Sharky’s Machine (dir. Burt Reynolds, 1981)
I have known about Sharky’s Machine since watching The Venture Bros. episode “Careers in Science” in August 2004. In the show’s storied mythology, Sharky’s Machine was supposed to play as the Movie Night selection on the space station Gargantua-One until a tragedy results in the deaths of most of the crew. Being a huge fan of The Venture Bros. I knew that eventually I would have to see the second most famous film to feature the song “Street Life” after Jackie Brown.
Burt Reynolds plays an Atlanta police detective named Tom Sharky, who is reassigned to work vice after a narcotics bust goes sideways. He and his team are conducting surveillance on a prostitution ring whose clients include a candidate for governor of Georgia. In the course of the stakeout, Sharky becomes obsessed with a sex worker named Dominoe (Rachel Ward). Sharky witnesses a murder committed by a psychotic mobster named Victor D’Anton (Vittorio Gassman) in Dominoe’s apartment, and, believing the victim to be Dominoe, now has a personal stake in solving the crime.
Based on a novel by William Diehl, Sharky’s Machine can also be seen as Burt Reynolds’ remake of Otto Preminger’s classic 1944 film Laura, in which a detective by Dana Andrews becomes obsessed with Gene Tierney’s title character. Burt Reynolds does not improve on Preminger’s work in any way, but he does add some very interesting touches like a Korean crime gang that wield nunchucks and finger mutilation. Like his previous film Hustle, Sharky’s Machine has some frankly horrifying sexual politics that undercut my enjoyment of the film, but I still found other things in the film to enjoy–for instance, death-by-nunchuck and Burt Reynolds beginning to face his own mortality onscreen.
oliveresque 