Jaws 30th Anniversary Edition in June - Page 2

Jaws is great and I've seen it multiple times. It is basically a retelling of Moby Dick, especially in the last half of the film when it's just Shaw, Scheider, and Dreyfuss alone on the boat.

Again, it is gritty like many films from the 70's and unflinching (like having a child pulled under the water and eaten or when the girl is mauled at the beginning and her death thrashings are viscious), and a feet of inspired guerilla and improvisational filmmaking (like when the characters are tipsey on the boat and comparing "battle scars" and telling fish stories, so are the actors... much like Apocalypse Now: the actors really are hopped up on dope or drunk when the scene calls for it and it lends a heady sense of realism that otherwise would not have happened by pure acting). For the most part it lets the atmosphere and music (and your imagination of what's beneath the surface) build the suspense rather than relying souly on a rubber shark.

A true Hollywood classic that deserves far better than what Universal usually dishes out for it.

And for a couple of years back in the 70's Jaws was the most successful film ever made. I still remember the long queues stretching right round the theatre. I must have seen it at least a dozen times between 75 and 78, great film.

Here's what I would like to see added (in addition to what's already on the 25th Anniversary DVD)

• Original mono track
• Full 2 hour+ documentary from the LaserDisc
• Jaws: The E! True Hollywood Story (2 hours, less without commercials)
• Commentary track with Roy Scheider (I know Spielberg refuses to record commentaries for his films, but does he not want anyone else recording them as well?)

A new transfer would be great, but I wouldn't mind them using the same one over again.

I'm just the opposite. A new and improved transfer is the only thing that could get me to buy this, which I would do even if it had no extras whatsover.

I'm sorry, but where in that announcement does it say the mono track will be included?

CraigL, I have read and re-read the info over at The Digital Bits and I see nothing confirming that the mono track will be included, what are you seeing that I am not?

Oops, damn, Tom beat me to it.....well at least I know I am not blind.

I love this film and will buy it again, but how many times must we re-purchase our favorite films?
I hear that a new Ghostbuster set is in the works as well.

seems a bit suspect that we get these now just before HD-DVD is about to hit. In fact, I'm sure that's why we saw a Star Wars release last year.
Lucas needed to cash in on SD-DVD before the tide turns.
He did the same thing with laser releasing the original cuts remastered.
I remember a bunch of high demand films were released on laser right before the introduction of DVD.

And why do they do this?
Because I love this film and will buy it again.

John, that's great & thanks for the confirmation....but strictly speaking my question/observation to Craig still stands.

I understand griping about double-dipping when a new version comes out right on the heels of the originals - ala the new two-disc sets like Day After Tomorrow due in May - but it's been five years since the original Jaws DVD and SIX since Ghostbusters, so what's the big deal? And Jaws has a list price of $23, so it'll actually cost you about $17. Try as I might, I can't understand all the teeth-gnashing that accompanies reissues of this sort...

I agree. I can't believe how, after years of practically begging Universal to re-issue Jaws with the mono track and (hopefully) the full 2-hour making of doc. that people are actually complaining about a double dip FIVE YEARS later. I saw someone in the Casino re-issue thread with the exact same complaint. I will gladly buy this again for the original mono track and, I hope, the full documentary and whatever new features are added, especially since it should go for pretty cheap as well.

yeah. i feel the same way.
this was a formative film for me, when i was a kid, i went back to see it more times than i did anything else...even Star Wars.
its lost a lot of punch over the years thru countless re-viewings, but its the definition of an Essential library title.
i will absolutely positively upgrade to HD when it comes, but i believe that 6 months later is not very realistic.
i remember getting into DVD, in what i considered late in the game, and still waiting to get Jaws.
if it wasn't announced as a big title to spur the launch of the format, i expect it would be another couple years at least.

as for the new dvd- if the original mono mix is on there, and the current video standard isn't compromised, i'll upgrade.
i hate the new 5.1 mix that much.
as far as PQ goes- the current release isn't bad at all, and to me it looks to be cleanly authored, mastered, and encoded. any noticeable improvment would have to come from a new 'tweaked' transfer i would think (think of how good we all thought the original Alien looked and then compare that to transfer in the Quad set- i know some people didn't like it, but to me it looked f-in' incredible) and even given all the soundtracks this time around, moving ALL extras over to the next disc would surely give the visual side more room to flex.

but regardless, its worth it just for the new (old) mono mix.
just like i would upgrade SW if Lucas could ever kick out the true originals.

Try as I might, I can't understand all the teeth-gnashing that accompanies reissues of this sort...

Once again, I agree with Colin. The original Jaws release streeted in 2000 and received many complaints from laserdisc and home theater fans who loudly argued over the lack of the original mono track -- well, you rubbed the lamp and now you might be getting your wish, i.e., a re-issue with the original mono track, and now another segment of people are complaining that the film will be re-issued? It just proves that you'll never please everybody. God help these people if they ever get into collecting Anchor Bay titles. Vaya con Dios, amigos.

By the way, the dts version of the JAWS 25th anniversary DVD is selling for $9.99 at Best Buy right now.

I think some people just enjoy complaining about anything they can. Doesn't matter if it's price, features, whatever as long as they can whine.

When it comes to Lucas, Spielberg, and Disney, people confuse the creators with Santa Claus or some mythical magical figure who can snap their fingers and make everybody's wishes come true. Real life is more complicated than that.

Would I have liked to have received an isloated music and effects track on the new Bambi DVD, like we received on the last laserdisc release? Yes, but the last laserdisc release was damned hideous in the a/v department. The new DVD is visually rapturous.

Would I like to have the full documentary on the new Jaws DVD? Sure, saves me time from loading up the old Jaws LD. But I'd much prefer to have the mono soundtrack and an anamorphic transfer. I can only listen to the same production stories so many times, but the film is new every time I watch it.

Would I like to have a non-screwed up version of A New Hope? With corrected rear channels and a re-mix NOT handled by a sound f/x guru, a mix that doesn't drown out the score in favor of highlighting loud garish sound f/x? Yeah. There's more thrill in some brass notes sometimes than in a bunch of synthesized whooshes.

Sure, I'd love to have all these things. But I'm still thankful I've got what I've got. Plusses and minuses. Debits and credits. Pros and cons. I'm pretty happy, overall, but will not raise hell if the opportunity arises in the future for better versions.

Same here.

My point was not to whine- just comment on a studio trend.
I did say- I would buy it. I will and I'm sure I'll love it.
It's not even so much spending the extra $.
I'm all for upgrades of poorly mastered disc, but the last issue was not bare bones.
It was a special edition.
I suppose my gripe is- anything that will be included now- could have been included then. Certainly the extra hour missing from the doc. and the Mono track could have been there.
As far as I know nothing new has been unearthed. It was all available. It was all there on the CAV laser. (which I have as well)
Not that I want to go back, but in the days of laser you got a true special edition- packed to the gills. Very little, if anything, was held back.
I'm not sure that's the case today.

Yes, the mono should have been included on the last DVD. But it wasn't. It will be now, and that is cause for celebration, not complaints. I didn't buy the old DVD because of the missing mono track (GOD how I effing HATE new crappy foley f/x...), and now it seems as if my waiting was not in vain.

Save the complaints for releases that deserve them, such as Disney's DVD of THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER, which I would hope would be named by animation buffs the worst DVD of recent memory.

The treatment of The Thief and the Cobbler is an embarassment, and sometimes I get a little outraged that Spielberg, the Disney Company, and Zemeckis didn't step up to the plate to help complete the film, given the fire-walking Richard Williams performed for them as animation director on Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Admission time: I've refused to see the compromised version of The Thief and the Cobbler, just as I refused to see Kubrick's "American version" of Eyes Wide Shut until I could get my hands on the uncut European version. Watching the bastardized version of something so personal and exacting...it's just too painful to contemplate. I will never watch The Thief and the Cobbler until I can see a version Richard Williams himself is happy with.

Well I'm with Ernest here. If I were to call a film the best "trash movie" ever made it would be a great insult from me. And Jaws is certainly not a B-movie, which is defined as Talking about a B-movie with a big budget is an oxymoron.

I get a little tired of hearing people whine about people whining.

Anyway - whine away, folks. You're entitled to say what you like or don't like. What you expect or don't expect. I'm still annoyed that the first JAWS disc did not have the complete documentary, and I want it real bad. And I've never had a LD player.

And even though this double-dipping is indeed 5 years later, generally speaking I too am getting tired of re-buying movies again and again. Yeah, I know -- "who's forcing you to buy it again?" -- but we all know that when we have a favorite film we'd like the best version. Problem is, they should get it right the FIRST time.

I agree. That has me a bit worried. Hopefully the video doesn't suffer because of it.

I hope they have better menu's this time around. I know its a stupid complaint but I hate that super zoomed-in shot of the bouy. A 3-D walkthough of Quint's boat would be nice.

In a perfect world, sure. But the DVD marketplace of 2005 is a totally different one than what we saw in 2000. The format has grown and changed so much in that span that it's almost unfair to compare releases from the same era. What constituted a top-notch disc back then might be lackluster today - 2-DVD sets were still pretty rare then...

I agree with Joe and others here who say that the
full length documentary should have been included
with the original DVD. Maybe Universal had to trim
the doc to go with the film on one disc, so they could
have just issued a 2 disc set back then. Maybe they
didn't include the mono mix because they thought the
J6Ps of the world wouldn't have gotten excited over
the original audio track. Who knows? But if something
is missing from a DVD, or something is altered, or if
double-dipping frustrates us, then I think we have the
right to "whine".

Here's something that hasn't been addressed yet. Besides the frequently-cited drawbacks of the 25th Ann. Edition (lack of mono mix, edited doc, less outtakes), what about the artwork? The shiny shark with the pointy nose and the add'l waves over Chrissy's profile were telltales signs that sad tampering was waiting on the inside. And the fact that the amazing soundtrack CD re-issue had the right version of the poster was all the more frustrating. It made the anniversary campaign inconsistent-looking. (Tho for what it's worth, I wish the soundtrack incl. a listing of original tracks from the LP, so you could program it to match. That beautiful soundtrack is sequenced like a great album, ignoring the exact chronology of the film. Having listened to it repeatedly in the years before video, I'm grateful it was organized for the best listening experience first and foremost.)

In 1976, when I was 7, I got the soundtrack LP for my birthday, and I got in trouble taking all my friends at my birthday party, locking us all in the bathroom and showing off Chrissy's naked body on the cover. It's sad to think that my kids could not get into the same kind of trouble with the last DVD version. And I don't think that's as corny as it sounds. The film's opening specifically deals with the crossroads of sex and death--like Tippi Hedren being attacked at the end of The Birds--and the poster art captured it wonderfully. (In fact, one of Jaws's taglines was "She was his first".)

"Maybe they didn't include the mono mix because they thought the J6Ps of the world wouldn't have gotten excited over the original audio track."

Personally, I think they didn't include the mono mix because they (mistakenly) believed that the HT enthusiasts of the world wouldn't have gotten excited over the original mono track. They were probably were thinking "Mono? People today want 5.1 so let's give 'em a 5.1 mix. Oh and we'll change the sound effects on the movie too. What's the problem?"

The original 1975 Jaws album was a re-recording. The album released in 2000 consisted of the actual music recorded for the film. They are 2 totally separate recordings, and you can't really program the 2000 album to match the original since many of the compositions were changed by Williams for the album re-recording in 1975.

And yes, I hope the original poster artwork is used on this new DVD.

I would like to see the deleted scenes that were extras on the 25th anniversary version included in the movie so we get the movie in its entirety.

Richard A Ringenbach

George, you need to relax and not get so defensive about stuff I say. I love Jaws. The end. Why gripe about my definitions of movie terms? Jaws, as a piece of narrative, as a story, is pretty absurd and illogical in places: a great white has never, ever, ever been know to behave the way the shark does in the film. The behaviour of the Mayor is unfathomable. In Benchley's novel, his seeming greed is justified to some extent, as he has Mafia debts to pay, but in the film, that is left out and he just seems unrealistically selfish and sick. What elevated Jaws to greatness, was Williams' score and Verna Field's editing. The faltering mechanical shark was a blessing in disguise, as it allowed the camera to create the menace of the unseen danger.

I get the feeling that many people on this thread perhaps don't understand what a "lesson in filmmaking" in reference to specific film means to me: it means that regardless of the actual story, the film is a masterpiece. Melville's, Le Samourai is a lesson in filmmaking: the lighting; the camera movement; the mise en scene; the pacing; the editing; the movement of Delon in each scene; measured silence as opposed to waffly dialogue that was common in American films at the time, and so on. Jaws, for me (and perhaps me only!) is in the same landscape. The story doesn't make you think very hard. You can't sympathise with the shark! And you haven't got time to sympathise with the victims, save Quint, but he seems destined to die, as his name suggests he will be the fifth victim. Nevertheless, Jaws is a great film, because it achieves its goal 100%: to scare the living crap out of you. But once you get used to the shocks, you can really sink your teeth into how the film was expertly constructed in post-production. Funnily enough, the scenes that hold up the best are the quieter scenes, like Brody's kid mimicking his father's mannerism and facial expressions and, naturally, Shaw's USS Indianapolis story.

There is indeed, a subtle beauty to Jaws that is not found in The Birds, The Swarm, Long Weekend, Jurassic Park and other 'Nature fights back' films.