"47 Meters Down." Another movie discussing, at length, the inherent evil in sharks and the poor innocence of human swimmers and divers.
In other words, it's discussing bullshit.
I won't spoil the movie for you, but I will ask that you don't go see it. And why?
Listen, I love "Jaws." I love "Open Water." I love "Ghost Shark." They're great movies, and they have a ton of entertainment value. But we have to stop making movies that demonize sharks until people can separate the movie monster version of sharks and the real-life creatures living in Earth's oceans. "Jaws" started it; as this article from LiveScience notes, "Jaws" "gave sharks too much of an ability to engage in revenge," portraying them as evil, conscious, vengeful monsters. Even though, at the turn of the century, the idea that sharks were beyond harmless was the prevalent school of shark thought, by the end of the 1970s, largely due to the terror stoked by "Jaws," shark culling became a US sport. A guiltless sport, as participants in shark tourneys believed that they were ridding "our oceans" of monsters.
On average, sharks attack 19 people per year in the U.S., and in the United States there is, on average, only one shark-attack-caused fatality every two years. In other words, sharks kill less people than lightning strikes, air fresheners, elevators, and football games do individually. In part because of the fear instilled by "Jaws", because of the culling, "in the waters off the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, populations of many species of sharks have dropped by 50 percent and some have fallen by as much as 90 percent... and nearly a third of all sharks and rays worldwide may be threatened with extinction." Because a fictional movie scared a few people (and because of commercial fishing for shark fins), an entire, huge groups of relatively harmless creatures is being murdered to the point of extinction.
Think of it like a home invasion movie. In a movie where humans invade another human's home, the intruders are usually the antagonists. However, in movies where humans invade the homes of animals, the animals are usually villainized-- made out to be villains when they're actual victims of human aggression, pollution, and trespassing.
Sharks are not the enemy. Human arrogance and cruelty are the enemies of planet Earth. Don't go see "47 Meters Down." Don't support something that will just further shark demonization and shark culling. Don't support the intruders; support animals who are just trying to exist in their own homes.
Find some shark charities and help organizations below:
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
GrindTV: 6 shark conservation groups to get involved with this summer
