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Special Features
- Widescreen Feature Film
- Audio Commentary
- Diving into Blue Water, White Death
Editorial Reviews
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An Interview with Blue Water, White Death Filmmaker Valerie Taylor
 There are a few scary moments in the film, of course, but was there any one particular moment you recall when you really thought someone was going to get hurt?Yes, when we first left the cages, there were over 100 big potentially dangerous sharks around us all in a feeding pattern. I thought "this is madness , one of us could get bitten. I said to Peter you go out first and if you make it I will come out after you." "watching Peter leave the cage by himself was both fascinating and fearful". I think that was my most frightened moment. I guess no one likes to see a friend in what is a very dangerous situation. Surprisingly when I swam out and joined him there was no fear just a huge excitement. Jaws came out a few years after this, and of course Benchley was inspired by Blue Water, White Death. How did you feel about that and its portrayal of sharks as man-eating monsters? Jaws was a fictitious film about a pretend shark. It was the same as a gorilla destroying the building in King Kong. Just a story. I do not know why it affected people the way it did. People loved the gorilla and hated the shark. Universal had us going around the US doing TV and radio interviews talking about sharks and how sharks did not think or behave like the fictitious beast in Jaws. I guess it is the fear of the unknown. Sharks are not well understood. They live in an alien environment. Gorillas live in ours. We understand them better. Once you understand an animal it becomes less fearful. Do you have one particularly interesting memory from this adventure that’s etched in your mind? What was the greatest part of this whole adventure? Absolutely. Diving with the oceanic white tips in the open ocean while they were feeding on the whale. No one had ever done anything like this before and no one will ever do it again. It was the greatest, most exciting few weeks in my life. I would pay to do it again. Sheer unadulterated adventure. A trip back in time to a world unchanged in several million years. Blue Water, White Death was a gift which at the time I was unaware of. The greatest part of the whole adventure was, quite simply, the adventure. What do you hope people watching this film for the first time today will get out of it? The same as they did when it first came out. It has not dated. It is an exciting and true undertaking such as few people are ever lucky enough to experience. No one ever asked us to act a part. Jim Lipscomb, the above water cameraman, was incredible the way he followed us around carrying that big 35-mm Arriflex on his shoulder. We became used to him and his camera but he was always there recording everything we did. It is a great pity that all the outtakes are lost. There is a second story just in what never appeared in the final production. Did this expedition and your experience swimming with great whites change your life in any significant way? We had worked with Great Whites before. It was the Oceanic sharks that changed how I looked at dangerous sharks and it was the wonderful people I was so fortunate to be working with that gave us friendships that endure to this day that were most significant to me. However, I guess it was the original story about hunting for the biggest Great White that gave me these memories, so Great Whites have enriched my life. Also Ron's filming of these wonderful sharks opened the way for us to work on Jaws, Jaws 2, and Orca. I guess swimming with Great Whites did make a big difference to the lives of both of us. We still work with Great Whites but we will never be able to dive with hundreds of big sharks feeding on a whale carcass again, nobody will. Thirty eight years ago, before the impact of computer technology we lived in a different world. Today Blue Water, White Death could probably be produced in a computer. Can you talk a bit about the filming technology of that time and how challenging it was to film underwater? I did not do any underwater filming. That was Ron Taylor, Stan Waterman and Peter Gimbel. They were shooting on 35-mm film in the Techniscope format which is very wide screen. I was just a female shark wrangler. I also did a lot of the underwater still photography. However watching the problems the underwater cinema-photographers had to overcome, I was always relieved when all the cameras worked and no great sequences were missed because of camera failure. It was not a filming job where any missed action could be repeated. |
Product Description
BLUE WATER WHITE DEATH - DVD Movie
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally its here.....A True Masterpiece!!,
This review is from: Blue Water, White Death (DVD)
In 1969 Peter Gimbel set off on the First ever Expedition to Film The Great White Shark. His Team included other World famous underwater Photographers: Stan Waterman, Ron & Valerie Taylor, and also Shark Attack Survivor Rodney Fox.Their search for the Great White lasted for 9 months and it took them from South Africa to South Australia. The tension, the drama, the setbacks... of a long journey, plus the first ever awesome underwater photography make this documentary an all time classic and a living tribute both to the team and the sharks. A lot of the footage that was Filmed had never been seen before. Some highlights like the dives with the feeding Oceanic Whitetips, and the final encounter with the Great White Shark are simply awesome. Peter Gimbel and his team were the first to introduce me to SHARKS with this Documentary when I first saw it in 1971 and Since then, my life has never been the same again. A True Masterpiece!!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
At last...!,
This review is from: Blue Water, White Death (DVD)
I first have seen this movie when I was a teenager. And never since this time. I watch out for the DVD and now here it is ! Don't miss this movie. This is not JAWS but a very impressive shark movie one of the very real first ! It is an historical account not only about the history of scubadiving Captain Cousteau or Hans Hass began years ago (as reported in HDS last issue) but also about the way we considered Mother Nature in the 70's.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
At long last it is here - the movie that started them all,
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This review is from: Blue Water, White Death (DVD)
I remember seeing this when it first came out and have waited years to see it again. I have been a diver for 20 years. This is one of those movies that started it all. The stars of the movie, Stan Waterman, Peter Gimbel, and the Taylor's are icons in the diving and underwater film making business. This is the first movie of Great White sharks and the lengths to which these people went to film them are astounding. These adventurers went out in the middle of the Indian Ocean, parked themselves next to a sperm whale carcass, and got up close and personal with large oceanic sharks at feeding time. They also went to the Hermes wreck at 180 feet and off the coast of Dangerous Reef in the Sourthern Ocean.- no dive computers, no DAN to evac you out, and never quite knowing what to expect. This is a true life adventure caught on tape when diving really was by the seat of your pants. If you are a diver or adventurer you must see this film. If you like the film buy the book that documents the adventure - Blue Meridian - The Search for the Great White Shark by Peter Matthiessen
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