Sharky's Machine

Film rights were bought prior to publication by the newly formed Orion Pictures in 1978 for $400,000.[10] Burt Reynolds was to star and possibly direct.[11][12]

"Sidney Sheldon sent me the novel, and I found it highly cinematic," said Reynolds.[13]

Reynolds said he was attracted to the film because it was similar to the classic 1944 film noir Laura, his favorite movie. He talked to John Boorman about directing, but Boorman was too busy on Excalibur and suggested Reynolds direct himself.[14]

"I figured it was time to get away from Smokey," Reynolds said. "I'd been doing a lot of comedy in recent years, and people had forgotten about Deliverance." [13]

Reynolds says the "key" to the cast was getting Brian Keith to play a role. "After that it was easy to get actors."[13]

Fashion model Rachel Ward was cast in the female lead after being spotted in Time magazine as "the face of the 80s".[15] She was cast six days before filming. Reynolds:

That was like starting King Kong' without the gorilla. I kept saying, She'll turn up, she'll turn up.' Then I saw Time magazine... I wanted an actress who could speak Italian and French, and since she was English, I thought she might have the kind of foreign attitude that I was seeking. When she came in my office and I heard her voice, deep like Bacall's, I thought she would be ideal. But Catherine Deneuve once told me that to judge how a beautiful woman will appear on the screen you must look through the camera and see if it has a love affair with her. I picked up a viewfinder and looked at Rachel. I damn near fell over.[13]

"She's going to be a big star," said Reynolds. "She just jumps off the screen. She has the kind of sensious appeal that Ava Gardner had."[16]

Filming took place in Atlanta. "I liked the idea of working in Atlanta, where I've spent a lot of time," said Reynolds. "I made Deliverance, Smokey, The Longest Yard and Gator, my first film as a director, all in Georgia."[13]

At 220 feet, the stunt from Atlanta's Hyatt Regency Hotel (doubling for the Westin Peachtree Plaza) still stands as the highest free-fall stunt ever performed from a building for a commercially released film. The stuntman was Dar Robinson. Despite it being a record-setting fall, only the beginning of the stunt, as he goes through the window, was used in the film. A dummy was used for the outside wide shot of the fall beside the skyscraper.[17]

Diehl, who was 50 when he wrote the novel, saw the movie shot on location in and around his hometown of Atlanta. El Mongol played the part of the limo driver in the film.

Reynolds talked about his directing:

Most directors cast actors on the basis of what they've seen before, and they don't want surprises; they want the actor to give another version of what he's already done. I try to do the opposite. I tell the actors, 'You've done that before, so let's go for something else.' On this picture I did with my actors what I always wanted other directors to do with me, which is to say, 'O.K., I have what I want, now you do what you want.' Sometimes magical things happen that way. I had lots of ideas, but I was open to any ideas the actors had. There really was a wonderful feeling of camaraderie.[14]

"In my picture the good guys win and the bad guys, the dopers, lose," said Reynolds. "That's important to me: I don't like dopers. I get mad as hell when I hear that studios are coddling actors who are always high on cocaine."[13]

The opening credits use the 1979 hit song "Street Life", originally performed by The Crusaders with vocalist Randy Crawford. The recording in the film is a newer version (song length ~4:17) orchestrated by Doc Severinsen, inviting Crawford to reprise her vocal and who composed the original score, as well. This version is a much more powerful and faster-paced version with a full orchestra, and it was the one that Quentin Tarantino included in Jackie Brown (1997) (Crawford is given the only credit on the song title).

As was standard for the time, little of Severinsen's score is included on the album, with many of his contributions being heavily edited for the album tracks and several, like his version of "My Funny Valentine", being omitted altogether.

The soundtrack album has been re-released after more than 30 years on the Varèse Sarabande label.[18]

The film received mostly positive reviews from critics. As of December 2019, review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 86% of 22 critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 6.06 out of 10.[6]

Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, writing that "'Sharky’s Machine' contains all of the ingredients of a tough, violent, cynical big-city cop movie, but what makes it intriguing is the way the Burt Reynolds ... plays against those conventions.... The result of his ambition and restraint is a movie much more interesting than most cop thrillers."[19] Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times, "Burt Reynolds establishes himself as yet another movie star who is as valuable behind the camera as he is in front of it. Mr. Reynolds's third and best directorial effort ... is an unexpectedly accomplished cop thriller."[20] Variety noted, "Directing himself in 'Sharky's Machine,' Burt Reynolds has combined his own macho personality with what's popularly called mindless violence to come up with a seemingly guaranteed winner. Borrowing from buddy Clint Eastwood, Reynolds has already dubbed this one 'Dirty Harry Goes To Atlanta' and that's about as good a description as any."[21] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and lamented its "unfortunate split personality," explaining, "Obviously, Reynolds decided to hedge his bets in the film and play some of it for laughs. That's too bad, because although 'Sharky's Machine' is miles ahead of such recent Reynolds' trash as 'Smokey and the Bandit II' and 'The Cannonball Run,' what Reynolds could use most in his career is a solid dramatic role in which he didn't leer at the audience."[22] Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times called the film "a brutal, fast-moving cop action film about love, corruption and politics in Atlanta ... Before the picture falls into lunatic excess in its last quarter, its best moments happen between Sharky and his team members, especially his wiretap expert played with impeccable timing by Richard Libertini."[23] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote, "'Sharky's Machine' should become the runaway box-office smash of the season, unless a vast moviegoing public has suddenly sworn off glossy, viciously provocative diversion. Direction his own starring vehicle, that sly boots Burt Reynolds gives the audience a shamelessly lurid but stylish going-over, while putting a clever new wrinkle or two on his own status."[24]

The film was considered a moderate hit on initial release making $35.6 million in North America. [25]

The film has a major role in the backstory/lore of the television series The Venture Bros. The season one episode "Careers in Science" states that in 1987, on the space station Gargantua-1, a showing of the film was the scene of a massacre of the space station's crew, as an unknown figure in a spacesuit opened the bay doors sucking the entire crew into the void of space, killing them.

In season seven's "Arrears in Science", Jonas Venture is shown putting a Sharky's Machine tape into a VCR to show the movie before the incident mentioned above.