Sharky's Machine
Burt is Sharky...Nobody Leans on Sharky's Machine
Burt Reynolds stars in and directs this atmospheric, volatile action thriller about an Atlanta cop whose gung-ho tactics on a narcotics case gets him demoted to the vice squad. There he forms a colorful crew into a machine aimed at bigger prey: crimelord Victor D'Anton.
Member Reviews
Visit back to the 70's - Porkchop
SHARKY'S MACHINE (1981) definitely has that 70's feel to it, for various reasons,
such as the technology used at the office by detectives, the large automobiles,
the immense run down sections of the inner city, with abandoned buildings from the
recession, etc.
Another typical 70's element of the picture, is simply the mature relationships
seen between women and men, light years from the juvenile deliquency seen all too
often over the past 20 years in the movies. Another 70's element brought up that
the story touches upon, is the cocaine dependency of the bad guy, (in addition to
other pills), as well as hostage taking, car jackings.
A remarkable aspect is the number of regular, close quarters, pistol shooting
confrontations, between the detectives and the gangsters.
A lot of the work is TV-style, as it's not widescreen, and lacks subtitles.
Perhaps much of the film is inspired from reality, as it tells how top performing
homicide detectives and others get demoted to the vice squad, from bad publicity of
one or more arrests that got out of hand, such that Reynolds finds himself chasing
sex workers, illicit drug users and so called perv's.
A number of then high-tech surveillance techniques are introduced to viewers,
such as ultra-powerful lens cameras, audio bugs capturing the dialog of suspects,
tapping phones by court order, and how a stakeout goes down. The pretext of
surveillance leaves the door wide open for voyeurism, which in this case, means
observing class aerobics and tennis played by the lovely Rachel Ward.
As stated earlier, the underlying frustration of citizens in face of the cities at
that time, facing financial crisis from inflation, and paralysis from corruption
of interests, with the juxaposition of a politician being chosen, financed and elected
by the underworld, and Reynolds, who has a totally opposite view, sticking to his
no-
Member Reviews
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Visit back to the 70's - Porkchop
SHARKY'S MACHINE (1981) definitely has that 70's feel to it, for various reasons,
such as the technology used at the office by detectives, the large automobiles,
the immense run down sections of the inner city, with abandoned buildings from the
recession, ...