Jaws

This film is rock solid. Opening few shark attacks are still so frightening.

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.

I got no beef with made-for-tv stuff, duel kicks ass.

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.

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.

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.

no.

You're right, I'm forgetting.....?

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.

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.

You're right, I'm forgetting.....?

Tony Kushner's treatment of adult agony over the duties to family/nation?

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.

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

Jeez... way to make it sound boring. WTG, Heath.

I was at a screening of Jaws last week--couldn't even count how many times I've seen it. The print wasn't great, but it still gets my vote as Spielberg's best. Flawless up till the three of them head out on the boat; some great moments the rest of the way (the bonding/scar scene, of course), although I did find it lagged a little in the last half-hour. I'm surprised no one mentions The Sugarland Express anymore, which for me is his second best. Couldn't disagree more with the contention that Spielberg "hadn't really grown up" when he made Jaws. To me, that's like saying the Beatles hadn't really grown up when they made "Eight Days a Week" and "Ticket to Ride." Or: I agree, and if Munich and Saving Private Ryan (or Abbey Road and Let It Be) are what happens when you grow up, then I'll take the adolescent.

The Bealtles made great adolescent music in that period, sort of the way the Jackson 5 made great children's music in '69-72.

E.T. and Empire of the Sun both more grown up than Jaws.

Whenever these threads descend into a rehash of the director's career we've had 500 times, WRITERS never get mentioned. ie, the writers he worked with/adapted in the later films were better than Carl Gottlieb etc.

I would totally stan for Empire of the Sun if John Williams hadn't ruined it

Good point about writers; I think it was Richard Corliss who wanted to completely reevaluate the same ground covered by Sarris's American Cinema in terms of writers. I'd be lying if I claimed to know anything about Spielberg's writers, other than that Peter Benchley wrote Jaws. But I did find Munich deadly dull, especially considering what an amazing subject it had to work with. I think the Spielberg of Jaws had far greater film instincts than the guy who made Munich (and would draw an almost exact parallel with the Scorsese of Mean Streets vs. the guy who made The Departed).

You really consider "I Want You Back" and "I'll Be There" children's music? I mean, I know it was a kid who sang those songs, but there sure were a lot of adults--then and now--who connected in a big way.

"children's music" does not preclude that.

Spielberg hasn't made a movie that successfully meets its intentions since the eighties, but there's no question his movies have been far more unusual, interesting, and challenging than they ever were. It's unbelievable that he created Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, War of the Worlds, and Munich in a three-year span.

Did I wake up in some weird universe where Abbey Road is not almost universally considered one of the top 3, if not the best, Beatles album?

Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, War of the Worlds, and Munich in a three-year span.

the only one I haven't seen of these is Munich and the rest are terrible!

The Terminal isn't very good, CMIYC is fine if overlong, and WOTW is three-quarters of a knockout.

From one Phil D. to another: It's way down the list for me personally, but generally speaking, I think it's still considered one of their best.

I think Spielberg has aged better than Scorsese (not to mention Coppola). Whereas I've found every Scorsese non-documentary since Casino dreary to one degree or another, Spielberg still surprises me sometimes. I didn't like Munich, but Catch Me If You Can, A.I., and Minority Report were all mostly successful, I thought.

...and hold up much better than The Color Purple, Always, and Hook. In his leaden way he's trying for new tones and moods in the last four or five movies.

"Jaws" is perfect, or at least as perfect as nearly anything by Hitchcock. Spielberg did indeed later grow up, but his more "mature" "CEOT3K" and "ET" are infused with his trademark innocence and fretting about the family unit (so is "Poltergeist," for that matter). Soon enough, though, he quickly confused growing up with mawkishness. Then after following his worst movie ("Hook") with two of his best ("Jurassic Park" - sort of like "Jaws" with a better built shark - and "Schindler's List," both the same year!!!), he promptly forgot how to end a film, resulting in a string of flawed soooo close contenders. "Private Ryan," "Catch Me ...," "War of the Worlds," "AI," "Minority Report" ... all of these are full of classic scenes/moments, and all come sooooo close, yet each falls just short of their potential for various avoidable reasons. Or fall more than just short, as the case may sometimes be, and I'd include "Munich" and "The Terminal" as two of his biggest misses, if hardly misfires.

Just gonna give him a pass on Jurassic Park 2, Josh?

I'm not a huge Spielberg fan, but I think this is pretty clearly one of the best movies ever.

Jaws, not JP2.

I forgot all about JP2, which sucks.

Other than Woody Allen and (maybe) Soderbergh (one generation later and follows a different ethic), what other Major American Director often makes two movies a year?

Winterbottom?

Years ago, I interviewed screenwriter David Koepp, and my first question was basically "whose dumb idea was it to have the girl go all Gymkata on the dinosaurs in JP2?" He got a bit pissed, but much later, after I proved I wasn't a total jackass, he turned the tape recorder off and explained how on a big budget movie that like, sometimes you have no control over the stupid ideas that make it in.

Totally curious, come to think of it, that he did "Hook" (ass), then "JP" and "SL" (class), then "Amistad" and "JP2" (ass) all over the course of 6 years.

"Jaws" is perfect

Perfect AT WHAT?

Winterbottom is a Brit. Many of his films are subsidized, so it doesn't matter that almost no one sees them.

Perfect at cinematography? Acting? Editing? Score? Casting? Pacing?

Totally missed the "American" part of the prolific director challenge.

The editing makes it, but I wd argue vs 'perfect'.

Also, the Quint role kinda requires the actor to be terrible, and Robert Shaw delivered.

Also loved Belushi as Dreyfuss on SNL '75-76: "THISSSSSS was NO boating accident!!!"

Also, Williams' "Let's go on a big sea adventure!" score over the Orca scenes doesn't quite work.

maybe i'm forgetting something but he's never really directed a successful comedy right? anyhow question i'm guessing someone here might be able to answer: a few years back there was this blog w/ this guy writing about every spielberg film, house next door linked to it (when zeitz was still behind the site, before it merged w/ slant?), and then it turned out the guy was plagiarizing some book and that was that (i think the blog died and house next door certainly stopped linking to it in any case). my question: what was that book?

Catch Me If You Can was essentially a comedy. 1941 has its fans (and Robert Stack is funnier in it than he was in Airplane!).

I also consider The Terminal successful.

1941 has its moments (i vaugely recall) and i'm not gonna hate anything w/ wendie jo sperber. i thought maybe catch me if you can (or actually i thought maybe the terminal which i enjoyed also) but i was thinking something less ambiguously a comedy. i'm not even sure what would qualify besides 1941 (hook?). it's odd cuz he clearly has a strong sense of humor, most of his decent to great movies have at least one (usually more) very funny moment or scene, it's not like he's oliver stone or something.

Also, Williams' "Let's go on a big sea adventure!" score over the Orca scenes doesn't quite work.

*looks for ILX off switch!!*

hey balls, i think this might be the book - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Directed-Steven-Spielberg-Contemporary-Blockbuster/dp/0826416918

A friend just sent me this (yes, because I was asking him if he thought Jaws should be considered an action movie lol) and I'd never seen it before. I LOLd.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92yHyxeju1U

btw I said it's not an action movie he said he guessed it could be considered one but he wouldn't class it as such personally.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=b5-oQ2fOnOc

So I was waiting for permission to post this but this is him and his wife and what I think is pretty much unquestionably the best Halloween duo costume effort ever:

http://i40.tinypic.com/24pdx09.jpg

A+

Blu-ray on the way, with restoration from the original negative

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzlqXJ80dJU

http://www.gofobo.com/news/spielbergs_jaws_heads_to_bluray_for_first_time_in_digitally_restored_and_remastered_edition_exc

cool.
but thought this bump was going to be connected with Jaws4 which I'm for some odd reason watching now.

What's funny/strange is that I don't recall previous DVD incarnations of "Jaws" looking as shitty as the examples they trot out there.

I think that's played London before

For maximum insanity, a musical I can only hope.

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 cloud
in the shape
of a killer shark

[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.

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.

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.

This movie has more blood than John Wick 4.

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!

"The," not "They"

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.)

the older Brody kid passed away pretty young, a heart attack. late thirties iirc.

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.