Throwback Thursday: ‘Swimming With Sharks’

I could start out in the most obvious and typical way by asking you if you’ve ever had a boss you hate. A boss you’d love to tell off, or, dare I say… a boss you yearn to see bad things happen to? Well, that’s not what I’m going to do.

“Shut up! Listen! Learn!” — Buddy

Weakness, and power, or the illusion of power… however you want to spin it, SWIMMING WITH SHARKS is all about survival of the fittest amidst the hounds of Hollywood. All the stories, the rumors, the gossip that emits radioactive frequency of negativity and cruelty, it all comes to life here in George Huang’s sharply written and unabashedly dark comedy about life in Hollywood as a schmuck assistant.

SWIMMING WITH SHARKS stars Frank Whaley (BROKEN ARROW, RED DRAGON) as Guy, an characteristically mannered and innocent young man from up-state New York who takes a job as Buddy Ackerman’s new personal assistant. Kevin Spacey plays Buddy Ackerman, a major producer for Keystone Pictures (an imaginary stdio). Buddy is the most vile, rude, selfish and inconsiderate son-of-a-bi*** you’ll never meet outside of celluloid. And, Kevin Spacey is a brilliant a**hole!

As the story goes, writer/director George Huang once held a position not unlike that of Guy’s, working for Columbia Pictures. The Buddy Ackerman character was apparently inspired by real-life producer Joel Silver, for whom Huang once worked. In Robert Rodriguez’s memoir REBEL WITHOUT A CREW, he recounts how he and George Huang met. After sharing some of his movie ideas with Rodriguez, the director told Huang he should just go out and make them. Huang quit his job and pursued making SWIMMING WITH SHARKS.

“You are nothing! If you were in my toilet I wouldn’t bother flushing it. My bathmat means more to me than you!” — Buddy

SWIMMING WITH SHARKS is a non-linear story. Cutting back and forth from current day as Guy battles his own desires for vengeance and inner morality, to his trials of serving as Buddy’s door mat and personal slave in an effort to merge onto the fast track highway to big time Hollywood. The film has a similar structure in ways to PULP FICTION, but was clearly coincidental (at least mostly) and the two films both came out in theaters in 1994. In between, the uncomfortably unnatural relationship between Guy and producer Dawn Lockard (Michelle Forbes) develops, which will serve as the catalyst for the film’s ending.

Frank Whaley… do you even remember him? Perhaps not from FIELD OF DREAMS or THE DOORS, maybe from CAREER OPPORTUNITIES? Really? Well, you’re sure to remember Mr. Whaley and his “big brain” as Brett from PULP FICTION. Personally, Frank’s certainly not the greatest actor, but it was a fun, if not disturbing, ride of delirious ambition as Guy goes from a naive small town boy to becoming a ruthless kidnapper, torturing Buddy in his own home in an act of passionate rage and revenge.

Kevin Spacey appears to be having far too much fun in this role… well, except for the torture scenes. Buddy Ackerman is a truly horrible human being one moment and then shrugs it off like nothing happened as soon as Guy leaves his presence. Buddy is just putting on a show most of the time. It begs the question, is he really this big of a jerk, or is he playing into the expected role of a person in his position? There are moments when you actually believe Buddy may just be putting Guy through all this to teach him how to survive in the biz.

“I’ve handled the phones, I’ve juggled the bimbos, I, I’ve put up with the tyrants, the yellers, the screamers. I’ve done more than you can even imagine in that small mind of yours. I paid my dues!” — Buddy

As difficult as it is to swallow, Buddy finally opens up to Guy during his torture revealing a side of himself we hadn’t seen before. Buddy explains how he once went through everything Guy is currently going through, minus the torture. An interesting observation… Spacey’s performance during Buddy’s monologue about his dead wife has the familiar feel of “Verbil” Kint’s ramblings to Agent Kujan in THE USUAL SUSPECTS. Clearly Singer and McQuarrie were fans of SWIMMING WITH SHARKS, nabbing the film’s two best actors.

Benicio Del Toro plays Rex, the former assistant to Buddy, now moving on to become Vice President of Production for Paramount. His are the shoes that Guy must fill. Del Toro did not have a largely significant rle in the story, primarily appearing in the first twenty minutes or so, but what the role did was to help Del Toro build his career. Prior to SWS, Del Toro had bit roles in MONEY FOR NOTHING, FEARLESS and CHINA MOON. Maybe you remember him from his feature film debut, appearing as Duke the Dog-Faced Boy in BIG TOP PEE WEE?

No, SWIMMING WITH SHARKS was the role that chronologically led Del Toro to Bryan Singer, where he would permanently brand himself and his image on our collective brains as Fenster in THE USUAL SUSPECTS. As interesting observation… During the drawn-out scene in which Rex is basically showing Guy the ropes, laying it out for him, Buddy takes it upon himself to comment on Rex’s name, suggesting it’s more fit for a mutt and calls him “dog boy.” A friendly reference to his first film, perhaps?

“Life is not a movie. Good guys lose, everybody lies, and love… does not conquer all.” — Buddy

SWIMMING WITH SHARKS ends with a bang (wink) after an intense three-way confrontation between Buddy, Guy and Dawn. In this memorable scene, the lines between good and bad, right and wrong, righteous and ridiculous are all blurred. Following this scene is the final scene of the film, bringing us full circle and revealing the outcome of the three-way confrontation with ironic results.

Here’s the trailer, but take it with a grain of salt. It’s cut to make the film look like a much lighter, run of the mill comedy than the dark brutal comedy it actually is…