Finally released in the UK, For the first time on Blu Ray is THE DEEP. A complex blend of drug smuggling, sunken treasure and a monstrous Moray eel that has a taste for human flesh. Though not to everyone’s liking, this is frankly something of a 70s classic. Mixing all of blockbuster cinemas troupes into a brilliant action adventure.

Gail Berke (Jacqueline Bisset) and David Sanders (Nick Nolte) are on a romantic holiday in the sunny island of Bermuda. They swim, walk the sand and dive the wrecks. Until that is they find a sunken wreck of a WWII freighter. Discovered aboard is an ampule of morphine, one of tens of thousands in the hull. Haitian drug dealer, Cloche (Louis Gossett) wants a taste of this. But treasure hunter, Romer Treece (Robert Shaw) might have other ideas when he sees they have a bracelet for a Spanish queen among the haul recovered.

If you know THE DEEP, then you know Peter Benchley. If you know him then you know JAWS. So you will know that the film is based on a product of harsh and often unlikable people, being awful and then winning in the end.  Add to this mix, a beautiful woman and a director like Peter Yates and you get something combustible.

It never fully goes off though and this is actually a good thing. The sexuality on display is tapered and the taste is clever and broad. We ain’t here to ogle. We are here to watch action, mystery and adventure. All of which is handle efficiently enough, if not heavily paced. I think for the viewer, this experience needed time and tide to work.

DISC

The overall quality has been lifted and given a nice but fairly standard wash over for the Blu Ray. It didn’t need more. No more to be honest.  The film was well kept and from a major US label. It had under gone some TLC, for it is a well known and quite well like film that is well regarded. So recently cleaned and so…

EXTRAS  

I would only say that some times the film is on par with the extras on offer. The 3 hour version snippets is where I tip my hat. Cameron Mitchell appears. The boat sinks. The action is ludicrous and adds to the charm.

Extras:

• The Making of the Deep
• Select Scenes from the three-hour Special Edition
• Cinema Retro mini magazine
• Commentary with film critic Kevin Lyons
• Interview with Underwater Art Director Terry Ackland-Snow