Posted on 06/17/2010 10:18:48 PM PDT by jocon307
The movie that changed Hollywood more than any other in its hundred-year history opened 35 years ago this week. Jaws was the second film made by a 28-year-old named Steven Spielberg....By the time the summer of 1975 was over, Jaws had become the first film to make more than $100 million at the box office. That was the most consequential change Jaws effected in Hollywood: By making $100 million at the box office, Jaws taught Hollywood that a single movie could, in fact, make $100 million at the box office.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
And I have heard that "Psycho" changed movie-going inasmuch as previously people did not really bother about arriving at the beginning of the movie. Hence the phrase "this is where we came in" I imagine.
But, I had to post this because of how well I remember the power of Jaws as a movie. After seeing it I was afraid at the beach for a long, long time after. And yes, I did go to the beach on Long Island, but I'm quite sure it wouldn't have mattered.
And just to remember the summer of '75, that's fun!
That scene raised the hair on the back my neck more than any of the shark footage.
While I enjoyed Jaws, and am a movie fanatic, I've never felt strongly about Spielberg's movies at all. I enjoyed a few of them, but almost all of his movies are lukewarm to me--mechanical, inoffensive, unimaginative.
I read an honest book about him that praised his early work and his obvious technical talent (I don't think any director is better at using the tools of cinema; it's the purposes he puts them to that bore me), but the writer put his finger on it when he said Close Encounters was a turning point for him. After that, the childishness prevailed.
Jaws is also a great example of how a director gets all the credit for the fine work of everyone involved, from the composer, to the editor, to the multiple writers, cinematographer, actors. That's Hollywood, tho'.
Somehow, I got stuck watching my 9/10-year old nephew the weekend it opened. I wanted to see the movie, so I took him with me and my girlfriend. He was absolutely terrified and till this day, he won't go into the ocean any father than waist high, if that. I still feel horrible about it.
To the author's point, In addition to the Jazz Singer, I think Gone with the Wind was and remains the "must see" movie of all time. To put it in perspective, adjusting for inflation, GWTW is still the number one movie of all time. Avatar is only 14 or 15. GWTW success is what really led to the "BIG" studio films that would follow.
That scene was actually a last-minute rewrite by John Milius. Others claim he didn’t write it, but though Robert Shaw may have fiddled with the wording a bit, I believe Milius.
First, I didn't know that Millius wrote the screenplay off the Benchley book. That's interesting.
Second, I agree with what you said about Spielburg, except for Schindler's List. For whatever reason, his style works perfectly for that movie and that particular subject-matter. It is one of the greatest movies ever made, and that's a remarkable accomplishment considering some of the genius films that have been produced.
Others disagree, but whatever:
http://books.google.com/books?id=PfuQ8fFexUoC&pg=PA208&lpg=PA208&dq=milius+Jaws&source=bl&ots=m_T77W24jT&sig=hUDmJfOZHu0auwWEmyZLrH7_3qA&hl=en&ei=wwUbTMv0FsKC8gb4ipWWCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CCQQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=milius%20Jaws&f=false
“Jaws” was an excellent movie. Kept you on the edge of your seat. But..........it was just a much better than average “animal Peril” type movie.
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Great movie.
The scariest part of Jaws is the opening scene where the girl is treading water in the moonlight.
Something grabs her from beneath the water, then lets her go...grabs her again..and again- then she is carried off half submerged with those blood curdling gurgling screams.
Sometimes it’s what you don’t see..imagination.
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Oh, I can so relate to your post.
To take your second point first, I agree GWTW is probably the greatest Hollywood movie of all time. There was just some uncanny stuff going on with that flick.
Vivienne Leigh as Scarlett, unbelievably good. And amazing that that English woman had her two greatest roles playing American Southerners, just weird.
Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes, be still my heart. I got soooo annoyed with Rush for dissing Ashley a few years ago.
Now, I know there is controversy about Clark Gable as Rhett, but I LOVE Clark Gable and I thought he was perfect.
However, to me, Olivia DeHavilland as Melanie MAKES the movie. She also makes that character amazingly believable. In the book she is a little 2D and we only see her through Scarlett’s eyes. DeHavilland made her really be a true and truly good person.
All the supporting cast was EXCELLENT.
Maybe I’ll make hubby watch it for father’s day, since movie lover that he is, he’s never seen it.
But, it goes beyond the cast. The costumes are too perfect. If you have ever read the book, you’ll realize that even some of the outfits that are not really described in the book are somehow perfectly rendered in the movie. This was proved by the fantastic Carol Burnett spoof of the movie were she come in wearing the curtains!
I also sympathize with your plight regarding your nephew. We had a similar situation in my family.
My brother watched “the shining” with my daughter when she was about 8. (that was foolish). Then my daughter asked my mother did she believe the devil was real. Of course my mother said yes.
Well, it took a while to get beyond that.
I think we got there finally, but while I might tell your story to my brother I won’t be mentioning it to the kid!
To me Star Wars was one of the greatest movie experiences of my entire life.
It like the Monty Python line: and now for something completely different.
It was also a preview of what the movie experience would be for people in my age bracket--I had the magazines and album and cards before I'd even SEEN the damned thing. Endless 'stuff' to buy connected to the movie. The making-of things were of course entertaining, but they also deprived me of the magic (and in the case of Empire, damned Cinefantastique blew the big surprise, too!)
Empire kicked things up even more. Jedi was the end of my belief that movies would just get better and better--Star Wars and Empire were in a class of their own.
Nothing Spielberg did ever hit me the way those movies (and Alien, Excalibur and a few others) did.
But did you know that Jaws was loosely based on a series of actual shark attacks that occurred along New York’s coast back around 1910?
That was a great movie. And the advertising that ran in the LA Times leading up to its release was truly inspired. It began with a small box that featured the illustration of a young woman swimming. Each succeeding day the ad was the same, except that the empty water area beneath that swimmer would extend downwards a bit further. There was no writing in it at all, just an ever lengthening narrow rectangle with a lone female swimmer at the very top. Every day I’d look for that ad trying to figure out what it was all about. And then one day when the rectangle had grown very tall the entire area below the swimmer was filled with a gigantic shark, mouth wide open to eat the swimmer and the single word JAWS written beneath it. I think it made my hair stand up.
That is one of the all time great movie scenes.
New Jersey! New Jersey! Oh, I'll tell ya'. Last night my wife told me to take out the garbage. I told her I already did. She said, go keep an eye on it ... Oh, I'll tell ya'.
There was no such thing as a “Summer Blockbuster” before the movie Jaws. And that’s a fact.
It was still first-run in the theater a year after opening. It took almost 5 years to be broadcast on television.
It also ushered in the era of mega-merchandising. Jaws t-shirts outsold any previous movie or television title 10-fold.
Of the three main stars, only Richard Dreyfus is still alive.
At 14, Jaws scared me so bad, I had nightmares for 3 weeks. Living on the Gulf coast, I wasn’t the only one who didn’t go to the beach in 1975. I still went back and saw it 6 more times in the theater.
Not sure how it changed Hollywood, but Jaws was the first movie I ever went to with my dad, so it will always have meaning to me.
I’m watching “Jaws, The Inside Story” on the BIO channel now. It’s 2 hrs long and very good. It’s new, 2010.
I was 10 when the movie came out, living in Huntington Beach and wouldn’t go back into the water for quite awhile.
I love the movie. Watch it about once a week.
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