Swimming with Sharks (1994)

Director:

George Huang

Writer:

George Huang (writer)

Release Date:

21 March 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

Back Stabbing - Two Faced - Revenge

Plot:

A young, naive Hollywood studio assistant finally turns the tables on his incredibly abusive producer boss.

Plot Keywords:

Hollywood | Boss | Assistant | Movie Producer | Torture

Awards:

3 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Kevin Spacey	...	Buddy Ackerman
Frank Whaley	...	Guy
Michelle Forbes	...	Dawn Lockard
Benicio Del Toro	...	Rex
T.E. Russell	...	Foster Kane
Roy Dotrice	...	Cyrus Miles
Matthew Flint	...	Manny
Patrick Fischler	...	Moe
Jerry Levine	...	Jack

Also Known As:

The Boss
The Buddy Factor

MPAA:

Rated R for some scenes of psychological/physical torture and pervasive strong language.

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:MA | Argentina:13 | South Korea:15 | Germany:16 | Singapore:R(A) | Spain:13 | UK:15 | USA:R | Singapore:PG (re-rating) | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Culver Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Cineville

Trivia:

Buddy Ackerman's character was inspired by real life movie mogul Joel Silver. He's a famous producer Huang used to work for.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: When Guy is recalling his favorite movie memories on his first date with Dawn, he recalls the summer of 1988, in which he saw Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Then again, Gabe Kaplan was not in The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (1979) as Guy says he was, so it's clear that his memory isn't all that he claims. He was probably thinking of Fast Break (1979) in which Kaplan played a basketball coach.

Quotes:

Dawn: How about lunch?
Guy: Well, I'm not allowed to take lunch, Buddy doesn't believe in it.

Movie Connections:

References Sleeping Beauty (1959)

Soundtrack:

HALF A LIFE

One of the best artistic commentaries on the professional world

This film would be worth watching just for Kevin Spacey's portrayal of the ultimate boss from hell, Buddy Ackerman, but there's also much more than that going on. Ostensibly a damning look at the inner workings of the film business, Swimming with Sharks just as accurately depicts any highly dysfunctional employer/employee/associate relationships, and that's a lot of them.

But even more than that, there is a lot of mostly unstated philosophical material underpinning much of the film, some of it literal and some more metaphorical, such as the ending. One of the key lines of dialogue towards this end is Ackerman's, "If you're not a rebel by 21, you've got no heart, and if you haven't gone establishment by 30, you've got no brain".

Ackerman obviously has problems or he wouldn't be acting quite in the way that he is, but director George Huang and Spacey are also careful to show that Ackerman has a lot more going on than surface behavior--he's acting the way that he is purposefully, both to get his due now as part of the establishment and to coyly manipulate his young, meek and abused underling, Guy (Frank Whaley), along with everyone else he comes into contact with. His aim is to mold Guy in a particular way--a way that works even though Guy thinks that he's severely breaking form in the extended penultimate scene that's intercut with Guy and Ackerman's history.

Huang shows professional relationships as consisting mostly of politicking and manipulation. That's true at every level--certainly even Guy is doing this. There is very little authenticity to anyone in their working relationships. That seems pretty accurate to me, unfortunately. It's notable that the one dream of authenticity in the film--Guy talking about moving to Wyoming with Dawn (Michelle Forbes)--is treated and dispensed with as an unreachable fantasy, and it's also notable (and is fairly literally pointed out in the film) that Dawn, the one character who tries to demand being more authentic amidst the "shark infested waters" of the professional world, basically never gets anywhere.

In the highly metaphorical ending of the film, things remain manipulative, political and backstabbing, and in that climate, at least two out of three characters "win". Huang seems to be suggesting that the professional world ain't likely to change any time soon, and that even if you try to change it or manipulate the game itself, you're likely to just get eaten up by it, processed by it and incorporated into it anyway. Again, I can't say I disagree with him.