Beast of War
With fifty years since the emergence of "Jaws," it's appropriate that another shark thriller comes splashing around in the guise of "Beast of War," directed by Australian Kiah Roache-Turner (who made another creature feature, Sting). "Beast of War" is a fast-paced intense and beautiful-looking survival horror with strong performances from its mostly male-cast and some gnarly moments of gore. It also packs in some interesting character moments that help fill out the basic tropes you find in these kind of pictures.
While vaguely inspired by the U.S.S. Indianapolis disaster as so memorably recounted by Robert Shaw in "Jaws," the film is actually based on the sinking of the Royal Australian Navy corvette HMAS Armidale in 1942. The story is told through a group of new recruits, who we meet initially in basic training before they ship out to the the Timor sea. Their vessel goes down and a few of the rookies survive, only to discover their makeshift raft is being hunted by a huge and super-hungry great white shark.
The main characters are sketched broadly, with a running dispute between Indigenous Australian Leo (Mark Coles Smith) and Des (Sam Delich), who is quickly established as a racist opposed to Leo's presence in the squad. Leo not only has leadership skills and a strong moral core, but he also has a secret tragic past, where his brother was killed by a shark. Is it the same one? The film seems to posit the animal as an ancient monster, almost mythically so. But there's nothing mythical about this shark, which Roache-Turner seems to enjoy showing chomping on folks with absolute glee.
The shark itself is one of the big issues with the film. It's been promoted as being all practical, which is great, but it's been sculpted for maximum impact whenever it's shown, which to be fair is quite a lot, perhaps too much. The thing is that it doesn't really look like an actual great white but rather a grizzled and more monstrous shark, with white eyes. I guess this is supposed to play up the mythical aspect, but it kind of looks like a zombie shark and takes away from the realism of the situation.
"Beast of War" is a decent picture that rockets along, but it sometimes feels kind of episodic, with either the shark bits or Leo and Des going at it at alternate moments. This just gets tired and after a while, and as a result the film never feels coherent enough, like it's filler to get it up to a decent running time. The best thing about the film is its quite beautiful cinematography by Mark Wareham, which has an impressionistic feel that adds to the mythicism, with a gorgeous palette. The score is a bit generic, and is fairly unmemorable, other than heavy percussion for some of Leo's moments and some shakuhachi for the appearance of a Japanese kamikaze fighter pilot.
I probably seem more down on the film than I am, that's mainly because of my shark nerdiness. The cast performances really help the film rise above tropes and some terrible dialogue, and the picture has some terrifically tense moments, and also a kind of hilarious-but-entertaining moment when the shark pops out of the water seemingly to show off the effects. There are also some terrific wartimes moustaches.
"Beast of War" is a quick and fun shark thriller. It maybe could have been a bit nastier - I think some people are afraid to add some cruelty to proceedings, but it does include a guy getting kersploded by a grenade at very close range. Smith's lead performance is strong, and it looks stunning. Get one of those "Jaws" popcorn buckets and a life jacket and you'll have a good time.
