Italian exploitation riff on "Jaws" was notorious for being yanked from theaters after the producers mounted a multimillion dollar ad campaign (that looks like it cost a lot more than anything in the actual film) that attracted the attention of Steven Spielberg and Universal Pictures. Spielberg and crew took legal action against the makers of "Great White" and had the film removed from theaters.<br /><br />Vic Morrow does his best Robert Shaw impression when a 35 foot (yes, 35 foot) great white infiltrates a popular tourist beach and starts eating windsurfers and other ditzy people who like to fall off boats into the water whenever they see a giant shark fin circling.<br /><br />I can't imagine why Universal sued. While obviously similar, it's not really the plot from "Jaws" any more than Ovidio Assonitis's "Tentacles" was; in fact, "Great White" shares a lot in common with "Tentacles". Both films have very similar regatta disaster scenes, where their title creature rampages through a group of boaters (or in the case of "Great White", windsurfers). Interestingly, both films also reveal that the filmmakers are not American due to unrealistic depictions of American celebrations. Both films feature bizarre "Uncle Sam" type characters entertaining crowds of laughing, cheering people, and this one even shows a cheering New England crowd waving both American and the Confederate flag. Hmmmmm.<br /><br />Well, back to the movie itself; if you haven't seen it, you're probably wondering what it could be like. If you've seen any Italian exploitation pictures from the 70s or 80s, then just imagine one of the worst ones you've seen, such as Lamberto Bava's "Monster Shark" or Joe D'Amato's "Killing Birds". The soundtrack has the same kind of pseudo-disco thriller music that appeared in "Tentacles", in fact the music is very similar. But the biggest problem that I had with "Great White" is that the shark effects are way more ambitious than the film can handle. When Spielberg's shark didn't look real enough, he started filming around it and cutting it out of the picture. The shark in "Great White" is front and center so often that it ruins any credibility that it may have had otherwise. It's supposed to be 35 feet long, yet we never get the idea that it's that large. The bits that are intercut with shark stock footage do not match the fake shark, and even the fake shark scenes don't match. Perhaps worst of all, the director shows the entire body of the shark in the frame, and we can easily see that it's nothing more than a model. I could go on, but you get the idea. The movie tries to give us a few grisly attacks, including one where a man has both his legs bitten off, but it's hard to feel any real dread or tension over impending death by fake shark head. There's a notorious scene where a helicopter crashes into the water after the shark gets ahold of it, and it's a bizarre clash of toy models. Combine all this with Vic Morrow's scenery-chewing performance, the typical Italian dub job, and the shoddy special effects, and you've got one of the cheesiest sharkfests to rise from the depths.