Shark A.K.A. Man Eater, also known as Caine, is an infamously controversial killer shark film, created in 1969.
Shark was originally going to be titled Caine, world wide, after the main character's name, but the producers decided to change it so the film would sound more like a killer animal movie and therefore attract the younger crowds.
This film is a rather straightforward story, based on the highly popular novel, His Bones Are Coral and is about a man by the name of Caine, played by Burt Reynolds. Caine is a gunrunner who loses his cargo, when he is chased by the boarder patrol, near a small costal Sudanese town, even though it was entirely filmed in Mexico. Caine winds up being stuck in Sudanese town, where he meets a beautiful woman who hires him to raid a sunken ship in the nearby shark-infested waters. Caine is soon thrown into a race against a group of rival treasure hunters and the ever blood thirsty man eating sharks to get to the gold first.
Shark is a rather simple film, with few twists in its plot, but when you look at the story behind how this film came to be, it certainly makes it worth a look at.
In the opening credits it is stated: "This film is dedicated to the fearless stuntmen who repeatedly risked their lives against attacks in shark-infested waters during the filming of this picture", which seems to be an understatement, as one of the stuntmen was actually attacked and killed on camera when he was working with a shark that was supposedly sedated. To make matters worse, the production company of Shark used this tragedy to help promote the screening of the film, which was the last straw for the director. Director Samuel Fuller, who had already been clashing with the producers on a wide variety of issues, which soon prompted him to quit the film's production.
Fuller fought to get his name removed from the credits, but, unfortunately for him, it still remains there to this day. When Fuller finally got to watch the finished product, he was quoted saying that he didn't even recognise the picture as he believed it was re-edited by the producer and never wanted to talk about the project again.
Shark A.K.A. Man Eater (also known as Caine) is rated PG as parental guidance is recommended and is available on VHS and was re-released on DVD by Troma.
