The Deep

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Peter Yates directs. Christopher Challis behind the camera. John Barry scores. David Berlatsky cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in French, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Grossed $100M — a 11.1× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
• 249 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
• 3Dialogue crosses 2 languages: French, English.
• 4International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.
• 5Directed by Peter Yates, shot by Christopher Challis. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 6Original score by John Barry. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 7Editor David Berlatsky shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 8Robert Shaw and Jacqueline Bisset and Nick Nolte carry the top of the cast.
• 9Marketing tagline: "Is anything worth the terror of the Deep?".
• 10IMDB entry: tt0075925 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 11Classified under 11 themes, including "treasure", "based on novel or book", "diving", "ocean".

The technical file

Cinematography

Christopher Challis

Original score

John Barry

Editing

David Berlatsky

Production design

Anthony Masters

Costume design

Ron Talsky

Makeup / hair

Edouard F. Henriques III

Stunt coordinator

Jimmy Nickerson

Runtime

123 min · 2h 3m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$9,000,000

Box office

$100,000,000

Return

1111% of budget

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

PG

IMDB

The Deep (1977) ↗

Also by

Peter Yates

• 
  Koroshi

  1968 · ★ 8.0
• 
  The Saint

  1962 · ★ 7.4
• 
  Danger Man

  1960 · ★ 7.3
• 
  The Friends of Eddie Coyle

  1973 · ★ 7.2
• 
  Breaking Away

  1979 · ★ 7.2
• 
  Bullitt

  1968 · ★ 7.2

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Challenge of The Deep (1977) Making of "The Deep" stars Jacqueline Bisset, Nick Nolte, Robert Shaw

  Behind the Scenes
• 

  ▶
  The Deep (1977) Original Trailer [HD]

  Trailer
• 

  ▶
  Official Trailer

  Teaser · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• John Chard2019-04-29
  ★ 5/10

  Stylish but sadly lacking any substance. No doubting that The Deep was a film hoping to cash in on the monster success of Jaws two summers previously. Written by Jaws author Peter Benchley, The Deep on the page is never fully realised here on the screen, and sadly the film never lifts itself out of standard adventure territory. From the onset it looked to be heading in the right direction, a great first hour of genuine intrigue and tension keeps the viewer interested, where we have ship wrecks, treasure, voodoo, a gorgeous locale, a gruff Robert Shaw and Jacqueline Bisset's wet t-shirt! but the film drifts onto formulaic sand and peters out like a damp squib (or should that be squid?). Lovely to look at (the underwater sequences are gorgeous), and the acting is fine enough from all of the leads, yet a meandering drug plot only has one wishing that a big shark would come and swallow the whole bloody picture and regurgitate it with a bit more oomph and passion. 5/10

  Read full review ↓
• Wuchak2020-03-05
  ★ 6/10

  Okay, but lackluster island/oceanic treasure-hunting adventure A vacationing couple in Bermuda (Nick Nolte & Jacqueline Bisset) comes upon a sunken WW2 ship whereupon they find an ampule of morphine, one of myriad aboard the wreck. This stirs up the interest of a Haitian drug dealer (Louis Gossett Jr.) and an old treasure hunter (Robert Shaw). Eli Wallach and Robert Tessier are on hand as friends of the old salt. “The Deep” (1977) was based on author Peter Benchley’s follow-up to his mega-successful “Jaws” and was successful at the box office due to that momentum. However, it’s nowhere near great like that book/film. Similar oceanic adventure/thrillers include “Into the Blue” (2005), which is practically a remake of “The Deep,” and “Fool’s Gold” (2008), as well as the direct-to-video “Into the Blue 2: The Reef” (2009). The latter, believe it or not, is easily the best of the lot; it has the most compelling story and the best women, which proves that you don’t need ginormous–bucks and mega-stars to make a quality flick of this ilk. This one is realistic, but the story lacks drive and I was never able to warm up to the three main characters for some odd reason. Bisset is serviceable, but she never did anything for me, although she has gorgeous eyes and no one can deny the formidableness of her bosom. The movie runs 2 hours, 3 minutes, and was shot in Bermuda; RMS Rhone Wreck, British Virgin Islands; and Australia. GRADE: B-/C+

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  EMI Films

  GB

• 

  Casablanca Filmworks

  GB

• 

  Columbia Pictures

  US

Key crew

• NovelPeter Benchley
• CastingMike Fenton
• Makeup ArtistEdouard F. Henriques III
• ProducerPeter Guber
• Production DesignAnthony Masters
• Associate ProducerGeorge Justin
• Costume DesignRon Talsky
• Special EffectsIra Anderson Jr.
• CastingJane Feinberg
• Set DecorationVernon Dixon
• Art DirectionJack Maxsted
• EditorDavid Berlatsky
• Production ManagerGeorge Justin
• HairstylistPat McDermott
• Sound RecordistRobin Gregory
• Stunt CoordinatorJimmy Nickerson

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• treasure
• based on novel or book
• diving
• ocean
• shipwreck
• bermuda
• scuba diving
• underwater
• drugs
• shark
• caribbean sea

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical1977-06-17PG

Also known as

International titles

• Les Grands FondsFR
• Die TiefeDE
• O Tesouro do Fundo do MarBR