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Don Bosco addressed the movie Jaws’s 50th anniversary in the “This Day in History” thread, but the movie was such a cultural phenomenon, I felt it deserved its own thread today.
I watch it in its entirety at least once every year (always in the late spring or summer, usually before I go to the beach), and watch bits and pieces several times a year.
Unlike many mainstream popcorn movies from the 1970s, it holds up in so many ways. The cinematography and acting are vastly superior to that of most mainstream popcorn films of the time. The dialogue is sharp. The writers did a great job of incorporating a good amount of witty humor into what could have otherwise been a very dark movie. (The book was much darker). John Williams’s score is brilliant. He has obviously composed a number of iconic film scores, but the Jaws theme may be the one that has remained the most ubiquitous.
Even though the mechanical shark looks fake when seen for extended periods and the inclusion of the footage of a real great white shark was a major continuity blunder that wouldn’t work with contemporary audiences, you still have to marvel at the special effects considering the era in which the movie was made and the challenges to making such a film at the time (particular challenges experienced during the filming have been well-documented).
Of course Spielberg’s decision not to initially show the shark has been lauded over and over again. But the build-up really is great. With the first attack, we don’t see any part of the shark at all. And it’s terrifying. With the next attack (not including the off-screen devouring of Pipit, the dog who goes missing while fetching a stick in the ocean), we very briefly see only what appear to be the shark’s pectoral fins during its horrifying attack on poor Alex Kintner. (Before it was cut, it originally showed the mechanical shark opening its mouth wide and then chomping down on Kintner). Then there is the near attack where we see a portion of a dock that the shark pulled apart chasing a man who was trying to catch the shark. We then see a little bit more of the shark during the final attack before Brody, Hooper, and Quint set out to hunt the shark down. We see the dorsal fin and tail fin as the shark makes its way through the “pond” where a man on a rowboat and a group of boys on a sailboat are. Then we see the dorsal fin as it approaches the man on the rowboat, preparing its attack. The next thing we see is absolutely terrifying, as an aerial view shows what looks like a fairly realistic shark underwater biting the man’s leg. Later, when we finally see the shark up close, it’s a brilliant introduction. Its head suddenly pops out of the water about 15 feet from Brody as he chums the ocean from Quint’s boat. And Roy Scheider, as Brody, delivers the classic line, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” brilliantly mixing humor with horror and adventure.
The next few times we see the mechanical shark, it so clearly looks fake (and again, there’s that continuity blunder with the footage of the real shark), but by then we’re so invested in the movie and the story, it doesn’t much matter.
What we end up with is a great two part movie: The first part is a horror flick and the second part is an adventure flick. Spielberg and the writers did a masterful job of allowing the story to unfold and developing the characters. The audience is able to connect with the main characters and root for them, even as they come into conflict with one another (though they continue to share the same overarching goal). I feel like most movies today wouldn’t take as much time to develop the characters with such care. Instead, a contemporary version would likely focus more on the action. But what makes Jaws so great is not so much the action sequences, but the story and characters surrounding those sequences.
It’s amazing to think that Jaws was directed by a relatively unknown twenty-something-year-old director with very little experience directing feature films. It obviously served as a springboard to the most commercially successful career of any film director.
Jaws went on to have a few sequels. Jaws 2 was pretty fun, though nowhere close to the original. The last two sequels were incredibly bad. No one has attempted a sequel since the spectacularly bad Jaws the Revenge in 1987.
With what we currently understand about sharks, you may not be able to make Jaws today. But you can definitely still enjoy and appreciate what came out 50 years ago.
I watch it in its entirety at least once every year (always in the late spring or summer, usually before I go to the beach), and watch bits and pieces several times a year.
Unlike many mainstream popcorn movies from the 1970s, it holds up in so many ways. The cinematography and acting are vastly superior to that of most mainstream popcorn films of the time. The dialogue is sharp. The writers did a great job of incorporating a good amount of witty humor into what could have otherwise been a very dark movie. (The book was much darker). John Williams’s score is brilliant. He has obviously composed a number of iconic film scores, but the Jaws theme may be the one that has remained the most ubiquitous.
Even though the mechanical shark looks fake when seen for extended periods and the inclusion of the footage of a real great white shark was a major continuity blunder that wouldn’t work with contemporary audiences, you still have to marvel at the special effects considering the era in which the movie was made and the challenges to making such a film at the time (particular challenges experienced during the filming have been well-documented).
Of course Spielberg’s decision not to initially show the shark has been lauded over and over again. But the build-up really is great. With the first attack, we don’t see any part of the shark at all. And it’s terrifying. With the next attack (not including the off-screen devouring of Pipit, the dog who goes missing while fetching a stick in the ocean), we very briefly see only what appear to be the shark’s pectoral fins during its horrifying attack on poor Alex Kintner. (Before it was cut, it originally showed the mechanical shark opening its mouth wide and then chomping down on Kintner). Then there is the near attack where we see a portion of a dock that the shark pulled apart chasing a man who was trying to catch the shark. We then see a little bit more of the shark during the final attack before Brody, Hooper, and Quint set out to hunt the shark down. We see the dorsal fin and tail fin as the shark makes its way through the “pond” where a man on a rowboat and a group of boys on a sailboat are. Then we see the dorsal fin as it approaches the man on the rowboat, preparing its attack. The next thing we see is absolutely terrifying, as an aerial view shows what looks like a fairly realistic shark underwater biting the man’s leg. Later, when we finally see the shark up close, it’s a brilliant introduction. Its head suddenly pops out of the water about 15 feet from Brody as he chums the ocean from Quint’s boat. And Roy Scheider, as Brody, delivers the classic line, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” brilliantly mixing humor with horror and adventure.
The next few times we see the mechanical shark, it so clearly looks fake (and again, there’s that continuity blunder with the footage of the real shark), but by then we’re so invested in the movie and the story, it doesn’t much matter.
What we end up with is a great two part movie: The first part is a horror flick and the second part is an adventure flick. Spielberg and the writers did a masterful job of allowing the story to unfold and developing the characters. The audience is able to connect with the main characters and root for them, even as they come into conflict with one another (though they continue to share the same overarching goal). I feel like most movies today wouldn’t take as much time to develop the characters with such care. Instead, a contemporary version would likely focus more on the action. But what makes Jaws so great is not so much the action sequences, but the story and characters surrounding those sequences.
It’s amazing to think that Jaws was directed by a relatively unknown twenty-something-year-old director with very little experience directing feature films. It obviously served as a springboard to the most commercially successful career of any film director.
Jaws went on to have a few sequels. Jaws 2 was pretty fun, though nowhere close to the original. The last two sequels were incredibly bad. No one has attempted a sequel since the spectacularly bad Jaws the Revenge in 1987.
With what we currently understand about sharks, you may not be able to make Jaws today. But you can definitely still enjoy and appreciate what came out 50 years ago.
