Is Jaws the ultimate male bonding movie? Does the shark put the rub into rubber. Why is it not that well regarded these days? (Because Speilberg himself doesn't like it)?
― Pete, Thursday, 15 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― katie, Thursday, 15 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
like, duh.
― g-kit, Thursday, 15 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― chris, Thursday, 15 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark s, Thursday, 15 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Alex M, Thursday, 15 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
Stylistically, it's a strange sort of hybrid between 70s 'New American Cinema' and the mechanical blockbustering of 'Star Wars' etc. A lot of the non-shark scenes have got the feel of an Altman movie - lots of overlapping dialogue, etc.
― Andrew L, Thursday, 15 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
The Jungian had a lot of fun with the land.sea conscious/unconscious dichotomy, Fruedians equate the shark with the death drive (though on the boat it could also be sex).
Real shark fin. Num num. 'Snot as if sharks are an endangered species.
given that the orthodoxy is that this era was not that great after all (ie the death-knell of the 70s freedom = star wars), this is an interesting crux-point: is it true anyway (i mean, "he grew up on movies only = he was imbibing movies which had a HIDDEN proscenium arch imposed"? vs "loss of proscenium arch = death of cientmatic possibility"?)
― Billy Dods, Thursday, 15 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
The head in the boat bit still scares me even though when I watch it, I keep saying to myself "OK, the head's going to pop out any minute now. It's OK, you know what's going to happen. Any minute now, here it...HOLY FUCK!!!"
― jamesmichaelward, Thursday, 15 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
The day-for-night photography in Jaws is outrageous.
― Fox Force Five Punchline (sexyDancer), Thursday, 3 December 2009 16:21 (fourteen years ago) link
apropos of nothing, the Jaws Kitten:
http://blogs.citypages.com/food/sea%20kitten.jpg
― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 24 January 2010 06:28 (fourteen years ago) link
http://gawker.com/5462300/david-brown-producer
― Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 3 February 2010 02:31 (fourteen years ago) link
A 35th anniversry defense:
http://philnugentexperience.blogspot.com/2010/07/tanks-for-memories.html
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 6 July 2010 21:41 (thirteen years ago) link
Pretty much agree with that: "in its way, Jaws was a political movie, maybe of the best kind--one that, without making speeches about it, embodies an attitude towards life and certain ever-present species of insanity in such an entertaining way that its message quietly seeps into the [consciousness]."
Also truly captured the beach in the same way The Bad News Bears captured ballparks and arcades, so was a summer movie in a literal sense. The naturalism of the sound before horror strikes is a thing of beauty. The score and camera techniques always serve the horror.
Also was a movie about a giant shark that eats people.
― Pete Scholtes, Wednesday, 7 July 2010 16:50 (thirteen years ago) link
Jaws is the best. True story.
― o sh!t a ˁ˚ᴥ˚ˀ (ENBB), Wednesday, 7 July 2010 16:51 (thirteen years ago) link
"Also was a movie about a giant shark that eats people."
the best reading of jaws.
― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Wednesday, 7 July 2010 16:56 (thirteen years ago) link
Jaws is a perfectly realized movie and doesn't need defending. Anyone who lazily uses it to blame for the decline of movies should just jump off a cliff or something.
― Implied Nazarene (latebloomer), Thursday, 8 July 2010 07:37 (thirteen years ago) link
Yeah, Jaws is probably my favourite film.
― Captain Ostensible (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 8 July 2010 11:35 (thirteen years ago) link
haha, last post negates the one above!
It's about Spielberg's 6th- or 7th-best film.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 July 2010 11:52 (thirteen years ago) link
Seriously? What's better?
― Captain Ostensible (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 8 July 2010 11:53 (thirteen years ago) link
Jaws always surprises people I make watch it for the first time by how great it is.
― ,,,,,,eeeeleon (darraghmac), Thursday, 8 July 2010 11:56 (thirteen years ago) link
I'd rank them:
E.T.MunichIndiana Jones & The Temple of DoomJawsSchindler's List
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 8 July 2010 12:00 (thirteen years ago) link
those 3 + Empire of the Sun, Close Encounters, perhaps War of the Worlds or Amistad
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 July 2010 14:07 (thirteen years ago) link
Amistad?
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 8 July 2010 14:11 (thirteen years ago) link
Amistad? Made for TV stuff.
Munich too, maybe.
― ,,,,,,eeeeleon (darraghmac), Thursday, 8 July 2010 14:11 (thirteen years ago) link
No way are any of those, bar maybe Indiana Jones, better than Jaws.
― Captain Ostensible (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 8 July 2010 14:13 (thirteen years ago) link
I've always thought of Jaws as his best because I wouldn't change a thing, but the highs of E.T. are higher despite its more obvious flaws, at least before his crappy retouch. I wouldn't put anything else he's done in that class.
― Pete Scholtes, Thursday, 8 July 2010 14:25 (thirteen years ago) link
This film is rock solid. Opening few shark attacks are still so frightening.
― Davek (davek_00), Thursday, 8 July 2010 14:29 (thirteen years ago) link
I would rank CE3K as his best, largely for personal/sentimental reasons, but Morbius is pretty close to OTM here. Except "Duel" should really be on that list, and I don't care that it was literally made for TV.
― Phil D., Thursday, 8 July 2010 14:39 (thirteen years ago) link
I got no beef with made-for-tv stuff, duel kicks ass.
― ,,,,,,eeeeleon (darraghmac), Thursday, 8 July 2010 14:44 (thirteen years ago) link
Jaws and Duel are pretty good thrillers, and much less interesting than the later prime stuff bcz he hadn't really grown up, and it shows.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 July 2010 15:08 (thirteen years ago) link
anyway, I'm sure somebody in academia must've suggested by now that the failure of Capt Quint's machismo to save the day heralded the ascent of Jimmy Carter.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 July 2010 15:11 (thirteen years ago) link
Much more interesting, because at that stage he was still making movies for adults. The bonding/scar scene in Jaws is as good as Spielberg ever got at 'grown up' men.
― ,,,,,,eeeeleon (darraghmac), Thursday, 8 July 2010 15:11 (thirteen years ago) link
no.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 July 2010 15:54 (thirteen years ago) link
You're right, I'm forgetting.....?
― ,,,,,,eeeeleon (darraghmac), Thursday, 8 July 2010 15:58 (thirteen years ago) link
xp I like Jaws, but it would work better if it was about 20 minutes shorter. Most of my cuts would reduce Dreyfuss' screen time.
BTW I live with the Jaws Kitten shown upthread and he is far more frightening than this movie.
― Brad C., Thursday, 8 July 2010 16:01 (thirteen years ago) link
The Dreyfuss character is an important Spielberg surrogate/triumph of the nerds figure! In the book isn't he a stud who sleeps w/ the sheriff's wife?
"Scar" drinking scene is essentially extended-adolescent dick-measuring which is lampooned by the RD character.
Tony Kushner's treatment of adult agony over the duties to family/nation?
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 July 2010 16:25 (thirteen years ago) link
In the book isn't he a stud who sleeps w/ the sheriff's wife?
Yeah, Dreyfuss's college boy is much better for the movie treatment.
Scar" drinking scene is essentially extended-adolescent dick-measuring
heeey, i did put 'grown up' in scare quotation marks, be fair.
― ,,,,,,eeeeleon (darraghmac), Thursday, 8 July 2010 16:39 (thirteen years ago) link
spielberg has never made a better film than jaws ffs
you can read stephen heath's classic essay abt jaws here, kinda a high watermark of cambridge semiotic theory:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=22ab7E9K1TYC&pg=PA509&lpg=PA509&dq=stephen+heath+jaws&source=bl&ots=af5n1RZ-vY&sig=OqoAw3f3bogix6v70i27Arl0kYk&hl=en&ei=cws2TJ_KDJHu0gSblMHxAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBgQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=stephen%20heath%20jaws&f=false
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 8 July 2010 17:34 (thirteen years ago) link
Jeez... way to make it sound boring. WTG, Heath.
― kenan, Thursday, 8 July 2010 17:42 (thirteen years ago) link
Saw it last night in a big theater. Hadn't seen it in ~13 years. Perfect movie. A lot gorier than I remember. Everyone applauded when the shark exploded.
― flappy bird, Thursday, 30 June 2016 18:19 (seven years ago) link
It's totally perfect. I watched this with my 11-year old daughter last week and she loved it. So then we watched Alien, and she liked it fine, but thought Jaws was so much scarier/grosser.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 30 June 2016 18:20 (seven years ago) link
Alien at 11?! Your child may be superhuman, to tolerate something that boring.
― helpless before THRILLARY (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 30 June 2016 19:36 (seven years ago) link
Slow film, sure, but still striking. We started 2001 yesterday, and the monkeys meet monolith stuff had her asking so many questions I'm worried what I'm in for.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 30 June 2016 19:47 (seven years ago) link
pic.twitter.com/Dfh1slnJva— Peter Labuza (@labuzamovies) July 29, 2018
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 30 July 2018 17:45 (five years ago) link
all of those readings can be said to be wrong or aberrant
― dele alli my bookmarks (darraghmac), Monday, 30 July 2018 18:05 (five years ago) link
Saw it for the umpteenth time in a pretty packed rep theatre last night. I always felt that was the ideal way to see Jaws, but now that it seems to have turned into The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with people wildly cheering various lines and moments (Shaw's fingernails a big favourite), I'll have to rethink that. Couldn't find one of my favourite images online--the close-up of Scheider as he flips through the shark book.
― clemenza, Friday, 16 August 2019 13:53 (four years ago) link
I was 10 years old and on Martha's Vineyard for a week in the summer of 1974. My family was driving back from Edgartown to Menemsha, where we had our boat. We saw these cabanas erected at State Beach, which we'd never seen before, along with all these other strange-looking vehicles. We pulled over and asked some people what was going on. They said a movie was being filmed and they were looking for extras to be in the Fourth of July scene — $20 each. We asked the name of the movie and someone replied "Jaws." We thought that was the dumbest name for a movie ever, and we drove on.
― Jazzbo, Friday, 16 August 2019 14:28 (four years ago) link
Wow, this revive comes right after I made a "Jaws" joke on a different thread. Eerie. Anyway, this movie is perfect.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 16 August 2019 14:31 (four years ago) link
Bizarre thing that crossed my mind last night (won't make sense unless you've seen the film and are also a big baseball fan): Hooper is a sabermetrician, Quint is a curmudgeonly old-school scout.
― clemenza, Friday, 16 August 2019 14:46 (four years ago) link
"What have you got here?"
"A laptop."
"A laptop? You enter data into the laptop? Data tells you whether the player’s good or not? You don’t have to actually see the player play? Our player? Farewell and adieu to you, fair Spanish ladies..."
― clemenza, Friday, 16 August 2019 14:55 (four years ago) link
Seen "Jaws" a hell of a lot, but we watched it as a family again last night. Imagine being Steven Spielberg and always knowing, somewhere in the back of your mind, that you were the one who made "Jaws." How cool is that.
Anyway, every time I've seen it I've noticed something else. This time I not only focused on how perfect every shot is as a storytelling device (the way each shot is framed to deliver vital information, and so on) but for the first time ever recognized that the reason Quint rides the engine into the red going back to the shore is not simply hubris and carelessness but because for the first time this tough guy is actually *scared*. The scene is preceded by him and Hooper (both shaken, now more or less peers of a sort) commenting ominously about how this shark is behaving differently from any shark they've ever seen. You can see Quint do the math, and that's when he floors it, muttering about luring the shark closer to shore, but you can tell he's desperate, almost as an excuse to get back himself. Of course they don't make it, and that's when Quint, formerly all macho bluster, turns to Hooper, as chastened as he'll ever be, and asks, just curious, that fancy poison you brought, do you maaaaybe think *that* will do the trick?
Still not entirely sure why Quint destroys the radio earlier. Macho, sure, or maybe out of frustration. Perhaps that's just his last chance to catch the shark on his own terms, because after that the tide (so to speak) really starts to turn against them.
We'd all seen the movie except my 12-year old, who thought it was OK though astutely recognized on her own that it's not *quite* a horror movie, because it's too much fun (adventure). Both kids kept commenting on how old everybody looked. Scheider was 43 and Lorraine Gray was I think around *38* but they both could have passed for (or been cast as!) much older parents if not grandparents today. And of course a lot of the other parents look really old too. The actress who played the mother of the boy who is eaten, Lee Fierro, was 46, about my age, but she looks like one of my mom's friends. I dunno, just another example of people looking old in the '70s, I guess.
Oh, another thing: never occurred to me that this is one of the rare movies that kills a kid *and* a dog, in the same scene!
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 14 March 2020 15:11 (four years ago) link
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/world/europe/coronavirus-britain-boris-johnson.html
LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain once said his political hero was the mayor in the film “Jaws,” praising him for defying mass hysteria to keep the beaches open after a constituent is eaten by a shark.
― Ok bloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 14 March 2020 16:56 (four years ago) link
Spielberg’s probably the best suspense director this side of Hitchcock, with how he takes time to build tension not just within individual scenes but throughout the whole film. Just by withholding and hinting. I think the whole “the shark looked terrible so they had to compensate” aspect is probably only a bit true in terms of the film’s effectiveness; the creativity he shows throughout is astonishing. His ability there is also what raises something like Raiders of the Lost Ark to something beyond what its storyline might suggest.
The mayor is someone who seems like a caricature but he’s not an asshole, just a denialist. Unlike other authority figures who are roadblocks he makes sense: he likes Brody but he’s also not native to the island so he thinks he knows better. He’s got one of my favorite lines in this too: “we caught and killed a large predator that supposedly injured some bathers.”
― omar little, Saturday, 14 March 2020 18:16 (four years ago) link
I always like how the mayor drives his entourage onto the ferry just to nag Brody, then when they reach the other side, he tells the ferry guy "OK, you can go back now," and you can see the ferry guy just shake his head in annoyance.
Re: withholding and hinting, it's quite striking how quickly everything starts happening. First shark attack happens literally 4 minutes in. But the second one, with the kid, is around minute 17. That one is one of the most frightening shots of the shark, just this blur coming into focus below the water that pulls him under. And then, from a distance, you just see this mass of splashing, thrashing and indistinct fins.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 14 March 2020 19:04 (four years ago) link
There's also the horrifying moment when they bring Hooper back to see the body, and they basically bring out a small drawer.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 14 March 2020 19:12 (four years ago) link
I've probably said this before, but I saw or read something once about the famous dolly/zoom shot of Brady during the second attack that pointed out how Hitchcock required x amount of days and x amount of dollars for a similar shot (more than one I think) in Vertigo, and Spielberg just tosses it out there nonchalantly. (Yes, I realize Hitchcock got there first, and that Spielberg's got a 17-year technological advantage.)
http://nofilmschool.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_wide/public/jaws-jaws-jaws.jpg?itok=eYNM5jBw
― clemenza, Saturday, 14 March 2020 19:15 (four years ago) link
At the same time, this by today's standards modest movie took significantly longer to shoot than, say, Black Panther, which shows how many problems they had.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 14 March 2020 19:26 (four years ago) link
See, that shot is a great example of what we were talking about. Scheider there is a movie star, professionally lit and made up. He's two years younger than I am now, but he looks at least 10 years older than me and my friends.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 14 March 2020 19:30 (four years ago) link
You should read this--thought I posted about it in this thread, but I guess not.
http://i.harperapps.com/covers/9780062229281/x300.jpg
― clemenza, Saturday, 14 March 2020 19:32 (four years ago) link
That looks awesome!
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 14 March 2020 19:33 (four years ago) link
Weird to think vertigo was only 17 years old when jaws was released
― ℺ ☽ ⋠ ⏎ (✖), Saturday, 14 March 2020 20:18 (four years ago) link
I feel like there's a Woody Allen joke there somewhere.
― clemenza, Saturday, 14 March 2020 20:26 (four years ago) link
That book was pretty good, thanks for the recommendation. Interesting that they even released a contemporaneous account. Usually these sorts of books only appear after a movie flops, a la The Devil's Candy or Final Cut.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 28 March 2020 18:43 (four years ago) link
Watched this with the family tonight — my wife and kids had never seen it and I hadn’t in years — and everybody was super tense the whole time. This Spielberg kid has potential.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Saturday, 21 May 2022 02:06 (one year ago) link
never lets me down, i will never not love this movie
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 21 May 2022 03:22 (one year ago) link
I think Jaws is a stealthy Holocaust movie but I can’t really explain, y/n?
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Sunday, 6 November 2022 16:18 (one year ago) link
n
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 6 November 2022 16:24 (one year ago) link
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 6 November 2022 20:12 (one year ago) link
Nah I’m right sorry
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Sunday, 6 November 2022 21:01 (one year ago) link
Stevie Spiels wishing for east coast WASPs to have a holocaust of their own, to spread empathic understanding without polemic?
― Vance Vance Devolution (sic), Sunday, 6 November 2022 23:20 (one year ago) link
idk
― "H to the Izzo" means "I love you" (Deflatormouse), Sunday, 6 November 2022 23:43 (one year ago) link
reloadTime=1666569600035
― Vance Vance Devolution (sic), Monday, 7 November 2022 07:49 (one year ago) link
now you're doing that shit when the url doesn't even show in the thread?
― na (NA), Monday, 7 November 2022 15:09 (one year ago) link
Watched this again last night. They truly don't make em like they used to. I swear Quint's demise goes on longer and grislier every time; the edit from the shark crunching down and him spitting up blood is proper filmmaking.
Scheider is vv good here, funny, smartly ahead of the game, flawed in his being pressured into second guessing, but heroic despite his deep fear, and a great example of a lead character who is also an audience surrogate.
Really like how the Williams score will periodically turn thrilling and glorious when they're chasing down the shark, echoing the overconfidence of the hunting party.
I find it p funny (not a detriment to the film btw) that the Mayor gets shook enough to hire Quint after that fella in the rowboat gets feasted on off in the side pond, but the kid turning into a blood fountain in full view of hundreds of beachgoers has him all, "now let's not be hasty here."
― omar little, Thursday, 6 July 2023 01:12 (nine months ago) link
There's a screening at a rep theatre here in a few weeks, Friday night @ 9:30; hope it's as jam-packed as can be.
― clemenza, Thursday, 6 July 2023 01:56 (nine months ago) link
Hold up, apparently there is an imminent Broadway production about the making of the movie, called "The Shark is Broken"? Starring Robert Shaw's son as Chief Brody?
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 20:27 (eight months ago) link
I think that's played London before
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 20:48 (eight months ago) link
For maximum insanity, a musical I can only hope.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 21:06 (eight months ago) link
Couldn't make a Friday night screening--about 100 people I was told--but saw this at a rep tonight. The promise of "35mm print" is losing its allure: this one wasn't great.
Besides all the stuff it's actually famous for, I'd rank this as one of funniest films of the '70s. There are at least a half-dozen moments I'd point to to support that.
Not sure if I knew this or not, but I noticed Michael Chapman served as camera operator, a year before he shot Taxi Driver. (Reading up, he did the same on The Godfather.
Zen poetry:
A cloudin the shapeof a killer shark
― clemenza, Monday, 31 July 2023 02:35 (eight months ago) link
[1]I find it p funny (not a detriment to the film btw) that the Mayor gets shook enough to hire Quint after that fella in the rowboat gets feasted on off in the side pond, but the kid turning into a blood fountain in full view of hundreds of beachgoers has him all, "now let's not be hasty here."[/1]
Wasn't it because his own son was in the side pool? Or something like that.
― Ste, Monday, 31 July 2023 18:10 (eight months ago) link
king of the formatting
It's partly that, but the big difference is that after the kid, they think they they've caught the shark; the guy in the rowboat confirms Hooper's contention that they've caught a shark, not the shark.
I wonder if Spielberg had to fight the studio to kill the kid (and presumably remain faithful to the novel)? A lot of blood for a kid dying on screen.
― clemenza, Monday, 31 July 2023 18:41 (eight months ago) link
I think when I sort of meant to say was clearly the mayor is deeply shaken and guilt-ridden after the boater is killed, but doesn't seem too guilt-ridden about pushing to keep the beaches open earlier, which leads to the kid being killed. I don't think it's a story flaw or anything, I was going to say that Brody taking all of the blame willingly when the kid's mom confronts him feels a bit off, but in thinking about it he definitely took that blame because he certainly didn't push back hard enough on the mayor, and later he certainly gives the mayor the disrespectful, shoving him around treatment he deserves when making him sign the contract with quint.
― omar little, Monday, 31 July 2023 19:06 (eight months ago) link
This movie has more blood than John Wick 4.
― omar little, Monday, 31 July 2023 19:07 (eight months ago) link
Was curious if either Brody kid had ever gone on to do anything--Jaws is literally the only screen credit for both of them. (They really young kid is so great when he mimics Scheider at the dinner table.) Also, the TV guy who delivers the "A cloud in the shape of a killer shark" line is Peter Benchley!
― clemenza, Monday, 31 July 2023 19:46 (eight months ago) link
"The," not "They"
― clemenza, Monday, 31 July 2023 19:47 (eight months ago) link
One more: in the IMDB full cast credits, Spielberg is listed as "Amity Point Lifestation Worker (voice)." Will have to listen carefully for that next time. (If there is one...I think I've reached my limit.)
― clemenza, Monday, 31 July 2023 19:49 (eight months ago) link
the older Brody kid passed away pretty young, a heart attack. late thirties iirc.
― omar little, Monday, 31 July 2023 19:54 (eight months ago) link
My mother took me on my 10th birthday to see this film during its first run. It still holds up extremely well, thanks mostly to the script and the acting--and the shark's not working for most of the shots.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 31 July 2023 19:57 (eight months ago) link