elements of this film for you if you didn't want to know, so don't worry. We're not going to surface until you get back. We'll take a quick intermission here, just enough time to grab some popcorn or top off your drink. You're listening to the Cinematic Flashback podcast. Stay tuned. The show continues right after this, and we're back. Hope you enjoyed that brief intermission. Now let's roll the next reel and get back into the conversation. Jeff.

6:12 Here's a quick synopsis of the plot for those who've decided to come along. Maybe they haven't seen it, or maybe they've rejoined us, but David and Gail are vacationing in Bermuda, and the film opens on the two of them exploring a wreck of a ship, David finds a relic that looks valuable, while Gail finds an ampuel filled with a mysterious liquid. After returning their scuba equipment, the couple seek out Romer Trees, a local treasure hunter, to help identify the relic that David found. At dinner, the two are approached by Klosh, who, unknown to them, is a local drug kingpin who has an interest in the ampule that Gail has found. Soon, David and Gale find themselves caught between treasure hunters, criminals, and a giant territorial more eel lurking in the rep Let's check out the trailer for nineteen seventy seven's The Deep, starring Nick Nlty, Jacqueline Bissett, Robert Shawn and Louis Gossitt, Junior.

7:13 From the number one bestseller by the author of Jaws, This is the Deep. It begins in Bermuda with the adventure and romance of an island vacation, a fantastic opportunity for two young lovers to get away from it all. Was it beginner's luck to discover a sunken wreck in less than sixty feet of water? Where'd you get this exactly? Was it coincidence that there were two treasures, one of priceless jewels, the other more valuable than that. You must be the young couple who found that bottle this afternoon.

7:56 Certainly didn't look like anything. We didn't try anybody. The danger and excitement of pressure worth killing for, the adventure and intrigue of a secret worth dying for she has. If his tongue moves again, cut. It, go upstairs, pack, go home. I'm going down there, and you're gonna have to blow me up too. As you please, boy. And beneath it all is the terror of the Deep. Robert Shaw.

8:39 I'm gonna signal you and I'm gonna fire this fuse after that. I don't care if you found the Holy Grail itself. You want to get three minutes? Jacqueline Bissett, Nick Nolty, What the hell's going on? Lewis Gossett forced. Me to take what you would not look to meet paid for and Eli Wallack for ninety eight thousand man pillars. David's morphin Moufy. From the number one bestseller This Is the Deep.

9:20 The Deep premiered on June seventeenth, nineteen seventy seven, just two years after Jaws, and audiences were lining up because they wanted another undersea thriller. Look at these ingredients and most of these, Jeff, you've already named. It's directed by Peter Yates, who directed Bullet in nineteen sixty eight. It's based on a Peter Benchley novel and the screenplay is by Benchley himself. You have Robert Shaw returning once again to the water. Nick Nolty was fresh from the TV mini series rich Man poor Man and Louis Gosset Junior had just finished Roots and a poster. As you I mentioned, that was practically the Jaws design, and there's no way that that could have been an accident. What they wanted you to think of when you saw the Deep is you wanted to think of Jaws? Let me ask you, Jeff, is the Deep Mayor Vaughan's Barrakuda.

10:18 Well, I don't know about it being his Barracuda, but it's certainly his Mora Ael, which will scare the hell out of you the first time you see it. Oh yeah, And you know, when you think back to Jaws, when we're comparing Scars and Hooper's like more ael bit right through my wetsuit. You know, back then I was like a big deal. But this thing, it's terrifying. It's absolutely terrifying. I had to ask Matt if he's seen this, because if you heard him on Omen, he doesn't really like scary movies. He doesn't like horror films. Yeah, but he loves jump scares, you know. Yeah, well, Matt, this one's for you, buddy. Yeah. The more a eel jump scare is. It's great.

11:01 It's a good one. But I gotta ask you. This film is rated PG. What do you get in this film? You've got underwater terror, you got blood, you got voodoo, you got drug traffing, and of course you got the most famous wet t shirt moment of the nineteen seventies, all rated PG. I kind of feel like you have the most famous wet t shirt moment of all time. Think about this. The wet t shirt contest, legend has it. It began in nineteen seventy one, it's whispered about, right, but nineteen seventy seven, thanks to Jacqueline Busset, it becomes the thing to do at spring break, Like what she does in the first ten minutes of this movie. Basically inspires the whole wet T shirt contest movement for generations to come.

11:45 So I don't doubt that Peter Guber, who was the producer of this film, took out an ad in two gentlemen's magazines where he had a picture of On the left hand page it was Jacqueline Bessett and on the right hand page was the poster. She had no idea he was going to do that, and she was not happy with having her photo published in those publications at all. Listen, I'm going to side with Jackie, as Robert Shawl like to call her, because it is a little exploitive. Yes, let's call it what it is. That being said, it's brilliant marketing because what made this movie a box office success early on was its.

12:27 Word of mouth and the opening scene. The opening scene, and basically a lot of guys looking at certain men's magazines in nineteen seventy seven, we're seeing a photo from the movie and saying, hey, come see jack Libus said, I totally understand why she threatened to sue. It makes sense. What's done is done right. Well. Peter always said that that T shirt made him a million dollars. Dude, if you made a million dollars, cut her in on it. You know. Well, let's talk about this cast, because it's not a large cast. It's very tight. But I think everyone in here is a big name. If they're not a big name, then they became big names. And at the top of the bill you have Nick Nolty. This is his first starring role in a film. I believe. How does he do?

13:14 I think he does great. Hopefully you guys will cover a film called North Dallas forty starring Nick Nolty. I always do that as young Nick Nolty, right, and he is a leading man. He's just got that all American look to him. And to think that this is one of the movies he does before North Dallas forty, I would have just assumed, like you watched this in nineteen seventy seven, and then you see Nick Nolty, you go, Yep, he's a movie star. He's the next big thing. Yeah, and he's great. I believe him in the water. I believe him fighting off kloshes thugs. I believe him going head to head with Robert Shaw's character. So I loved him. Think he's great. What's pretty amazing is Each one of these actors spent a large amount of time in scuba gear under the water at least thirty feet down, and they did it multiple times to get this film. So each one of these actors did something that a lot of actors are not going to agree to do when they learn what the film is about. We talked about Jacqueline Bessett. I was surprised that her character and David weren't already married.

14:23 I think they were in the book, because boy, I don't know what David's waiting for. She's pretty amazing in this film. Look, when you've got the girl that wants to go on the adventure with you and wants to be right there by your side when you're thirty forty feet down looking for burry treasure, why wouldn't you want to spend the rest of your life with her, especially when she looks like Jacko. Bassett exactly right. Yeah, sign me up, Chuck. There's a point in the movie where she gets backed into a corner and she has kind of a low moment for her character, but by the time the end of the film, she's taking on on the bad guys on her own terms as well. Yeah, she's a good character in the film that has a good story arc.

15:08 When you talk about Gail the character, I think she probably has the best character arc. I think she has the best storyline as far as like growth and overcoming adversity. For sure. Her character reminded me a little bit of Lee Remick in The Omen Okay, just in the fact that all the male lead they had their scuffles. Like Lee Remick, she gets put through the ringer, whether it's in the opening underwater sequence when she first encounters the moray eel yep, we don't yet know that's what it is, all the way to getting attacked in her apartment and then finally, unlikely Remick's character, she is not thrown out of a hospital window, thankfully, but she does have to defend herself when she comes up out of one of the final dives in the film, Chuck.

15:56 Let's not forget that very tense moment close when oh He shows up to search them the little glass bottle. Yeah, and just such a tough moment for the character, I think, but does what is needed to be done, you know? To say at that point, I think she's saving David. Honestly, Nalty's character, I don't know. Where ook, she hasn't got it. If his tongue moves again. Cut it. Well, since neither of you have seen to have that bottle, I must assume it is now the property of Ruma. Let him go. Do you remember the scene at the end of Romancing the Stone where Jack has the stone in his pants and he gets kicked and he's kind of yep, and it comes sliding down and he kicks it off his boot.

16:49 I kept waiting for Close to do that to David looking for the ampuel okay, looking for the yeah yeah, And just so you know, in the ampul is morphine is what it turns out to be, and Klose is wanting to get the morphine to turn it into some distributable drug. The character of Klos is played by Lewis Gossid Junior. Yeah, Louis gossip is always so magnetic, Chuck, we over at the Film By podcast have covered I want to say we've covered four different Lewis Gossa Junior movies. At this point, because he's awesome. So when I was campaigning for The Deep over here, it wasn't so much a white T shirt. It was lou Gossip Man he's awesome, and to see him play a bad guy is fantastic because he doesn't typically do that.

17:40 That was what surprised me at the beginning of the film, because when Klose first approaches David Ingale, he presents himself as a collector of rare glass and he tells them some story that it's from some famous maker, And so I was thinking, he's a treasure hunter, you know, and he's a collector. He's like Dona and from Last Crusade, right, he's yeah, harmless or reason. We have Trees, right, Romer Trees played by Robert Shaw, And I just thought that the two of them were going to be competing treasure hunters and that Gale and David were going to be caught between these two characters. So you said, you've covered Lewis Gossip four times in our first season of Cinematic Flashback. We have had Robert Shaw in four of our episodes.

18:26 Which stuns me because you say Robert Shaw, you immediately think Jaws, and if you're me, I always think Jawls and the Deep, the Peter Benchley double shot. You guys covered this movie at Black Sunday. Yeah, And as soon as I was done listening to that. I had to go watch the film, mainly because I wanted to see another Robert Shaw movie. And then and obviously the Taking a pelelem one two three, which is a classic, but it kind of had fallen off my radar my whole life. So you guys have beefed up my Robert Shaw filmography, just like you have my Donald Sutherland filmography. And I appre you guys for that. Donald Sutherland, I believe, is a close second. I think we've done three. Maybe we might have done four with Donald Sutherland. But one of the things that Matt talked about on the Taking of pellam one two three, I cannot believe that he died in nineteen seventy eight, so like a year after this film he died. He was fifty one, And I cannot look at Jaws and hear him deliver the Indianapolis speech. Yep, and he's something like what forty seven forty eight probably when they're filming it.

19:32 What a talent this man was. Absolutely Eli Wallack he plays Coffin, who was one of Teresa's assistants. You may know Eli Wallack as Tuco from the Good and the Bad and the Ugly He was also in The Magnificent Seven. Unfortunately most of his material ended up on the cutting room floor. Yeah, it's interesting you say that, Chug, because there is an extended version of this film, and if you have the Blu ray or the DVD, you kind of get treated to a lot of the deleted scenes. And I, for the life of me, I don't know why they cut so much of it, but there's a lot more Eli Wallack, and there's a lot bit of an Eli Wallack's son. I didn't know if you knew this, Chuck.

20:14 Did he play the young Romer Trees? His son played the young Adam Coffin. Okay, and Robert Shaw's son played the young Rumber Trees. Okay? They both run set because we get this great opening about the Goliath and it's sinking, and these guys just called up their sons and had them play the younger versions of themselves. The Goliath is a wartime supply vessel that had both munitions and files of morphine that they were taking to the war front. During a storm, it sinks. Adam Coffin is the only survivor and he washes up on shore, where he is found by the young Romer Trees at the beginning of the film. I saw this somewhere. Maybe it was like a YouTube when I was researching, but I would love to see this. I think they included it in the ABC Sunday Night movie.

21:09 Chuck, speaking of TV, though, did you ever get the chance to watch the CBS special presentation? I looked for that. I could not find it. I have not seen it. All the more reason to own a physical copy of this because you're treated to the making of The Deep hosted by Robert Shaw. Chuck. What's cool is it's nineteen seventy seven. ABC releases the making of Star Wars. Oh yeah, not that one I saw. Well, we all saw that one. But Colombia again, like this movie. The marketing behind this movie is just genius. Columbia sees what Fox is doing with Star Wars and they're like, we'll do that too, So they create a one hour special for CBS and when you watch it, it's so goot. Remember that CBS special presentation. I always love that.

21:57 That told you you were in for something good. And right there off the there's Robert Shaw stand in front of the ocean, like, Hey, I'm Robert Shaw, and we're gonna talk about the dangers and the beauty of the deep. Jeff, I want to give you some numbers about the deep. Okay, let me have it, Chuck. Over one million cubic feet of compressed air was used in this film, nearly eleven thousand person hours underwater, approximately nine thousand dives logged. It was one hundred and fifty three days of production. It was the seventh highest grossing film of nineteen seventy seven, behind the likes of Star Wars, Close Encounters and Saturday Night Fever. It cost Peter Goober a half million dollars to buy the rights deal before the novel was published.

22:42 It was filmed in not one, not two, but four different oceans, the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, and the Arctic. The film was released eighteen months after the novel. It was Peter Binchley's second novel, and it was his second novel to be adapted into a film that starred Robert Shaw. And it was the first film to employ an underwater script supervisor for continuity. So, Jeff, how does a movie this successful just vanish from the cultural conversation. That's a great question that I don't have an answer to because I feel like this movie delivers on everything it promises to. We've talked about the action, the romance, the beautiful scenery. Let's not forget Robert Shall tells Peter Guber well, really make this movie awesome. Let us do the underwater filming.

23:41 Director Yates felt that the actors took precedence. Even with all the hardware, it was crucial that they themselves played their parts underwater. When you've seen Nick Nolton and trying to reach a piece of gold and being unable to reach and having to take his moskue off and do it without any breathing underwater, when you see him do it himself, I think an audience gets much more involved and is much more frightened, and therefore enjoys the picture much more. I think the biggest thing. In diving is your own personal fear. And you're spend the first three weeks just reacting to another environment. You're in a kind of a weightless situation. There's fish swimming around you, there's sponges, there's octopuses, there's all sorts of things.

24:24 You're sitting there, you and go you go oh. Your main reaction is wow, you go down. They're the first thing that strikes you just say, Jesus, see, I'm breathing underneath the water. This I don't know if I was supposed to do that, you know, if I was supposed to do that when I have gills. You're seeing Nolty in beset in camera doing a lot of these things. Like I always think about that moment where Nolty's struggling. He's like in that really tight crevice and he has to take off his mask and his you know, his O two or whatever just to reach and you can clearly see it's him, Chuck. They're eight miles out and they're anywhere from thirty feet to one hundred feet deep depending on the day. That's some dangerous stuff. So right there, that should have been enough to make this like one of the most important movies the seventies, if not in a history.

25:08 If I was to tell anybody why you should watch this film, it's for exactly what you just said. Right there, you're seeing the actors. You see there's stunt doubles, of course, but for the most part you can tell it's Nick Nolty. You can tell it's Robert Shaw. And Robert Shaw has an interesting diving suit Can. We talk about this real quick, please? Okay? Because I know we all love to focus on the white T shirt that Jack Lobissett uses to dive in. I got to ask, why is Robert Shaw diving in a white collared button down shirt and a Parakhakey's Oh, don't forget the socks and the sock yeah, the socks. Like I couldn't find anything on why this choice is made. I don't maybe it's in the book, but don't you think that's a little weird?

25:53 You know, he's Robert Shaw playing Romer trees. That's all I could say. This is like, hey, uh my very cool single uncle is gonna teach us how to dive. But he's not going to spend the money on any kind of a diving attire. He's just yeah, yeah, let's do let's do this. He's not once, but I get it if you're like, you're in the middle, Like the story called for him to have to do it, sure in the moment, but he does it like what twice three times? Every time he's down there, he's dressed in khakis or whatever he was wearing above above surface. It's no secret that Robert Shaw enjoyed his drink m yep, and he and Nick Nolty got along very famously, either in between breaks or outside of breaks. I think at some point they were worried that maybe Robert Shaw was diving, possibly intoxicated.

26:43 So here's the thing about that. All these actors have to become certified divers. Right, Shaw decides, if I'm going to do this, you can send someone out to my house. Yeah, in Ireland, I think is where he was living at the time, and that guy was like, I know, I've heard the stories about Jaws. This guy is gonna be drunk like the whole time, and I'm a little worried. But more to the point, Chuck, when you watch this CBS special presentation that's hosted by him, Robert Shaw has this fun little antidote about Nick Nolty's birthday while they're filming, and wanted to cheer Nick Nolty up a little bit. Nolty was using like a double tank situation.

27:24 Working down there with Noughty, I invented a new thing. He has a twin pack now scuba tanks too. You see, one is full of you know, the usual thing are and the other is full of neat vodka. And it's worked on a special little suction pump which we've worked out precisely, and so we get mocked them out for suscitation either way. And Chuck think about this. He's telling this on primetime television and he's like, hey, He's like, you know, you have enough drinks. You don't worry about the sharks that are, you don't worry about drowning, you don't worry about getting caught. You just have a good time. And I'm thinking a lot of people probably watching that in nineteen seventy seven chuckling and going, oh, that Robert Shaw. But I gotta wonder, like, was he really telling a true story because we know the situation with Shaw.

28:16 Did you hear or did they talk about in the CBS special about the biggest underwater sound stage. But the major logistical achievement of the film was this remarkable underwater set one hundred and twenty feet in diameter and thirty feet deep. It contains fifty pounds of sand and a million gallons of actual Atlantic water. It was built on Boez Island in Bermuda. It's roughly one hundred and twenty feet wide, thirty feet deep, and it's a saltwater tank which functioned as a fully underwater studio, and because the bus was a controlled environment, Yeates was able to control the lighting, the visibility, so you get just amazing underwater.

29:00 Composition, beautiful filming. It doesn't look like it's filmed in a pool, and most importantly, it kept the actors safe while showing Nick Nolty, Jack Limpussett and Robert Shaw actually diving. There were times I could not tell when they were in open water versus when they were actually on the set. It's the most impossible to tell between the two because you gotta remember, like the fact that they're pumping in the seawater. I mean, everything's gonna match up as far as I'm concerned. It's the same locale, it's the same water. I was kind of surprised to find out that they had built this giant underwater set on location. I couldn't tell. I absolutely could not tell. Will pause here for just a moment. Think of it as a real change stick around. There's more cinematic flashback coming up right after this, and we're back. The lights are down, the film's rolling, and the final act begins.

29:52 Let's jump back into the cinematic flashback podcast. So The Deep was a box offic success in nineteen seventy SI, but it had a mixed critical reviews, as you could imagine, and today it sits around thirty eight percent on Rotten Tomatoes. At thirty eight percent, does that feel right to you? It feels absolutely wrong. I don't understand it. I think people that are rating it they got the bends. Maybe they came up from they came up too fast. They came up way too fast. Yeah, they came up way too fast. This should not be at thirty eight percent. The only thing I can think of is that if you're going in and you have the mindset Jaws, Jaws is a once in a lifetime film. You can't compare Jaws really to anything else. But if you take The Deep on its own, it's definitely not a thirty eight percent.

30:45 Maybe that's what's wrong. People go, Hey, you like Jaws, right, this is The Deep. This is the same guy. It's even the same actor. And maybe you go in with a little bait and switch. Maybe you just assume that you're going to see something terrifying, like the Eel. But that's not what's terrifying. You know, we got a whole different situation happening with drugs and treasure and voodoo, and maybe people are like, yeah, it's not for me. Yeah it was for me though, I love the deep. What about this film worked for you? Were there any scenes that you just liked that we hadn't really gotten into. Let's just get the one out of the way. The opening of this movie. Fuck, what the hell are you trying to know?

31:30 Down? Or was it I don't something crumb my own mirror. Here? Come listen. I told you you gotta stay with me, David. I think one thing that Peter Yates as really, really well is it kind of lulls you into this false sense of security because you're too busy staring at Jaqueline Busset until she has that first encounter with the eel, and we don't know it's an eel, we don't know what's going on. And that's a violent jerk of her arm underneath that that crevice, and it's terrifying because it just keeps hammering at her right because she's caught, she's trapped, and it will not let go. And you got to remember the stunt woman dislocated her shoulder because the guys on the other side were told Yates said, hey, as hard as you can, and they didn't know. They didn't know that they're physically hurting this woman.

32:36 But it was very violent. It takes you out of that hole, like, oh, Jacquelin Busset. Now you're like, oh my god, jackelab Busset, someone safer, Someone help her. It's playing on your fears of drowning. Oh, absolutely it does. And Chuck, if I could take you back. This movie opens against the Exorcist to the heretic, and what actually was amazing was that the word of mouth on The Exorcist two was so negative as opposed to the strong word of mouth about Jacqueline Bassett in the first ten minutes of The Deep being so positive that when the dust settled, the Exorcis too was like a very distant second. In box office, The Deep was the number one movie. So you gotta give that white T shirt credit one last time.

33:16 Peter Goober said that by the time people sat down and were watching The Deep, they had already seen at least fourteen minutes of the film. You know, there's two parts of making a movie, right, there's production and there's distribution, And in the distribution part. It's their responsibility to promote the film, to get it booked into theaters. And the marketing of this film was so well done that it put butts in seat and it just blew Exorcist too out of the water. What did you have next? Let's get out of the water for a second, because I think one of the best scenes in the film the cliff elevator fight between Nick Nolty's character and one of Klosch's henchmen. And I'm not afraid of heights, but watching this thing, I'm terrified of heights. Oh yeah, because we've got this thrilling moment where David is rushing back.

34:14 They get in the shallows, he dives off the boat, swims hits the beach running because Gail is in danger. He knows Gail is in danger, and the fastest way to get up to her is this. When I say elevator, I'm talking about like a two square. Feet It's not an elevator that you really would want to take down. I would probably take the stairs. It's one action. When I say this makes me feel like I'm watching the James Bond film. This scene definitely did it. It's terrifying. What I liked in this scene is that there's like a one two punch, right. The first punch is when David finally dispatches the individual that they're fighting, and then the second punch is he realizes that the counterweight is shooting up and he's right on top of it, so he has to move at the very last second when it comes up, and you're just like.

35:02 Wow, it's nineteen seventy seven. How did they do that? How did Nick Nolty not just get murdered on set? I don't understand. It's harrowing. Growing up, I always wanted a moped. There was something that just took me back to nineteen seventy seven seeing David and Gale going about the island on their mopads, because all of a sudden, I'm thinking, oh, I always wanted one of those. And then they have to throw in the excitement because now there's a truck that's barreling down on.

36:03 Them, menacing truck. The great thing about this, and what makes it really tense and nerve wracking for you, is that the truck is not trying to push David into the wall and take him out. It's going after Gail. I wonder what the hell this guy's doing. I'm watching this just terrified for David because, like just the helplessness that he has to feel, because you know, if you're the one that the truck is going after, you're helpless regardless. And I'm scared for Gail, but I'm more scared for David because he's right there in the moment.

36:53 What is he gonna do? Chuck Like, how does he save his girl? He can't? Yeah, And that helplessness it kills me every time I watch this movie. I love that scene, but I kind of hate it too. If you're keeping score, Gail has already nearly drowned. She has almost been run over by a truck. She has been made to strip down to show that she doesn't have the ampule of morphine on her body. There's a lot put on Gail. I think there's one more scene I like to address. And you know, the whole reason that David is rushing up this terrifying cliff elevator to get to her is because we see that on the island, the lights are out and we get this terrifying voodoo attack. I've seen this in a couple movies, and every time you're like, please, don't kill the woman. Please, don't assault the woman, and they never do because it's not about that. It's about fear. It's about putting fear in someone. So they you know, you've got these guys in these crazy get ups and they're scary as I'll get out. But then they're holding the woman down. They slowly cut her clothes open, but not to show anything, just to just to get to that chicken foot that's dipped in blood so they can draw their voodoo stuff all over. Yeah, it's just horrific to watch, and it's a terrifying moment.

38:19 So I think that in my thig line, we'll go we'll go home tonight.

39:06 The airport's close, no way off the island. Let's come home with me. I bought my ticket for The Deep. All right, we're treasure hunting. It's an action movie. We're having some fun. Voodoo assault does not register. So when it hits, you're like, where did this come from? My last one that I have to bring up? And we flirted around it. It has to be the Moray Eel Percy. I'm sure they had some scenes like in Jaws of a real Moray Eel, but they also had the mechanical Moray eel and they named it Percy. Percy lives in a hole in the Goliath, And once you know where the hole is, every time they have to swim nearby it, the camera will just kind of linger up at it. You're waiting to let you know where you are in relationship, and at any moment you're ready for that jump, scared to happen again. And I think Peter Yates milked that hole for all it was worth.

40:05 That little hatch in the Goliath, that dark hatch. That's one of the scariest things in this movie because every time they go near it, you're like, in there, is it coming out? We know you're not going in there, but is it gonna poke its head out again? This was check Off's eel. This is definitely check Offs the eel. They showed the eel in the first act. You know it's coming back for the third, so. Well, you're kind of on edge the whole movie because you're like, where is that eel? It's out there? They keep going back to this shipwreck. You know it's in there. You know it's out there somewhere. If it's the first time watch you're looking in the murky areas of the water, like is it there? Is it coming? Any scenes in here that just didn't work for you.

40:46 I'm not gonna say that there were scenes that didn't work for me, but I will say that maybe some of the underwater stuff could be trimmed a little bit. I understand, like we want to just hang out with all the splendor, but you can probably tram a little bit these underwater scenes, just a tad, how about you? And I felt that sometimes when they were out of the water that all of a sudden you started getting a lot more exposition, and for me it was like, Okay, it's starting to slow down here. I've kind of gotten addicted here to the adventure and the action and stuff. I'm ready for it to go on. And I know you liked the voodoo sequence. For me, that just felt it kind of felt a little girl to it is because it didn't really seem to change the plot. Again, I'm keeping score, So this is number four for Gail. Yeah, attacked by voodoo a Haitian voodoo sequences.

41:41 We've thrown everything out here at this point. Some voodoo. So let me tell you what when you find a woman who is that strong and she can get back up and spear a guy at the very end. David, you marrier. So before we asked a question, was there anything else you wanted to cover? Jeff? You know I I think we went deep enough on this one. Chuck. I see what you did there. Okay, let's ask the question, did the Deep group of the decades or did it lose its beat? Hop it the wayback machine and rolling back eight years to the silver screen magic. Jeff, what do you say?

42:22 I do think it grooves and Chuck, if you agree, if your listeners agree, let's not forget about the remix that's out there. Do you know what I'm talking about? I don't. I am talking about the two thousand and five film called Into the Blue, starring Jessica Alba and Paul Walker and Scott con and Josh Brolin. Here's the thing. It's not a remake. It was never builed as a remake of the Deep, but it is a bona fide remake of The Deep. Have you seen you know the movie I'm talking about, Chuck, You've seen it. I having put it together. So my mind's a little blown right now. But think about this, Paul Walker and Jessica whether a couple, they're trying to make ends meet. They're treasure hunters, right, and then they get caught up and this whole thing of we found a shipwreck. There's treasure, but unfortunately there's also drugs, and the guy that we think is our friend is not our friend, and he's the bad guy, and now we got to take him on, and we've got this these spectacular moments underwater. Into the Blue has everything story wise, character wise that The Deep has. The only thing that's missing is a white T shirt for Jesscalba.

43:28 She didn't do that. She didn't need to because she looks fantastic in the bikini that she's wearing. Paul Walker looks fantastic. It's a great movie, but I'm watching it going Does anyone else not realize that we're watching The Deep from nineteen seventy seven? This is The Deep, Chuck. I can hear David Spade saying, but I liked. It better the first time I saw it when it was God. The Deep The Deep. Yeah, absolutely great film. I'm not taking anything away from it. But like the tagline says on the poster, is the treasure worth the terror? It absolutely is? Because this movie grooves man. This film was fast tracked to cash in on Jaws. You have the same author, the same actor, ocean setting.

44:09 Audiences showed up. It sank Exorcist too on its opening weekend, but ask people about it today, and I don't think most people know that it even exists. It didn't have the same cultural impact that Jaws had, even though the film was a hit. Jaws is a once in a lifetime kind of movie, but nothing is going to come close to being a Jaws. That thirty eight percent score, it's way too harsh. There are scenes that could have been tightened up, some of the exposition, some of the diving scenes also could have been tightened up. We could have made this maybe an hour and forty minute movie other than a two hour film. But and that underwater work still looks so good even being a film from nineteen seventy SI you're watching Robert Shaw, Nick Nolty, and Jacqueline Besset for real in scuba gear underwater. So even though the times may have forgotten the deep, I still think it grooves. I really liked it. So before we sign off, Jeff, what is coming up on a film buy?

45:20 What should listeners be excited about. Well, it's December. We're wrapping things up for the season. We got some fun stuff happening. I'm not gonna spoil it, but I will say next week happy to have the Voice of Reason herself, Amber Lewis back in the studio with me. Every year we always try to find a couple obscure movies that I feel our Christmas movies, even though they're not labeled Christmas movies. So her and I will be talking about a film by Danny DeVito, his amazing dark comedy War of the Roses. Fantastic fun on that one, and then of course two days later, our good buddies David, Wayne and Scott's will be back on the Bridge where our phaser set the stun Star Trek themed podcast. They're getting close to wrapping up their starter treks Deep Space nine. I believe they're up to season six, so it's just about wrapped up.

46:09 Hey, Jeff, thank you so much for making this happen tonight. I thoroughly enjoyed talking about the. Deep Yeah, Chuck, thank you for the opportunity. Thank you for taking a chance on this one, because I was very happy to be a part of it. It was my pleasure. I rediscovered a film that I really liked. And thank you listener for hopping into the wayback machine with us today. Have you seen The Deep? Tell us what you thought about it and where it ranks in the Robert Shaw Ocean cinematic universe at Cinematic flashback dot com. Join us next time as we dive into another film from that gruvious decade in cinema. And until then, beware of anything hiding in underwater holes. It probably bites Out dude in every city in town, and we'll see