Review: The Deep
Blu-ray: The Deep (1977)
David Saunders (Nick Nolte) and Gail Burke (Jaqueline Bisset) scuba dive while on holiday together in Bermuda. During the dive Gail finds an ampule of something and David finds a barnacle-encrusted pendant. They seek the advice of resident treasure hunter Romer Treece (Robert Shaw) on the origin of the pendant, and on seeing the mysterious ampule, pockets it. Here ensues a tale of voodoo, torture, treasure, murder and lashings of rum.
I must have been pretty young when I saw The Deep for the first time, but instantly knew it was one of the films my dad enjoyed and was known as ‘The nipple film’. The reason for this is evident within the first 20 seconds of the movie. Yes, Jacqueline Bisset’s magnificent nipples, both of them, barely encased in a skin tight, wet t-shirt. She is extremely sexy. They make several re-appearances during the film, and unfortunately this one thing does actually date the movie with a firm stamp of 1970’s.
I know it wasn’t a hit when it came out, and if you read other reviews it’s not a highly thought of film, however, it IS very much in the vein of its peers, those 70’s actioners that always remind me of Roger Moore as James Bond, the action is over the top, the bad guys are all massive but not muscular and NO ONE does kung fu when they fight.
Of course the added bonus of Robert Shaw is always a plus for me, and seeing Nick Nolte, young and angry in most scenes is a shock, remembering how good looking he once was. It is a solid Sunday afternoon film, okay maybe not with all the nipple on show and the rapey bad guys. But nevertheless, enjoyable.
The extras on this disc are good too. Kevin Lyons commentary is really interesting, he talks about so many topics and adds a lot of relevant info to the making of and the lives of the actors. My one criticism of Kevin’s commentary which I found a bit distracting was the mic must have quite close to his mouth, making it sound like he had a mouthful of spit when he talked. BUT I know how hard commentaries are and I also know how much work goes into them, so Kudos to Kevin!
Perhaps the best extra are the selected scenes from the 3 hour film. It seemed to be a ‘thing’ in the 70s and 80’s to reel out a film over a few nights by adding new scenes to expand the story, much like the weird add-on beginning to A Fistful of Dollars that Dave talked about in a previous ClintCast. The Deep has had some scenes from the film re-inserted, but also 50 minutes of new stuff, all in a very late 70’s TV film style.
All in all a really great package from 101 Films.
Special Features
- Cinema Retro mini-magazine: The Deep ‘Film in Focus’ Special
- Commentary with film critic Kevin Lyons (NEW)
- Interview with Underwater Art Director Terry Ackland-Snow (NEW)
- The Making of the Deep
- Select Scenes from the 3 hour Special Edition
The Deep is released 14th September 2020.
Review by Tina from a disc kindly supplied by 101 Films.