Happy Birthday Jaws

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Already have the Collectors Edition CD a spin. The Blu-ray will be watched tonight.

Such a brilliant film and score, and such an important film for Spielberg, Williams AND JWFan!

Happy birthday old friend!

[Sweeping Strings 2,391]

The severed limbs, the 'fountain' of blood when the shark gets hold of the boy on the inflatable, the head popping out of the hole in the boat, Quint's death ... how in the HELL did Jaws manage to be certified PG, even with the special 'intensity' warning?

But yes, an absolute classic.

[Quintus 5,399]

Best film evar, I'm gonna have to at least listen to the score this weekend.

[Incanus 5,723]

Since I luckily have all the time in the world today I think I'll listen to the score and watch the film to honour the occasion. Happy birthday you terrifying film you!

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,489]

That's a twenty-footer.

[Quintus 5,399]

Twenty five.

Had to be done.

[filmmusic 1,861]

Oh, I wish I hadn't watched it 2 weeks ago so that I could watch it tonight on its anniversary!

Anyway..

Maybe I should watch Jaws 3 and come back here with comments on its superiority over Jaws!

[Jilal 569]

... watch it again?

[Quintus 5,399]

Still wouldn't have made it any better than Jaws 2 though would it filmmusic.

[filmmusic 1,861]

... watch it again?

Well, I don't like watching films so soon after a previous viewing.

I'd like for at least a year to pass before I see a movie again.

Still wouldn't have made it any better than Jaws 2 though would it filmmusic.

Don't know. Haven't seen it.

[Quintus 5,399]

I must have you mixed up with someone else.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Quintus 5,399]

I'm not going senile? Rejoice! I'm saved!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Quintus 5,399]

Yes, that may well be the case, but what about these games esteemed member filmmusic is playing?

[nightscape94 965]

Blu-ray viewing is scheduled this evening. Favorite movie of all time.

[filmmusic 1,861]

I'm not going senile? Rejoice! I'm saved!

I'm sorry. I think I misunderstood your post?

I meant I haven't seen Jaws 3 yet, to see if it would be indeed better than Jaws 2!

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I can't believe someone born the same year Jaws came out would be a 40-year old fart today.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

When I first saw Jaws I was very very young. No older then 3 or 4.

One evening I snuch downstairs while my mum and dad were watching a movie.

I watched with them from a hidden position just up the stairs.

Ofcourse because I was so young, and didnt speak English at all I had no idea what i was watching. I don't remember being scared though. And two scenes would stand out in my memory.

My kind would occasionally recall them, even years later. Though I would not know exactly where they came from.

Until I was 11 years old. At that time my mum would often kinda force me to go to a neighborhood youth center, in her then ongoing, but ultimately futile attempts to get me to interact more with other kids and develop social skills.

One afternoon they were showing a movie. It was on a TV that wasnt very big, and I sat quite far back in the room. The movie was called Jaws. I had of course heard of it. I knew it was a monster movie about a shark. I actually remembered seeing a trailer for Jaws The Revenge a year earlier in a hotel in the USA.

But what I didnt know was that this was the film that contained the two memories that had somehow stayed with me throughout those years.

The first memory was of 3 men on a boat. One with a big fishing rod, which all of a sudden began to move. First very very slowly, but then the fish caught the line and went for it.

The second memory was of a man trapped in a sinking boat. A big shark smashes through the cabin window and tries to bit him.

These are probably the earliest memories I have. And that they I found out where they came from. And I actually remembered that one day I snuck downstairs and watched Jaws in secret.

Aged 11 I could better understand the film of course. I had not seen a lot of "grown up" movies, or possibly none at all. I certainly don't recall any.

Jaws is the one I recall.

I also remember humming the theme in my head over and over again for the next few days. I developed a fascination with sharks. the local library had a book, full of info about all kinds of sharks, and lots of great pictures. For a period of maybe 1,5 years that book was ALWAYS in my house. I must have rented it out from the library dozens of times.

At that time I had no real understanding of film music, and certainly didnt contemplate the possibility that any would be for sale, on cassete tape or even CD.

Jaws started me off in the world of films that werent just for kids. I slowly began to see more of them, and like Jaws, began to notice the music for some of them

I didnt get into film music till a few years later. When I saw the Bond films, watched Star Trek TNG and it's awesome title theme, and saw films like Indiana Jones and Star Wars. Like many of that era and before I began to record the music off the TV using a tape deck placed next to the TV's speakers. Jaws was one of the films I did that with.

The first ever film music related CD I owned was a James Bond title song compilation. A classmate gave a me a dubbed tape of Moonraker a while after. The first Williams score I borrowed from the library was The Last Crusade, and a week or 2 later I bought Jurassic Park on CD (after listening to the full album many times in the record store)

All deeply important scores which would influence my passion for film music.

But Jaws was the first one I hummed to myself. At age 11. It was Genesis.

Watching the film again tonight on blu-ray, 40 years after it came out, I was reminded once again how brilliant it is.

It actually took quite a while growing up to appreciate it technical skill. To see why it works so well.

Jaws is a film with a nightmarish production. Where many aspects were barely under the control of the crew. The script was rewritten time and again while the film was being shot. The budget and schedule blew up to epic proportions and there was real doubt that this nebbish 27 year old director would be able to pull it off.

Despite of that, it perhaps because of it Jaws is a film that is far better then the sum of its parts. The producers probably suspected they could end up with a good film, but they could not have anticipated that they would get a great one.

The casting is a stroke of luck. Scheider is just right for Brody. The fish out of water cop who pretty much acts like the audience substitute. Originally Charlton Heston was sought for the role, which would have been all wrong. Scheider being a known actor but not a star made Brody more vulnerable somehow. Also his performance is far more natural then anything Heston could have provided.

Dreyfuss compliments him well as Hooper. The two characters bond easily as they are both fish out of water and seemingly the only ones taking the problem seriously.

The mayor, played by Murray Hamilton certainly doesnt. He wants his town to have a great summer from tourism and basically spends most of the first half of the film desperately trying to ignore the problem.

Hamilton's slight resemblance to Nixon, combined with his penchant for awful jackets make him a colorful, but realistic villain for the scenes where the shark is nowhere to be seen. He isnt a bad man though. It's just that he really doesnt need to hear that a shark is terrorizing his beaches

Robert Shaw is fantastic as Quint. Introduced early in the film in a way that you definitely remember him. Quint is essentially a complete asshole. Utterly competitive with Hooper, who he dislikes instinctively because he was born rich. And utterly dismissive of Brody, who doesn't have any seal legs and is given all the dirty work to do.

Yet even when reciting bad poetry and crushing beer cans, he seems like the right man for the job. Shaw's defining moment is when he gives his Indianapolis speech, a 5 minute monologue, partially written by him where he shows that Quint has indeed got a long and personal experience with sharks.

Jaws is a film of two halves. The first with a large cast, a large amount of extra's and a beautiful New England backdrop.

The second part feels almost claustrophobic, with it's cast of three on a small boat in the middle of nowhere. (some shots reveal that it really is a very small boat.)

It helps enormously that they did shoot it at sea and some some Universal backlot with water and a large matte of the sky. Logistically it was a nightmare to shoot like that. But it truly pays off.

Jaws is an adventure movie, but its one with quite a few shocks.

Spielberg and his writers are very smart in how they build some of those.

The film starts with 3 shark attacks. Chrissie, Alex Kittner and the two guys on the dock.

For the 4rth scene, Hooper examining Ben Gardner boat one would naturally expect the shark to appear and make short work of him. That's why the sudden appearance of the head works. We know that something will happen, but that is NOT what we expected

For the 4th of July scenes Spielberg uses what is essentially an old horror movie trick. The first scare is a false alarm, the second is real.

Spielberg tricks us with the bogus shark fin, but he doesnt cheat. There is no music signifying the arrival of the shark. And if you've seen the film a few times you'll actually notice in one shot the fin passes so closely next to a swimmer that it cannot possibly be the real shark.

Jaws is not one of Spielberg's more personal films when it comes to subject matter. But it is a film which contains a lot of aspects that would become signature elements of his style. With Brody being an early example of the Spielbergian everyman.

It also shows that he is a director who, despite his young age has a deep and ingrained understanding of how film works, why it works and what to do with it.

The way Jaws is shot, edited, scored and acted is spot on. It's a lean film, taking the essential parts of the book and cutting out all the fat. I personally consider it a companion piece to Raiders Of The Lost ark. Both films are an example of pure talent, no added fat, no extra bells and whistles, exactly right.

That doesnt mean the whole film is absolutely perfect in every way though. If you've seen it as many times as I have you will notice that in the opening scene the (rising or setting) sun can be seen in three different positions. Behind Chrissie when she's in the water, above her for the famous underwater POV shot of her swimming and inland next to the drunk guy as he falls asleep on the beach.

Similarly there is the problem regarding the barrels. First Bruce the shark has 1 barrel. He looses that one somehow in a way that never quite shown clearly. He later gains three more, but not every shot of the shark shows the three harpoons or ropes that should be there.

But these really a tiny nitpicking details, and only to be expecting from a film where a lot most have been improvised. also, some of the footage are of real life sharks, made in Australia especially for the film.

Jaws is a brilliant film!

Two months from now I will be in New England. Seeing John Williams conduct at Tanglewood, but I will also be visiting Maine, and I will go to the beach there.

I'll be a little bit disappointed if it doesnt remind me of Jaws at-least a little bit.....

Anyway....we delivered the bomb!

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Was really hoping it would end like that.

[Andy 4,195]

Going to see it in the theater tomorrow. Happy Father's Day to me!

[Sweeping Strings 2,391]

Superb post, Steef. Love hearing about the memories of the impact movies have had on people.

[Lewya 360]

This is worth a watch - https://vimeo.com/122479442

[Balahkay 627]

I just got through listening to the Jaws and Jaws 2 soundtracks. Amazing work.

[nightscape94 965]

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

"What's that strange device?"

[Balahkay 627]

What's that on the board? Source music?

[Quintus 5,399]

When I first saw Jaws I was very very young. No older then 3 or 4.

One evening I snuch downstairs while my mum and dad were watching a movie.

I watched with them from a hidden position just up the stairs.

Ofcourse because I was so young, and didnt speak English at all I had no idea what i was watching. I don't remember being scared though. And two scenes would stand out in my memory.

My kind would occasionally recall them, even years later. Though I would not know exactly where they came from.

Until I was 11 years old. At that time my mum would often kinda force me to go to a neighborhood youth center, in her then ongoing, but ultimately futile attempts to get me to interact more with other kids and develop social skills.

One afternoon they were showing a movie. It was on a TV that wasnt very big, and I sat quite far back in the room. The movie was called Jaws. I had of course heard of it. I knew it was a monster movie about a shark. I actually remembered seeing a trailer for Jaws The Revenge a year earlier in a hotel in the USA.

But what I didnt know was that this was the film that contained the two memories that had somehow stayed with me throughout those years.

The first memory was of 3 men on a boat. One with a big fishing rod, which all of a sudden began to move. First very very slowly, but then the fish caught the line and went for it.

The second memory was of a man trapped in a sinking boat. A big shark smashes through the cabin window and tries to bit him.

These are probably the earliest memories I have. And that they I found out where they came from. And I actually remembered that one day I snuck downstairs and watched Jaws in secret.

Aged 11 I could better understand the film of course. I had not seen a lot of "grown up" movies, or possibly none at all. I certainly don't recall any.

Jaws is the one I recall.

I also remember humming the theme in my head over and over again for the next few days. I developed a fascination with sharks. the local library had a book, full of info about all kinds of sharks, and lots of great pictures. For a period of maybe 1,5 years that book was ALWAYS in my house. I must have rented it out from the library dozens of times.

At that time I had no real understanding of film music, and certainly didnt contemplate the possibility that any would be for sale, on cassete tape or even CD.

Jaws started me off in the world of films that werent just for kids. I slowly began to see more of them, and like Jaws, began to notice the music for some of them

I didnt get into film music till a few years later. When I saw the Bond films, watched Star Trek TNG and it's awesome title theme, and saw films like Indiana Jones and Star Wars. Like many of that era and before I began to record the music off the TV using a tape deck placed next to the TV's speakers. Jaws was one of the films I did that with.

The first ever film music related CD I owned was a James Bond title song compilation. A classmate gave a me a dubbed tape of Moonraker a while after. The first Williams score I borrowed from the library was The Last Crusade, and a week or 2 later I bought Jurassic Park on CD (after listening to the full album many times in the record store)

All deeply important scores which would influence my passion for film music.

But Jaws was the first one I hummed to myself. At age 11. It was Genesis.

Watching the film again tonight on blu-ray, 40 years after it came out, I was reminded once again how brilliant it is.

It actually took quite a while growing up to appreciate it technical skill. To see why it works so well.

Jaws is a film with a nightmarish production. Where many aspects were barely under the control of the crew. The script was rewritten time and again while the film was being shot. The budget and schedule blew up to epic proportions and there was real doubt that this nebbish 27 year old director would be able to pull it off.

Despite of that, it perhaps because of it Jaws is a film that is far better then the sum of its parts. The producers probably suspected they could end up with a good film, but they could not have anticipated that they would get a great one.

The casting is a stroke of luck. Scheider is just right for Brody. The fish out of water cop who pretty much acts like the audience substitute. Originally Charlton Heston was sought for the role, which would have been all wrong. Scheider being a known actor but not a star made Brody more vulnerable somehow. Also his performance is far more natural then anything Heston could have provided.

Dreyfuss compliments him well as Hooper. The two characters bond easily as they are both fish out of water and seemingly the only ones taking the problem seriously.

The mayor, played by Murray Hamilton certainly doesnt. He wants his town to have a great summer from tourism and basically spends most of the first half of the film desperately trying to ignore the problem.

Hamilton's slight resemblance to Nixon, combined with his penchant for awful jackets make him a colorful, but realistic villain for the scenes where the shark is nowhere to be seen. He isnt a bad man though. It's just that he really doesnt need to hear that a shark is terrorizing his beaches

Robert Shaw is fantastic as Quint. Introduced early in the film in a way that you definitely remember him. Quint is essentially a complete asshole. Utterly competitive with Hooper, who he dislikes instinctively because he was born rich. And utterly dismissive of Brody, who doesn't have any seal legs and is given all the dirty work to do.

Yet even when reciting bad poetry and crushing beer cans, he seems like the right man for the job. Shaw's defining moment is when he gives his Indianapolis speech, a 5 minute monologue, partially written by him where he shows that Quint has indeed got a long and personal experience with sharks.

Jaws is a film of two halves. The first with a large cast, a large amount of extra's and a beautiful New England backdrop.

The second part feels almost claustrophobic, with it's cast of three on a small boat in the middle of nowhere. (some shots reveal that it really is a very small boat.)

It helps enormously that they did shoot it at sea and some some Universal backlot with water and a large matte of the sky. Logistically it was a nightmare to shoot like that. But it truly pays off.

Jaws is an adventure movie, but its one with quite a few shocks.

Spielberg and his writers are very smart in how they build some of those.

The film starts with 3 shark attacks. Chrissie, Alex Kittner and the two guys on the dock.

For the 4rth scene, Hooper examining Ben Gardner boat one would naturally expect the shark to appear and make short work of him. That's why the sudden appearance of the head works. We know that something will happen, but that is NOT what we expected

For the 4th of July scenes Spielberg uses what is essentially an old horror movie trick. The first scare is a false alarm, the second is real.

Spielberg tricks us with the bogus shark fin, but he doesnt cheat. There is no music signifying the arrival of the shark. And if you've seen the film a few times you'll actually notice in one shot the fin passes so closely next to a swimmer that it cannot possibly be the real shark.

Jaws is not one of Spielberg's more personal films when it comes to subject matter. But it is a film which contains a lot of aspects that would become signature elements of his style. With Brody being an early example of the Spielbergian everyman.

It also shows that he is a director who, despite his young age has a deep and ingrained understanding of how film works, why it works and what to do with it.

The way Jaws is shot, edited, scored and acted is spot on. It's a lean film, taking the essential parts of the book and cutting out all the fat. I personally consider it a companion piece to Raiders Of The Lost ark. Both films are an example of pure talent, no added fat, no extra bells and whistles, exactly right.

That doesnt mean the whole film is absolutely perfect in every way though. If you've seen it as many times as I have you will notice that in the opening scene the (rising or setting) sun can be seen in three different positions. Behind Chrissie when she's in the water, above her for the famous underwater POV shot of her swimming and inland next to the drunk guy as he falls asleep on the beach.

Similarly there is the problem regarding the barrels. First Bruce the shark has 1 barrel. He looses that one somehow in a way that never quite shown clearly. He later gains three more, but not every shot of the shark shows the three harpoons or ropes that should be there.

But these really a tiny nitpicking details, and only to be expecting from a film where a lot most have been improvised. also, some of the footage are of real life sharks, made in Australia especially for the film.

Jaws is a brilliant film!

Two months from now I will be in New England. Seeing John Williams conduct at Tanglewood, but I will also be visiting Maine, and I will go to the beach there.

I'll be a little bit disappointed if it doesnt remind me of Jaws at-least a little bit.....

Anyway....we delivered the bomb!

Thanks for going to the effort with this, I enjoyed reading it.

[Incanus 5,723]

What's that on the board? Source music?

Looks like it.

"What's that strange device?"

How did they get Roy Scheider into that small box? These modern special effects are amazing!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

But Jaws was the first one I hummed to myself. At age 11. It was Genesis.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

When they're chatting on the Orca in the evening, the way the interior of the boat is shot makes it look a lot bigger than it is.

As if it was installed with Tardis tech.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Some either shots make it look tiny though

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Just that scene when they're exchanging tattoo stories, it looks bigger.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I noticed some nice lense flares and bokeh during the night search scene!

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Me too!

[crocodile 8,040]

But Jaws was the first one I hummed to myself. At age 11. It was Genesis.

No, silly. He meant Genesis with Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins.

Karol

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,489]

Come on, Bloodboal, this isn't no Boy Scout picnic.

[Wojo 2,453]

But Jaws was the first one I hummed to myself. At age 11. It was Genesis.

 

No, silly. He meant Genesis with Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins.

Karol

I grew up on the latter's cassettes.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Stumbled upon this while I was surfing the web.

Playing in a cinema at spitting distance of where I will be in Maine on that exact day!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

Narragansett Lager! That's awesome!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I'm totally gonna crush that can!

If it's empty of course, don't want my hand to get all sticky.

Maybe i'll rinse it out first....

[Wojo 2,453]

Now why don't you take a long, close look at this sign. Those proportions are correct.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

LOL

Thats a big can of beer!

[Miz 139]

Interesting deconstruction of the Jaws theme on yesterday's film programme on BBC Radio 4.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06j5qd5