The Deep

Jacqueline Bisset, Nick Nolte diving in 1977’s The Deep | 4K

Original was uploaded on 2023-02-25

The Deep is a 1977 adventure film based on Peter Benchley’s 1976 novel of the same name. It was directed by Peter Yates, and stars Robert Shaw, Jacqueline Bisset and Nick Nolte.

The Deep was released on June 17, 1977, and was well received by the public. For the first time in film history the audience saw the real underwater world filmed in Panavision. The film reportedly cost $8.5 million to market having assured promotional partners that by opening day over 200 million people would have read, seen or heard about The Deep more than 15 times. Upon its release, the film was noted for its opening scene of Jacqueline Bisset swimming underwater while wearing only a thin, white T-shirt and a black bikini bottom. A possibly opportunistic photo of Bisset in character taken underwater by the wreck of RMS Rhone was used to target the men’s lifestyle market without her approval. Producer Peter Guber claimed this helped make the film a box office success, and said “That T-shirt made me a rich man!”

Variety reported that The Deep opened to $8,124,316 on 800 screens beating the opening weekend record set by Jaws, although it had opened on almost double the number of screens that Jaws had. It was the eighth-highest-grossing film of 1977 in the United States and Canada with a gross of $47.3 million.

Cast:
Robert Shaw as Romer Treece
Jacqueline Bisset as Gail Berke
Nick Nolte as David Sanders
Louis Gossett Jr. as Henri ‘Cloche’ Bondurant (Credited as Louis Gossett)
Eli Wallach as Adam Coffin
Dick Anthony Williams as Slake
Earl Maynard as Ronald
Bob Minor as Wiley
Teddy Tucker as The Harbor Master

Copyright: Sony Pictures

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