Since I've overstuffed this blog, which to my knowledge has largely been unread by most of the Western civilisation, with tennis posts, here's a different one this time, once again about a classic movie, last time it was Pulp Fiction, this time I thought I'd look at Jaws, the old Spielberg classic, which I saw recently on TV.
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. However as time has gone on its interesting to be able to pick out some of the film's lesser aspects and while it is a great suspense film, it does have quite a few cheap thrills and Holywood cinematic devices to get more of a reaction out of an audience. But more on that soon, to start with, why not have a look at the plot of the film.
Soooo, it starts in the quiet seaside down of Amity Island (ficitional in case you wondered) 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 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.
Even after 36 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.
However as soon as we get to the three mens journey to catch and kill the shark, we get to see the shark in the flesh, so to speak, and its a totally unconvincing rubber creation, as the shark 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. In fact it really is the shark that lets 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 ever behave in such a way, as they are largely terratorial creatures who stick to their own environments, and despite the fact that yes there have been many shark attacks over the years, sharks themselves largely life off a diet off sea lions and they don't deliberately hunt out people in the water! But of course with people in the water and in a close proximity, sharks will be dangerous, and if they swim from below and see human flesh they could mistake it as their diet of fish or sea lions, or the scent of blood could be enough to attract a shark. (OK that's enough on my shark lesson!).
Depsite all that though, one of Jaws main strengths definitely lies within its writing, as the characters in the film as so well written, particularly the three men, Brody, Quint and Hooper. Brody is the decent police man, who has the most common sense in the island, and who also gets some of the best dialogue in the film "You're gonna need a bigger boat!" and "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!". Hooper is also great as he is young guy 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 his line after he gives up trying to convince the mayor is class "Right that's it, Martn, I'm not staying here listening to a man, lining up to be a hot lunch, I'll see you later!". And Quint is a great character, being the old veteran seaman, who almost instantly takes a disliking to Hooper "you've got city hands, Mr Hooper, you've been counting money all your life!", but despite that, he shares with the men his stories of being at sea and "here's to swimming with bow-legged women!".
And its the relationship between the three men that really drives the film, and how they adapt to the situation, particularly Brody who has a fear of water, and in a way he goes out there determined to prove he can face his fears and deal with the town's problem. Hooper and Quint's mutual dislike for each other, adds a nice element of competitiveness to the film, as no one wants to see three guys get along fine on a boat when they have a crisis! :-) But one of the film's main highlights undoubtedly of course is where they 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.
But as I said earlier the ending is 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 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.
But despite all that, Jaws still stands as one of the most entertaining and thrilling films from the 1970s, and for better or worse, it helped change cinema, by introducing the summer blockbuster to audiences, as it remains one of the highest grossing films of all time. And I can't forget to also mention John Williams unforgettable score, which he literally tinkled out on the piano one day to Steven Spielberg, and its funny how two musical notes could prove to be so memorable. Jaws also stands head and shoulders over its naff sequels, which by the time we reached the truly God 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 to use!).
So that's my critique on Jaws, also finally I'd like to say the film ends with one of my favourite pieces of ending dialogue, which is between Brody and Hooper, as the two men paddle to shore, Brody says "I used to hate the water" and Hooper replies "I can't imagine why!".
Dum dum dum dum.
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