Wednesday's Interesting Things

Let's go swimming with Jaws

Not sure why last night was the night, but I decided to watch Jaws with my 16 year old daughter. She had never seen it before, wanted to watch it as in her words, “that movie is so important to this family,” and we had nothing else going on. We also have plans to go see it on the big screen when it’s rereleased but this was as good time as any to watch.

And, for you dear readers I also decided to do a live running diary of the film, but then kinda forgot tp make mention of the time of stuff so maybe treat this as a list of musings, thoughts and questions that I don’t see a lot of other people wondering about. So no, I’m not going to bring up the Indianapolis, but I will bring up…

Uh, spoilers I guess for Jaws…

1. Many people hold Narragansett lager in high esteem after watching Quint kill one early on in the Orca fishing trip. And yet, the first beer shown in the movie comes during the beach party: Falstaff beer. And I love that the party has Falstaff beer branded cups they’re using! Unfortunately, it seems it’s impossible to get your hands on this beer as it was discontinued in 2005.

2. Watching the first scene it’s still amazing how tense yet quick it was… obviously it’s iconic but she really doesn’t struggle as much as you may be thinking. It’s over in like 10 seconds. Which is what I assume would really happen. But still. Also, how much therapy does the dude who passed out need? Not only does he half witness a woman get torn to pieces by a shark, but then the chief brings him along to search for the body, which they find, mutilated and feasted on by crabs. Not sure someone bounces back from something like that.

3. Taking nothing away from the big guns of 70s cinema, Roy Scheider had quite a run. Sure, there were some films intermingled in there that no one has heard about but uh…
   
   Klute
   The French Connection
   The Seven Ups
   Jaws
   Marathon Man
   Sorcerer
   Jaws 2
   All That Jazz

   
   A lot of actors would kill for a run like that. And I bet there’s some snobby film major sitting in a dark room right now holding court with a bunch of frosh making the case that Scheider is a better actor than Gene Hackman. He’s wrong, but he’s doing it, and he’s doing it with conviction.

4. Why do the Brodys have two phones so close to one another in their new house?

5. I’m not sure if it’s a carryover from the book, in the original screenplay or just conjured up by Spielberg, but the example of normal police activity on Amity being karate school kids kicking over picket fences is that little extra touch that modern movies don’t take the time to dream up. And then to continue it with a visual of the fence as Bordy is walking though the town? There’s only one Spielberg.

6. I know it’s surely been mentioned numerous times on the internet, but Mayor Vaughn’s blazer choice of anchors is of course brilliant. Does he perhaps overwear it over the course of a few days? Look, when you have that kind of apparel, I can’t blame him for wanting to get an extra day out of it. But we’’’ come back to this in a bit…

7. I had completely forgotten about the long take on the car ferry, and it’s fun to watch what the actions of the other Amity family goons are doing while the mayor convinces Brody not to close the beaches. Brody is so in over his head here. Also, does the ferry just decide to turn around and come back? It’s not quite clear where it’s final destination was and whether it got there or they just went in a circle.

8. Ok, we’ve got to get into the first beach scene because this is where the movie begins to absolutely cook, and Spielberg grabs cinema and never really let’s go.
   
   First, let’s talk about the tension he builds with three simple potential victims. You have:
   
   • large woman floating in the water
   • Kintner boy on a yellow raft
   • Pippit - the dog playing fetch

   
   All three simply going about their business doing their thing. That is of course until…

9. Look, I don’t want ever want to watch dogs die in movies. As a dog owner/lover, it’s simply too easy of an action to denote a true evil. And sure, I want to believe in some way Pippit just like saw and started chasing a rabbit or something. I don’t want Pippit to die. Maybe not as much as this guy…

… but I get the desire to fairy tale the survival of Pippit. However…

Pippit gets eaten by the shark. Spielberg is just not psychotic enough to show it, choosing instead to focus on the violent, quite detailed attack of a ten year old child. So yeah… there’s that. Large woman gets away unscathed. This scene also includes the rather cool dolly zoom:

10. While I’ve always heard it referred to as the “Hitchcock,” it’s more popular reference seems to be the “Vertigo” effect, seeing as that is where it was first employed. Either way, it’s rather disorienting and perfect to show how out of his league Brody is right now. Here’s a little more detail about the effect:

11. I could watch the townhall scene every day for the rest of my life. The casting director deserved an Oscar for finding the woman hotel owner.

12. Is Quint his first or last name? I know the mayor calls him Mr. Quint, but even his inflection suggests uncertainty.

13. I would have watched a sequel based entirely around Quint’s mate/deckhand/friend? No lines in the movie at all, he still says so much with that orange hat.

14. I probably only picked it up after the 20th viewing, but the foreshadowing to the end is throughout the movie, starting with Brody flipping through pages of shark books and seeing a picture of a shark with an oxygen tank in its mouth. Again, thank you Mr. Spielberg for existing.

15. There are a lot of dogs in this movie! The Brodys have a cocker spaniel and then there are two(!) on a fishing boat hunting down the shark. Feels like we dodged a bullet with only one dog murder.

16. Nice touch of the caught tiger shark having an arrow in it.

17. Gonna take a moment and defend the mayor here… having the sense to not cut the tiger shark open with the whole crowd around? That’s just good politics.

18. I think one of the more famous narratives of Jaws is Spielberg choosing not to follow one of the novel’s plot points about Hooper and Mrs. Brody having an affair. The decision trims a lot of fat and streamlines the movie to being simply about killing a shark. However, the dinner scene when Hooper comes over to discuss the tiger shark, he and Brody’s wife have some sneaky good chemistry, and I wonder if Spielberg thought about it at least filming here. All three actors are absolutely cooking here.

19. My daughter pointed this one out: Hooper does this breathing thing whenever faced with agitation/fear/anxiety where he pretty much hyperventilates. It’s a nice touch to show that he, too is kind of out of his league here.

20. Ok, so maybe the mayor stretched the anchor blazer an extra day because he knew he wanted his striped blazer for the big Fourth of July celebration. Again, his blazer game is absolutely on point and you have to assume that helped him win the election a number of times, especially since (spoilers for Jaws 2, I guess) he’s still the mayor in Jaws 2 and that takes place 4 YEARS AFTER THE FIRST MOVIE. How is this guy still mayor of Shark Town?

21. Gotta ding Mrs. Brody here just a little bit. It’s July 4th and of course everyone is on edge, you know because of the shark stuff. Your husband has a lot on his plate so ok… nice of you to let him know you’ve got your eye on your youngest son, Shawn, but uh, maybe after telling your husband that you might want to ACTUALLY KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR YOUNGEST SON SHAWN and not let him wander off to the “pond” which we see later, while Brody is running from the beach to it, is a rather considerable distance away, and, at least from my definition not considered close enough for Mrs. Brody to have an eye on her youngest son while there’s active shark attacks happening. Maybe that’s just me though.

22. Well, hello there artist woman alerting us all about a shark:

23. I need a 5,000 word essay on the zoning issues Quint has with the mayor.

24. I will never not laugh at the way Quint dismisses Hooper’s sheep shank knot after he throws it at him. City hands for sure!

25. Quint casually mentions he saw a shark eat a rocking chair and there’s no follow up to this? Feels like I would ask at least one question about where and how this happened.

26. Quint’s been married at least three times, and his third wife died… there’s a tremendous back story just begging to come out.

27. Ok, we gotta do this. The barrel discrepancy. I think i’ve always known, I just don’t want to admit it. I assume it’s because they simply had to piece together what they had in the editing room but it is really confusing. Again, taking nothing away from the film, and watching for the first time I doubt you’re going to come away scratching your head about it, but the barrels really make no sense. Here’s a fairly detailed breakdown of the whole thing.

28. I lied. The Indianapolis speech is an all timer and is required watching. Love Dreyfuss in this scene simply holding amazement the entire monologue:

    So that’s it. I’m sure I’ll have 28 other things I wonder about the next time I watch it, most likely next month.

    Jam of the Day