The Fish Bite Back

It's hard to overstate the importance of teamwork. Just ask the title creatures of 1978's Piranha. In this Jaws knock-off, director Joe Dante conducts a delicate symphony of stupidity. His satire is so deadpan it's not hard to see why some people didn't get it. Part of the issue is that it's not postmodernist--the people in the film are organically dumb, not dumb simply as a comment on how people are dumb in other films, and the film takes its absurd threat seriously.

The two attractive protagonist strut their exquisite stupidity centre stage. Maggie (Heather Menzies) has been hired to track down the teenagers who went missing because they decided to go skinny dipping in what looked like a septic tank in the film's first scene. Maggie's boss praises her skills even as she immediately loses her plane ticket.

Meanwhile, out in the woods, Paul (Bradford Dillman) accepts a shipment of hard liquor with which he'll keep his canteen filled throughout the film. One of the funniest shots is near the end when his little daughter anxiously approaches the injured Paul where he lies on a stretcher, the canteen gripped in her hands like a magic potion.

Paul and Maggie team up to investigate the massive, strange experimental water facility which they decide to drain into the river in order to look for the bodies of the teenagers. Kevin McCarthy suddenly appears and tries to stop them but the two savagely beat him until he's unconscious and proceed with draining the tank into the river.

Later, when the four of them are on a Huckleberry Finn style log raft going down river, McCarthy laughs bitterly when Maggie blames him for the experimental piranhas she set loose. The genius move on Dante's part is that you can see no trace of any sense of guilt in Maggie or Paul. They see no issue with blaming the government and its scientists for the kids who're about to get devoured.

Barbara Steele and Dick Miller both have excellent roles, Steele as an army science officer and Miller as the proprietor of a water park, the grand opening of which depends on everyone not getting eaten by piranha. He will receive some bad news at a crucial part of the film.

Piranha is available on Amazon Prime.

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Decrepit cocoanuts remember fights.
And down the trunk a tree forgets its roots.
In space, a hero stitches ragged tights.
The bold savants acquire floppy boots.
A spinning rabbit chose a wolf to kiss.
The bumping clouds consume the shaded hall.
Obscured, the door began to spark and hiss.
A golden house contained a certain wall.
Together, hungry fish can make the bones.
A sinking flask concludes the drunken day.
With thoughts of sharks we greet the ringing phones.
The callers swam apart about the bay.
On ghostly feet, the dancer coaxed the moon.
On silver light, there fell a pallid boon.