A One Mann’s Movies review of “Jaws” (1975??).
There are a few upsides from the 2023/24 SAG/AFRA actor’s strike. One is that – obviously – the actors have got a better deal and are not going to be ripped-off by studios using AI images of them for free. Another is that the slow-down in production means that cinemas at the moment are short on new releases such that they are coming out with re-releases of “old classics” again on the big screen. This is ALWAYS to be welcomed! At the moment you have been able to see / still can see movies from the Star Wars, Batman, Spider-Man and Lord of the Rings stables. But another that crossed my path a few weeks back, as part of an Everyman Cinemas “Throwback” series, was the film that really put Steven Spielberg on the map: his 1975 classic “Jaws”.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Chief Brody (Roy Schneider) thinks he has swapped his stressful New York City police job for a quieter life as he polices the idyllic island community of Amity. But his new job is rudely interrupted when the half-eaten body of a young girl, Chrissie (Susan Backlinie), is washed up on the local beach.
Certification:
UK: 12A; US: PG. (From the BBFC web site: “Moderate injury detail, threat”. It’s amazing that this is only a PG in the States!!)
Talent:
Starring: Roy Schneider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Susan Backlinie, Jeffrey Kramer, Lee Fierro.
Directed by: Steven Spielberg.
Written by: Peter Benchley & Carl Gottlieb. (Based on the novel by Peter Benchley).
Running Time: 2h 4m.
“Jaws” Summary:
Positives:
- Where do I start? There is just so much to love about this virtuoso bit of story-telling.
- Shaw, Schneider and Dreyfuss are so spiky together and it really shows.
- John Williams’s classic score is another character in the film.
Negatives:
- Bruce!
Review of “Jaws”:
Pitch perfect film-making.
There is probably no such thing as a ‘perfect film’. But, honestly, “Jaws” comes pretty damned close. There is just so much I love about the film:
- The whole opening sequence with Chrissie (Susan Backlinie) as she strips naked while running down the twilight beach before diving into the sea and… dot, dot, dot. So savage! So well acted. (There is an urban legend – untrue – that Backlinie was so savegely thrashed around by the ‘shark attack’ cables used that she bust a rib.)
- Finding the body: a terrific (though unrecognised) bit of physical acting by Jeffrey Kramer playing Brody’s junior, Deputy Hendricks;
- Lorraine Gary as Brody’s wife Ellen on seeing the book with a shark attacking a boat – “You listen to your father now!!!”;
- The ‘autopsy’ by Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss): you wonder if Spielberg put something really grotesque under that sheet to invoke the physical reaction from Dreyfuss… or whether it was ‘just great acting’;
- Every scene Murray Hamilton is in as the money-focused mayor: simply pitch-perfect;
- Hooper’s speech: “what we are dealing with here is a perfect engine… an eating machine”;
- Pipit’s floating stick!;
- The famous ‘dolly zoom’ shot to Brody’s face on the beach. This still invokes goosebumps.;
- Mrs Kintner (Lee Fierro): old enough to have a son that age. Too old to ever have another;
- The whole cardboard-fin scene and the resulting panic – wonderful filming by Bill Butler, with no doubt Spielberg calling every shot and angle;
- “There’s a shark in the pond!”;
- Ben Gardner’s eye!;
- ‘The Indianapolis story’, with John Williams amazingly evocative music behind it.
- “You’re going to need a bigger boat”.
I always tend to remember this film for the gripping final reel on the ocean. But interestingly, all of my real ‘gotcha’ moments from the film (on this rewatch at least) were from the first half, while ashore on Amity Island. It’s just sublime story-telling.
A filming challenge.
Of course, this is not to take away from the tension built up in the final stages of the film. The one, two and three-barrel chase is superbly done. Famously, Robert Shaw was a nightmare to work with and drove Schneider and particularly Dreyfuss to distraction with his drunken outbursts. (The relationships were actually the subject of a West End and Broadway play – “The Shark is Broken” – which sadly I didn’t get to see.) Spielberg must have really wondered what he’d got himself into trying to corral his warring stars AND trying to keep his hugely expensive mechanical shark (nicknamed “Bruce” after Spielberg’s lawyer) from sinking or otherwise breaking down!
Sadly, it is Bruce that is the only weak point in the film. Spielberg – at writer Carl Gottlieb’s suggestion – keeps it out of shot for as much of the film as he can. But when it does finally attack the “Orca”, and has a Quinty-lunch, it is a horribly false-looking thing. (Although, frankly, if “Jaws” was made today, this scene would be done by CGI and I would probably still be saying “Well, that CGI shark was pretty rubbish!)
A great film adaptation by Carl Gottleib
The film was of course adapted from the best-selling book by Peter Benchley (who has a cameo in the film as the rather wooden news reporter talking to camera about the shark attack). But after Benchley produced the first draft of the script, Carl Gottleib was brought in to “eviscerate it” (to quote Spielberg’s request) and make it filmable. Gottleib wisely took the best aspects of the book, ditched others and added humour and warmth to the characters. It’s a particularly good move not to include the torrid affair, in the book, between Hooper and Ellen Brody: the film really doesn’t need it.
John Williams’s Score.
The legend of John Williams as the Hollywood ‘Maestro’ really started with this film. Yes, he had composed for LOTS of other films and TV shows before this one, sometimes under the name of “Johnny Williams”. (Looking on IMDB, he has 71 composer credits prior to “Jaws”!) For example, the magnificent scores for “Jane Eyre”, “The Poseidon Adventure” and “The Towering Inferno” were all his. But, from the moment those ominous two notes sound in the underwater opening, you know you are in the presence of soundtrack greatness. Add to that his jaunty “Tourists on the Menu” theme and his sea-faring “Barrel-chase” music and you have a classic.
How it all started for Spielberg.
It’s worth remembering that “Jaws” was also how it all started for Spielberg. This was really only his second feature film. (His first was “The Sugarland Express” starring Goldie Hawn. “Duel”, although also before this, was really billed as a “TV Special” rather than a feature film.) Given all of the issues he was up against, this could have been a make or break production for him. Luckily he scraped his way through it and it was a monster summer hit, effectively clearing the beaches in America of anyone fancying a swim in the sea! Although he never made much money from it, it put him on the map and “Close Encounters”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “E.T.” were to follow in the next few years.
Summary Thoughts on “Jaws”.
I’m not sure if “Jaws” will get a broader cinematic release this year. I guess since it is 50 years old NEXT year, it will be bound to get another cinema release. I’d strongly encourage a visit if you can find it. It’s an enduring classic and, for once, it really doesn’t show its age.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Jaws”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU_j7fyBF-A.
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Did I miss the name Verna Fields in the above or is it absent?
It is absent, but well worthy of a mention indeed. The editing of Jaws is certainly one of the things that makes the film what it is.