The One...The Only...JAWS (1 Viewer)

[Tino]

I love your love for this film, Tino. I love it when folk get to share the cinema they passionately adore (one day I will start my own Aliens thread), but seeing this thread today has made me wan to watch Jaws again! And that's always a good thing. Cheers!

Thanks Neil!

And start that Aliens thread soon. I love that film!

 

[Tino]

I'll be seeing a 35mm screening again at the end of July.

Oooh. Where??

 

[TravisR]

Oooh. Where??

The Philadelphia Film Center located in (you guessed it) Philadelphia on July 31. Jaws plays near me at least two or three times a year so I don't even go to every screening like I used to. The 35mm screenings have gotten alot more scarce in the area so that's why I'm making the trip to Philadelphia for it.

 

[Bryan^H]

This is such a great book. So informative, and entertaining.

 

[TravisR]

View attachment 60132

This is such a great book. So informative, and entertaining.

Another great one is Jaws: Memories From Martha's Vineyard. Also, Joe Alves (production designer on the movie) has a book coming out in September called Designing Jaws.

 

[Tino]

The Philadelphia Film Center located in (you guessed it) Philadelphia on July 31. Jaws plays near me at least two or three times a year so I don't even go to every screening like I used to. The 35mm screenings have gotten alot more scarce in the area so that's why I'm making the trip to Philadelphia for it.

That’s only a two hour drive for me. I may join you! I love seeing Jaws with an enthusiastic crowd.

 

[Tino]

I own both of those books. Terrific reads.

 

[Doug Wallen]

One of my favorites. I was 17 when the film opened. Went to a local twin cinema, stood in line. The buzz was so strong for this film on opening night. I could hear the manager counting patrons as he walked the line. I barely made it in to the opening showing. Obviously there were few seats left as I entered the theater, so I was sitting on the third row. Gues who jumped when Brody is chumming for the shark??? Nearly had a heart attack.

Have loved the movie ever since. Will be viewing over the holiday, time to make Mayor Vaughn happy.

 

[AcesHighStudios]

I'll chime in as well. I think JAWS is one of the rare "perfect" movies. It truly is a masterpiece, both of filmmaking and of storytelling. Every performance is pitch perfect. I saw in 1978 during a re-release. I was only 8 and my friend, who lived next door and was a few years older than me, wanted me to go with him. My mom didn't want me to go, but I convinced her that some of the Christopher Lee "Dracula" movies I had seen at the drive-in were probably scarier than JAWS. When the head popped out of the bottom of the boat, an old man sitting in front of me jumped so high out of his seat, I could see the entire screen between the top of his chair and his bottom of his . . . well, bottom.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

What makes this film work so wonderfully is the actors in the film are just perfect. This picture, though it gets tagged as the film that birthed the summer blockbuster, really is not at all built like today's blockbusters. Jaws is not focused on special effects and big action scenes...it's focused on the characters. Brody, Quint, Hooper, Mayor Vaughn, Ellen Brody, they are all just fantastic and they carry the film. They had to, the shark did not work! The shark looks fairly bad in a lot of the scenes where you see him or what little they actually show. The scene where Quint gets eaten...well...that's a mighty bit of salesmanship on the part of Mr. Shaw. The thing is though you have fallen for the actors, so it all works.

Jaws was a big film but it is constructed like one of today's small films. It is not at all dependent upon the effects, instead we take the entire journey with the actors. We end up deeply connecting with these characters. Moments like Brody, Hooper, and Quint on the Orca drinking to their legs and telling stories as it grows dark, the famous Indianapolis speech...that would all be cut for bringing a current "blockbuster" to a halt with a complicated and way too long dialogue sequence.

Yes, Jaws was a summer blockbuster but none of today's blockbusters are actually modeled on it because in Jaws, the characters are the show.

 

[Tino]

So...there’s always a few.

Who here does not like Jaws and why?

 

[ScottJH]

Tino,

Saw Jaws yesterday morning, it's this week selection for Flashback Cinema. I couldn't help but think of your profile logo when I was sitting there.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

It still holds up as a great and thrilling movie. Vivid memory from the first show I saw, about 6 weeks after it opened: when the head pops out of the boat, a man two rows in front of us gor so worked up he tossed an entire large popcorn into the air while screaming.

I've seen it countless times, ran it once in 35mm at the Lafayette (back in 2004, I think), and have seen it on vacation at the Wellfleet Drive-in on Cape Cod the past two summers as they play it during their final weekend before closing for the season the week after Labor Day. Hoping they show it again this year.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Tino asked who here doesn't like it and I have no idea, but a quick look at the reviews for Jaws reveals that Charles Champlin had some issues with the film...

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/herocomplex/la-et-hc-jaws-original-review-20150619-story.html

I sort of agree with this from the review... "Hamilton is a caricature of greedy shortsightedness." The character was pretty one dimensional. The scene at the hospital where he tells Brody that Mrs. Kinter is wrong is about the only scene where the character displays any form of depth. Of course the film wasn't about Hamilton, so I mostly overlook what I consider to be one of the weakest aspects of the screenplay.

- Walter.

 

[ChristopherG]

One of my favorite movies of all time, if not number #1, definitely top 3. Just watched this again last week when it was broadcast on a premium channel on June 29th. First time I ever made the connections that the original attack of the girl at the beginning occured on June 29th and the sinking of the USS Indianapolis was on June 29th....

 

[Tino]

By the way the adjusted gross above is domestic only.

WORLDWIDE ADJUSTED

$470,000,000 in 1975

Equal to

$2,237,234,944 in 2019!

 

[Malcolm R]

I used to have this book. Not sure if I still do:

 

[David Deeb]

I still love this film too. I love it because it had great actors, great location photography, detailed and long scenes, stunts and stunt men and a real filmmaking quality and directing I miss in many of Spielberg's newer films. I know many like Ready Player One, but I was bored with the relentless special effects. I cannot imagine ever watching it again. Yet I can view Jaws every few years and it still seems fresh and energetic.

Were it made today, I imagine most of it would be CGI and not just the shark, but the sets too.

 

[Bryan^H]

I still love this film too. I love it because it had great actors, great location photography, detailed and long scenes, stunts and stunt men and a real filmmaking quality and directing I miss in many of Spielberg's newer films. I know many like Ready Player One, but I was bored with the relentless special effects. I cannot imagine ever watching it again. Yet I can view Jaws every few years and it still seems fresh and energetic.

Were it made today, I imagine most of it would be CGI and not just the shark, but the sets too.

I think Ready Player One is a much more entertaing film than Jaws.

Better characters, more realistic, deeper story, and above all the acting was so much better. I think It may be Spielberg's best film.

 

[DFurr]

Last October we flew to Dallas for an annual gathering of film collectors. We screen 35 and 70mm titles from Friday night through Sunday night. On this trip the first film was a beautiful 35mm Technicolor print of JAWS. It was a real treat to see that movie again in it's original release form. Not many of those original prints left to enjoy. This was a British print in excellent condition.