The Deep (1977)
Movie · 1977 · Mystery, Thriller, Adventure · 2h 3m · PG · English
Curator score: 1.5/10 (24.2K ratings)
Is anything worth the terror of the Deep?
Overview
A pair of young vacationers are involved in a dangerous conflict with treasure hunters when they discover a way into a deadly wreck in Bermuda waters.
Ratings
- Curator score: 1.5/10
- IMDb: 6.3/10
- Letterboxd: 3.03/5
- Rotten Tomatoes: 38%
- Metacritic: 41
- TMDB: 6.0/10
Director
Peter Yates
Production
EMI Films, Casablanca Filmworks, Columbia Pictures
Cast
Robert Shaw, Jacqueline Bisset, Nick Nolte, Louis Gossett Jr., Eli Wallach, Robert Tessier, Dick Anthony Williams, Bob Minor, Earl Maynard, Teddy Tucker
Where to watch
fuboTV, Philo
Curator Review
Verdict
A slick, seawater-soaked adventure-thriller with strong atmosphere, a memorable cast, and enough peril to keep it moving, but it’s also uneven and more notorious for its exploitation-era pin-up imagery than for airtight suspense. If you want a glossy 70s treasure-hunt with danger, tension, and star power, it’s worth a look; if you want a truly gripping thriller, it may feel lightweight.
Best for
- fans of 1970s adventure thrillers
- viewers who enjoy underwater or maritime settings
- people interested in Peter Yates’s craft
- fans of Robert Shaw’s gruff, magnetic screen presence
- audiences open to pulpy, slightly exploitative genre cinema
Skip if
- you want a tightly plotted thriller with no padding
- you’re put off by obvious sexploitation marketing
- you’re expecting something on the level of the era’s top-tier suspense classics
- you dislike slow-burn adventure movies with mixed tonal priorities
Overview
The Deep is a very 1977 kind of studio thriller: glossy, sunlit, and just sleazy enough to feel like it was engineered to sell on a poster as much as on the screen. Peter Yates gives it a polished surface and the underwater material has real texture, but the movie’s pleasures are as much about mood and cast chemistry as they are about suspense mechanics.
Worth noting
Robert Shaw brings the kind of weathered authority that can make almost any nautical movie better, and Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset give the story a youthful, vacation-gone-wrong energy. The treasure-hunt premise is solid, the Bermuda setting is appealing, and the film finds a decent groove whenever it leans into danger beneath the water rather than trying to juggle too many pulp elements at once.
Bottom line
It’s not a lost classic, and it never fully escapes the shadow of more famous sea-bound thrillers, but it has enough craft, personality, and old-school adventure momentum to justify a watch for the right audience. Think of it as a competent, occasionally thrilling artifact of post-Jaws studio filmmaking, with a stronger sense of atmosphere than narrative precision.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Lou (rhymes with wow!) (3★) · 122 likes
A fun Peter Yates-directed (underwater) adventure flick that has sunken treasure, drug thugs, sharks, an intense performance by Robert Shaw, and, most importantly, a perpetually braless Jacqueline Bisset. It's a good time.
Blair Russell (3.5★) · 101 likes
There’s a scene featuring cricket. I mention that as someone I follow on Letterboxd has been viewing films which have at least one scene containing the sport. It’s background to a scene of two key characters conversating w/ each other; whether or not they’ve interested in a viewing just for that reason… As for The Deep, it was a movie my late mother enjoyed! She passed away this month 5 years ago; no, not because of COVID but rather due… more
Karina Oliveira · 82 likes
"You know every ship from the New World passed through these waters? They had to. Kangxi porcelain from China. Japanese silk screens. And those ivory doodads from India. And all that Inca gold that Pizarro took out of Peru. Do you believe all that, boy?" Anyone can check out The Deep for the promise of Jacqueline Bisset in that famous white t-shirt. Me? I came for Robert Shaw and Louis Gossett Jr. making a deal about long-submerged ampoules of morphine… more
Helen_S (3.5★) · 73 likes
FUCKIN' HELL. So with all horror October coming up I thought I'd get rid of some of the non horror stuff from my recordings so I put on this 'adventure'. The second the film starts the instrumental version of the song of my childhood nightmares started playing and I was instantly back to a toddler hiding behind the couch (I am told I used to go behind there to poop too instead of using the potty but that's another matter)… more FUCKIN' HELL. So with all horror October coming up I thought I'd get rid of some of the non horror stuff from my recordings so I put on this 'adventure'. The second the film starts the instrumental version of the song of my childhood nightmares started playing and I was instantly back to a toddler hiding behind the couch (I am told I used to go behind there to poop too instead of using the potty but that's another matter)… more
Geoffrey Broomer (2.5★) · 62 likes
JAWS is one of my mother's favourite films, so when she noticed the year, as well as the revisitation of Peter Benchley and Robert Shaw - this was a lock for the evening. I suggested that it was no JAWS 2, and unless I was misremembering it from decades earlier, The Deep was primarily known for Jacqueline Bisset in a wet T-shirt. This warning was dismissed with a look that suggested my assessment was the objectifying priorities of youth. So… more
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Topics
underwater thriller, adventure, mystery, treasure hunt, 1970s cinema, maritime suspense, exploitation, ocean setting, pulp, survival