Sharky's Machine

On the surface SHARKY'S MACHINE is just another crime thriller come star vehicle with the slight gimmick that its star also directs the film . Truth be told Burt Reynolds isn't the greatest actor of his generation but he does have a certain manliness that served him well throughout his career . Likewise as a director there's nothing outstanding here but by the same token it's certainly more than competent . The film is certainly helped by its setting and 1970s cinema is a highpoint of American film making and everything about the film screams 1970s , an era of great cynicism but one that Reynolds has successfully translated well to screen

It wasn't well in to the running time that I realised I was watching a film set in Atlanta because I thought the story was taking place in New York . In those days New York had a terrible reputation as a sleazy place where crime and vice was running out of control . Regardless as to the truth of all this even if you'd never visited the city you'd have images of dirty streets falling in to a state of disrepair and police stations full of hard bitten sarcastic cops interrogating hookers all day every day , a reputation that was probably reinforced by American film makers . Truth to be told Reynolds certainly plays up to this reputation

The film works best in the first third as Reynolds goes undercover to trap a drugs dealer only to see his hard and dangerous work ruined by a colleague and then finds himself being assigned to the vice squad where every enjoyable and amusing cliché is served up to the audience . Once the story starts where Reynolds cop investigates a beautiful call girl called Dominoe things start to fall apart slightly . As several people have mentioned already the film would have worked much better if several scenes had been trimmed or left out completely and the film would have been much better if it was a 90 minute film than a two hour one . As it stands it's an okay crime thriller but you'll probably enjoy it more if you can remember the 1970s

I have always been a huge Burt Reynolds fan, I've always admired his humility and his way of engaging with the audience be it as actor or Director.

The film opens to the enchanting tones of Randy Crawford signing Street life, incidentally the film ends on a duet to what closely must resemble the sound of the emasculation of two cats with a blunt knife.

Anyway Sharky is demoted to Vice when 'he' messed up a drug bust. Down in Vice is where we meet the gang who all add wonderful dimensions to this film and each shines in his role, Charles Durning is hilarious he screams with such intensity you really become concerned for his blood pressure.

Just when it looks like Vice might be boring a whole can of worms opens up when they begin to stake out some 'High class' call girls (the stake out is a little long almost in real time), the plot involves a puppet politician and the puppet master played amazingly by the one and only Vittorio Gassman.

Sharky starts to fall for 'Dominoe' (gorgeous but she's gotta give up the cigarettes she sounds like the Bouvier sisters from the Simpsons) one of the 'High Class' call girls, incidentally Burt Fell for another 'High Class' call girl in 'Hustle'.

Burt was very generous with the script he gave some of the best stuff to the supporting cast, in actual fact sometimes through the movie in his quest to build Sharky as the strong silent type the lack of script for himself turned Sharky into the strong boring type. This was very apparent when he was finally with Dominoe at his pad, he was pining around like a 13 year old. He couldn't string two words together he just looked bashful so bashful he almost looked mentally challenged, he did everything bar kicking his heels looking at the floor and saying "Gee golly I ain't never done kissed no girl be fower hu hulk".

In all it's a very entertaining film, it drags a bit here and there, but it always comes back to life and the last 30 minutes are a roller-coaster, watch out for Henry Silva who plays a whacked out hit man, my favorite scene is when he points his gun at Arch and…..

Sharky's Machine is directed by Burt Reynolds and written by William Diehl and Gerald Di Pego. It stars Reynolds, Vittorio Gassman, Rachel Ward, Henry Silva, Carol Locatell, Brian Keith, Bernie Casey, Earl Holliman and Charles Durning. Music is by Snuff Garrett and cinematography by William A. Fraker. Plot finds Reynolds as Atlanta narcotics cop Tom Sharky, who finds himself busted down to vice squad after a drug bust goes badly wrong. If he thought it was going to be dull and routine he is very much mistaken, for soon enough Sharky finds himself in deep with a high class prostitution ring, political corruption and cold blooded murder.

The Sharky's Machine of the title is the group of cops that Tom Sharky gathers for the case he is working on. What starts out as standard surveillance at the home of beautiful hooker Domino (Ward), turns into a bloody trip into the workings of the seedy kingpins pulling the strings. But the kicker here is that as Sharky becomes an unwilling voyeur to Dominoe's life, he finds himself falling for her. He's fascinated by her, he feels from a distance her sadness of a life that she knows no better of. Tom Sharky is a tough dude, a manly man, a perfect role for Reynolds in fact, but he also needs to be loved, he likes roses and wood carving, he looks back to a childhood lost, it's this compelling characterisation that lifts Sharky's Machine above many other cop thrillers in a similar vein.

The film is, however, still violent and unflinching in its observations of this seedy part of Atlanta. Scum, violence and abuse is never far away, and Reynolds the director shows a deft hand at balancing the rough with the smooth motions of the narrative. He also shows admirable restraint for sex scenes, choosing mostly to suggest rather than titillate, while his acting performance is top notch as he neatly layers the strands of Sharky's emotional psyche. Around Reynolds is an array of engaging professional performances, notably Casey, Keith, a wonderfully maniacal Silva and Ward, the latter of which blends smouldering sexuality with an innocence that tugs the old heart strings.

Some of the outcome is telegraphed early, and the ending, having been a frantic and bloody last quarter, is crowned too abruptly (a shame since it contains an awesome stunt), but much like Reynolds' 1975 film Hustle, this too is badly undervalued in the neo-noir universe. 8/10

Vice copy (Burt Reynolds) falls for a high-price call girl (Rachel Ward) who's under the thumb of an underworld lord (Gassman). The storyline is highly improbable, has a VERY slow stretch with Reynolds watching Ward through binoculars, has tons of gunfights and gallons of blood. Also, very sleazy. Still, I was never really bored. I was in the mood for a stupid, violent movie and this delivered. Reynold is OK in the lead; Charles Durning is very funny as his boss (he basically walks around yelling and cursing--and enjoying it); Gassman is appropriately slimy as the underworld leader. Best of all is Ward--she is incredible gorgeous and gives this movie a much better performance than it deserves. Worth watching, solely for her.

I haven't seen every single movie that Burt Reynolds has ever made, but this one (which I've just finished watching, for the third time) may very well be his best! It suffers only from some slow stretches; Burt perhaps tried to make it more "arty" than it should have been. On the other hand, he managed to avoid many of the usual cliches in the presentation of the "tough cop" role he plays (notice, for example, the scene in which he attempts to kiss Rachel Ward for the first time, or the fear he expresses just before the final showdown with the indestructible Henry Silva). In fact, Silva and those two ninja assassins are three of the most memorable villains of cop thrillers of the 80s. The film also has some offbeat touches, a surprising amount of humor, a brutal and gripping fistfight and many well-directed shots. (***)