The Water (1981)

I collect disaster movies from all over the world, and finally I found myself one from Turkey! The Water is a very patriotic slice of propaganda starring the one and only Cüneyt Arkin, the leading hero-actor in Turkey for many years. I usually stay away from most disaster movies involving water, mostly because they aren’t entertaining enough (not counting huge tsunamis of course), but this could be fun – and it was, but not really for the disaster itself…

Arkin is Murat, an honest engineer – the man behind the biggest dam in Turkey. After loosing his wife and one his sons in the water he goes crazy and more or less becomes the village idiot, talking to himself and raving about how dangerous it is to use the water for the purpose of luring tourists to the area. And that’s what his greedy brother Orhan wants to do, to with explosives make the valley bigger and transform the place to a tourist paradise with a gigantic lake, hotels and… you know the rest! Yes, the explosions will make the dam collapse! The villains in disaster movies are always evil capitalists who want to make many in every way possible, even risking their own life! Murat want to stop him, but his brother uses his henchmen to try to stop him… will they succeed? Will the place be a paradise on earth with cheap drinks and dance clubs? Guess again…

The Water is a VERY cheap disaster movie, probably the cheapest I’ve seen – but not with out merits. The best and probably the only thing I really can recommend it for is the presence of Cüneyt Arkin who gets involved in a couple of excellent fights, mixing classic fistfights with more acrobatic martial arts. In one of them he fights with big pieces of wood attached to his arms, much like Tony Jaa in Tom Yum Gong (but Tony has of course elephant-bones instead). In another sequence he’s hanged with ropes attached to his arms from a bridge, which is a very impressive stunt – and it looks like he does it himself, at lease from a few of the angles – it’s a very high bridge!).

Most of the movie is almost a one man drama. Murat walking around talking and thinking, sometimes directly to the camera, with a scene or two here with him verbally fighting with his evil brother or taking care of his old mother and surviving son in their village below the dam. Much is said about using electricity wisely and not on unnecessary things like entertainment, and several references is given to the great leader in Turkey at the moment. The movie actually ends with a filmed signed encouraging people to work hard for their country.

Directed by legendary Çetin Inanç (Turkish Jaws, Turkish Star Wars, Death Warrior and hundreds of probably better but less talked about films) with a raw energy and creative use of the very low budget. The fights and acting are mostly very good, but when the disaster finally hits the lack of money is seen very clearly. Except a very ugly miniature of the dam (who looks very different from the real dam) there are hardly any special effects. Most of the disaster is spent in rivers where the water runs fast and furious, and makes a good stand-in for dry ground. The rest is a lot of scenes when they’re spraying the extras with fire truck hoses and throwing papier-maché rocks at them! How do I know there is fire trucks involved? Well, in one scene you actually see the fire truck standing by the side of the road waiting for the next water-scene, while people running in panic from it. On the good side, the disaster takes up a big part of the ending and those takes when they obviously just pouring a bucket of water in front of the camera can’t stop it from being entertaining.

Worth watching for the spectacular fights and for a lot of shots of Cüneyt Arkin just standing up looking handsome and cool – or for those that desperately need every disaster movie ever made!