Right OK so this is a bit of blog shifting once again as this post was actually on my tennis blog back when I stuffed it with other posts on reviews and other stuff and I can't believe I didn't spot it until now. So this one is on a rather popular film called Jaws, directed by some fella called Steven Spielberg made back in 1975 (the year I was born funnily enough!) and I think it deserves an airing here. So let's get the waders on, get the poison covered spearhook and dive in.....
Soooo,
it starts in the quiet seaside down of Amity Island where a rouge great white shark swims the waters, and a
young girl Chrissie Watkins (Susan Backlinie) is killed by the shark
while take a dip in the water. After this the town chief of police,
Martin Brody (Roy Schneider), alerts the town mayor Larry Vaughan
(Murray Hamilton) of the danger, who is largely uninterested as he is
more concerned that the tourists come to town as they are town's main
source of income, and also goes as far as asking Brody to cover up his
autopsy report on the girl as a "boating accident" rather than a shark
attack. Despite Brody's warnings and the mayor's negligence to do
anything about it, a young boy is killed in the water by the shark,
after which a bounty is put out, which brings in a whole bunch of greedy
fishermen who want the prize money for killing the big fish, but
despite their best efforts, they fail to kill the shark they were
looking for and instead catch a "tiger" shark as identified by an expert
from the Oceangraphic institute, Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfus) called
in by Brody, who helps him try and locate the shark. But despite their
best efforts, on 4th of July, their busiest day of the summer, the mayor
insists the beaches stay open, which leads to yet another shark attack,
where a young man is killed in a boat. Finally Brody convinces the
mayor to hire local veteran fisherman, Quint (Robert Shaw) to hunt and
kill the shark. Brody also persuades Quint into bringing along Hooper
to help out in their quest, but of course Quint being a stubborn old
school guy takes umbrage to the young college boy upstart in Hooper.
And the rest of the films sees the men embark on their dangerous journey
to find the rouge great white shark.
Jaws is
without doubt an absolute classic thriller, and is easily one of Steven
Spielberg's best films, it was the film that announced his career and
he effectively invented the summer blockbuster with this one film as
well. And even after 39
years, Jaws is still as effective as ever, as a piece of suspense it is
nearly second to none, Spielberg adds in as many cheap frights as he
can, and I'm sure the audiences back then would have been jumping out of
their seats. But the film definitely works best when we don't see
the shark, particularly early on in the film in the opening scene where
the first victim Chrissie Watkins is being violenty pulled back and
forth in the water by an unseen force, as well as the scene with the two
fishermen using a pound of roast to attract the shark to shore, which
it takes as bait and attacks the men.
And Jaws main strengths definitely lie within its
writing and casting, as the characters in the film as so well written, particularly
the three men, Brody, Quint and Hooper and cast wise the three leads are all excellent. Starting with Roy Schneider who is given some of the film's best dialogue such as the scene where he nervously flinches while throwing out some chum markers to lure the shark which suddenly rises out of the water without warning and backs into the boat saying to Quint "You're gonna need a bigger boat!". And also the scene where Brody get's drunk and he invites Hooper around and he says to him "Why don't we get another drink and cut that shark open" his wife says
"can you do that?" and Brody replies "I can do anything I'm the chief of
police!". Another good scene for Schneider is where Brody and Hooper try to convince the mayor into closing the beaches and Brody says to the mayor "If you open the beaches on the 4th of July it will be like ringing the dinner bell for Christ's sake!". And of course there is penultimate scene near the end where Brody faces off against the shark and he throws a compressed air canister into its mouth and he fires his rifle at it as it closes in on him and he says that classic line "Smile you son of a bitch!". He also some amusing moment such as the scene at the beginning of the film where he wakes up and looks outside to see where the kids are and he tells his wife, Ellen, they are playing out back. And Ellen says "In Amity you say the yaaard" in a Boston accent and Brody mimics her accent by saying "They're in the yaaard, not too faaaar from the caaaar!". Then there is the line where Broady nervously monitors the beach whilst his family are with him and he notices something bob ontop of the water, which turns out to be an old man swimming with a cap on. And the old fella walks over to Brody later and says "You don't go in the water at all, do you chief?" and Brody replies "That's some bad hat Harry!". Which later came the name of the production company belonging to film director Bryan Singer (admittedly I have to say its a crap name!).
Richard Dreyfus is also great as Hooper, the youngest of the three men and an expert from the oceangraphic institute, who could almost be
spoilt and bratish in his manner, as he comes from a wealthy background,
but ultimately Hooper is far more sussed than just about everyone else
in the film. And Dreyfus has his fare share of great moment such as the scene where he examines the remains of Chrissie Watkins and he angrily refutes the coroner's report and says "Now this wasn't a boating accident! It was no propeller, no coral reef and it wasn't Jack the ripper! It was a shark!". And he also has a great scene where tries to convince the mayor into closing the beaches and he gives up by saying "Right that's it, Martin! I'm not staying here listening to a
man, lining up to be a hot lunch, I'll see you later!" as well as "I think I am aware of the fact that you are going to ignore this particular problem until it swims up and bites you in the ASS! Now there are either two ways you can deal with this, you are either gonna kill this animal or cut off its food supply!". Dreyfus also shares a good albeit tense onscreen relationship with Robert Shaw, which was mirrored in real life, on account of Shaw's competitive nature and heavy drinking. And one of their funny scenes comes when Hooper thinks he's caught the shark, but whatever it is get's away and Quint puts him in his place, which leaves Hooper pulling faces behind his back! And he mocks Qunit by putting on a pirate voice "Aye aye, Jim boy, arrr!! I don't have to take this abuse much longer!". Dreyfus also shares a nice exchange in the film's closing moments where Brody and Hooper paddle their way back to shore. And Brody says to Hooper "I used to hate the water" and Hooper laughs saying "I can't image why!".
Robert Shaw is also great in his role as Quint, the old veteran seaman, who almost instantly
takes a disliking to Hooper and his first scene is great where he introduces himself memorably by scraping his fingers down a blackboard during a town hall meeting. And in the scene he makes his offer to the townsfolk to kill the shark and says "I value my neck alot more than 3,000 bucks, chief. I'll find him for 3, but I'll catch and kill him for 10! With that you get the head, the tail and the whole damn thing!". Also another great moment is where he confronts Hooper on their first meeting and says to him "you've got city hands, Mr Hooper, you've
been counting money all your life!" and during the scene Quint makes an amusing toast saying "Here's to swimmin with bow-legged women!" followed later by "Here lies the body of Mary-Lee, died at the age of 103, for 15 years she kept her virginity! Not a bad record for this vicinity!". And later when onboard the boat where Quint puts Hooper in his place again by saying he doesn't know what bit through his fishing line and how Hooper says it doesn't prove anything and Quint says "Well it proves one thing, Mr Hooper, that you wealthy college boys don't have the education to admit when you are wrong!". And perhaps the film's best scene and one of its highlights is undoubtedly of course where
the men sit around at night in the cabin of the Orca (Quint's boat) sharing
jokes, and Quint gives his chilling account of his experience of being
one of the crewmates onboard the USS Indianapolis, during the Second
World War, which was attacked by the Japanese, which left the survivors
in the Pacific ocean at the mercy of sharks. And Shaw's delivery of this scene is perfect as well as chilling and perhaps the best line is where he tells Brody and Hooper: "Sometimes that shark look right at you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about shark he's got black eyes, lifeless eyes... like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn't seem to be livin. Until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and the ocean turns red".
Also in regards to the supporting cast Murray Hamilton is also excellent as Mayor Vaughan, who is determined to keep the beaches open despite the dangers in the waters of Amity. Hamilton also has some great moments such as the scene where Hooper arrives on the island just after the fishermen have caught a tiger shark, and Hooper suggests they cut it open to ensure it killed the boy, Alex Kitner. And Vaughan says "Listen fellas, this is hardly the time or the place to carry out some sort half-assed autopsy on a fish! And I am not going to stand there and watch that thing cut open and see that little Kintner boy spill out all over the dock!". And another good for Murray is where Hooper tries to convince Vaughan to close the beaches and Vaughan looks up at vandalised billboard poster for Amity showing a shark's dorsal fin. And Vaughan says pointing at the poster "Brody, sick vandalism! That is a direct mutilation of a public service announcement! Now I want those paint happy bastards caught and hung up by their busker browns!".
And lastly Lorraine Gray who I have to say is the weak link the in chain of the cast, but does a decent job with her role as Brody's wife, Ellen. And she has one or two good moments such as the scene where Brody berates his young son, Michael, for sitting out in his birthday present, which is a new dinghy boat which is tied up to a pier. And Ellen says to Brody in defence for her son "He is not out on the water, he is in a boat! I don't think he'll ever go in again after what happened yesterday!". But then Ellen who holds a book on sharks that Broady had with him, looks through and sees a picture of a shark ramming a hole into the hull of a small rowboat and she slams the book shut and yells "Michael! Did you hear your father?! Out of the water, now! NOW!!".
Getting on to the director, Steven Spielberg did a stellar job with Jaws and he created the perfect mixture of suspense and thrills and throughout the film there are some great moments where he has the audience jumping out of their seats, namely the scene where Jaws pops out of the water or where Hooper finds the remains of a fisherman underneath the waters. Spielberg also keeps the film's pacing real tight throughout and also employs some great visual moments as well such as the scene with the dolly zoom shot of Brody witnessing the Kintner boy being killed in the waters. And of course I can't forget to mention John Williams superb music score, which really brought to prominence and he won his first academy award for the score, and its incredible to think how tinkly two ivory notes would prove to be so effective.
As for flaws...... well Jaws maybe a great film but it is not perfect, and one of the main flaws is of course the shark itself, as once its unveiled the film's great suspense that was built up before is now nullified by the appearance of this totally
unconvincing rubber creation. And the shark itself is clearly too big in
proportion, and it looks beyond fake, although Spielberg does make very
effective use of the underwater footage of real sharks, shot by an Australian shark expert couple Ron and Valerie Taylor. And the shark itself does let the movie down in places, and toward the
end it shifts from being a gripping thriller to being ridiculously over
the top, with the shark blatantly rising out the water to crash onto the
boat's transom, so it can eat Quint and Brody. In reality of course,
there is no way sharks would deliberately prey on humans, as they are
largely terratorial creatures who stick to their own environments, and
despite the fact that yes there have been many reported shark attacks over the
years, sharks themselves largely live off a diet of other marine life such as sea otters, seals and sea lions and they
don't deliberately hunt out people in the water!
It also has to be said that the ending of the film is also a weakness as Spielberg at the time wanted a
big ending that would have the audiences screaming and on their feet,
and the idea to actually blow up the shark was and is quite ridiculous.
There is no doubt the fact that while the end is farcical it is also
quite entertaining, and yeah ok you can't but help feel when Brody
finally shoots the compressed air canister the shark has in its open
jaws, when the sharks explodes, it is a crowd pleaser (the sound accompanying the shot of the shark as its remains sink into the water is actually taken from Spielberg's debut film, Duel, when the truck at the end goes over the cliff). The film also
probably didn't do the species a favour itself, if anything it demonised
sharks in the public, and it would take many years later before the
myth behind sharks, being monsters, would itself explode.
The film also paved the way for its inferior sequels, although Jaws 2 was the best of the three of the films (it would have been even better if the shark ate the screaming teenagers in it!) but by the truly awful Jaws 4: The Revenge, the sharks suddenly
took on the concept of revenge and that they had to hunt down the rest
of the Brody family! Yeahh ok!! Surely by then they should have taken
note of the concept of horror-thriller sequels is not a good idea!
Although Michael Caine has frequently since said he only took up the
part in Jaws 4 in order to help buy a new house for his grandmother (so
at least his fee went to good use!).
And that's it for my look at Jaws, which has been much re-done an extended from what it was before and hopefully you will enjoy it. Until the next un that's it for now.
Dum dum dum dum dum dum.......
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