Equally parts alluring, sobering and startling, Valerie Taylor: Playing with Sharks covers the life of the titular spearfishing champion turned conservationist from the filming of Jaws to very real encounters with the "dogs of the sea": and Valerie isn't talking about seals.
This is a life painted in broad strokes, and the 90 min run time necessitates that much of the content here is passed over quickly, but the film still does a good job of imparting the major incidents of Valerie and her husband Ron's shared life. And while a lot of the footage presented in this film is still available elsewhere what you see is undeniably fantastic. This film is a valuable time-capsule for anyone interested in the history of underwater photography and you can literally see the advances in technology and film-making onscreen. The director and editors have taken a playful approach with the use of archival footage and a campy synth soundtrack and while the presentation is a bit typical of National Geographic elsewhere, it certainly manages the integration of entertainment and informative story-telling that makes a good documentary. One thing that is a bit striking is the lack of any interviewer in the segments featuring Valerie herself, who is treated almost like another breed of endangered animal. There is a broad appeal to this film that makes it very engaging, and its presentation of Great White Sharks, at once terrifying and terribly vulnerable, is a real highlight.
This is a well-told and moving invocation of a truly fascinating life story that I would be hard pressed not to recommend.