Swimming with Sharks

Swimming With Sharks
Swimming With Sharks theatrical poster
Directed by	George Huang
Written by	George Huang
Starring	Kevin Spacey Frank Whaley Michelle Forbes Benicio del Toro T.E. Russell
Cinematography	Steven Firestone
Distributed by	Trimark Pictures
Release date(s)	1994
Running time	93 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Swimming With Sharks (also known as The Boss and Buddy Factor) is a 1994 American comedy drama film, directed and written by George Huang.

Plot

Buddy Ackerman, an influential movie mogul, hires Guy, a naïve young writer, as his assistant. Guy, who has just graduated from film school, believes that his new job is a golden opportunity. Despite warnings from Rex, the outgoing assistant who has become hardened under Buddy's reign, Guy remains optimistic.

Unfortunately, Buddy turns out to be the boss from hell; he treats Guy like a slave, subjects him to sadistic (and public) verbal abuse, and has him bending over backwards to do meaningless errands that go beyond just his work life. Guy is humiliated and forced to bear the brunt of his insults. Guy's only solace is his girlfriend, Dawn, a producer at Buddy's firm. When Buddy apparently fires Guy in a phone call, Guy snaps and kidnaps Buddy in order to exact some revenge, which results in tying up Buddy and subjecting him to severe beatings, torture and mind games. It is later revealed that due to a botched call waiting function on Buddy's home phone, Guy hears Buddy and Dawn arranging a rendezvous at Buddy's house.

Once in Guy's power, Buddy reveals for the first time a human, vulnerable side, telling a tragic story about his wife's death and revealing that he too was once a bullied assistant to powerful, tyrannical men and spent a decade putting up with such abuse to get to where he is today. He also reveals his reasons for treating Guy so badly; it turns out that right from the start of the story-before he'd even met Buddy-Guy had secretly felt that he shouldn't have to work for anything because he was too good for that and that he, in Buddy's words, "thought he deserved (to have everything he wanted) just because he wanted it." Buddy had picked up on this the day they met, however, and realized that this attitude would lead to Guy trying to take advantage of him; abusing Guy was Buddy's way of making sure he knew he could never do this, showing him that he can't just have anything he wants simply because he wants it-he has to earn it, first-and making sure that Guy did deserve to have the good life when he earned it by working hard. Guy also learns a few secrets about Dawn, and must confront what he really wants from life and to what lengths he'll go to get it. Dawn arrives at the scene to find Guy aiming a gun at Buddy's face, and Buddy tells Guy that he has to pull the trigger in order to get ahead in the business.

The climax of the film reveals that Guy killed Dawn (who is blamed for kidnapping and torturing Buddy), and was subsequently promoted. In the final scene, Guy, who seems to have come out from under Buddy's reign a much hardened human being, tells a former colleague to find out what he really wants and then do anything to get it; during this speech, Buddy stands by, smiling as he calls Guy into his office for a meeting.

Cast

• Kevin Spacey as Buddy Ackerman
• Frank Whaley as Guy
• Michelle Forbes as Dawn Lockard
• Benicio del Toro as Rex
• T.E. Russell as Foster Kane
• Roy Dotrice as Cyrus Miles
• Matthew Flynt as Manny
• Patrick Fischler as Moe
• Jerry Levine as Jack

Production

Huang decided to write the script after having a conversation with Robert Rodriguez. Rodriguez was in Los Angeles after his film El Mariachi brought him to the attention of Sony Pictures, where he befriended Huang. Huang told Rodriguez of his frustrations with filmmaking when the director encouraged him to quit his post at Sony and pursue writing full time so Huang could produce a script to direct himself.

Huang's resultant script, "Reel Life", was picked up by Cineville executive Frank Evers, who brought in financing from independent investors, and significant production support from Sony Pictures Entertainment. The film was subsequently sold to Trimark Pictures (later assumed by Lionsgate in 2000). Cineville produced the film with Steve Alexander overseeing production.

Many rumors circulate about whom Buddy is based on. One is that the character was inspired by real life movie mogul Scott Rudin, while another is that he is based on producer Joel Silver and Guy is based on Silver's assistant in the early 90's, Alan Schechter. George Huang used to work as an assistant for Barry Josephson, who was the Senior Vice President of Development at Sony Pictures.

The director Buddy hires in the film, Foster Kane, is named after Orson Welles' character in the 1941 film Citizen Kane, Charles Foster Kane

Reception

The film was met with very positive reviews. At Rotten Tomatoes, Swimming with Sharks holds a score of 79% of positive reviews by critics, based on 34 reviews.^[1]

American Film Institute recognition:

• AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:
  • Buddy Ackerman - Nominated Villain^[2]

Stage adaptation

A stage adaptation penned by Michael Lesslie had its world premiere at London's Vaudeville Theatre in October, 2007. The play starred Christian Slater as Buddy, Matt Smith as Guy, Arthur Darvill as Rex and Helen Baxendale as Dawn. Smith and Darvill would reunite from 2010 to 2011 as the Doctor and recurring (later regular) character Rory Williams, respectively, in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. Academy Award nominated actor Demian Bichir under his brother's direction (Bruno Bichir) opened a Spanish version of the play in Mexico City on January 2012.

References

External links

• Swimming with Sharks at the Internet Movie Database