Posted on 05/31/2015 7:05:35 PM PDT by rickmichaels
It might be safe to go in the water now.
Monday marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Jaws, director Steven Spielberg’s tale of a great white shark terrorizing a picturesque seaside town. It’s a bona fide classic, deserving of all the praise it gets.
But it’s also something of a relic, a throwback to a simpler time in moviemaking when we were less cynical and more easily frightened. For all the monster movie remakes being trotted out this decade, it’s actually not surprising we haven’t seen Jaws sequel since 1987’s Jaws: The Revenge (and not just because that movie was astoundingly, impossibly awful.)
As much as we love Jaws, here are five reasons it would fail if it were to be made today.
1. Audiences have no patience
In adapting Peter Benchley’s novel for the big screen, Spielberg took his time creating characters we cared about and a world we could believe in, then slowly ratcheted up the tension and terror. We don’t get a clear look at the shark in Jaws until more than halfway through the film, and that just wouldn’t fly today. There are some exceptions – Cloverfield, Super 8 and last year’s Godzilla come to mind – but for the most part, modern audiences hate waiting to see a monster movie’s main attraction.
2. Less is no longer more
For a movie about a giant man-eating shark, Jaws spends very little time – only four minutes in total – showing the beast on screen. Again, a handful of modern monster movies have gotten away with this, but even last year’s otherwise solid Godzilla enraged some fans with how little screen time its radioactive lizard got. Doing a killer shark movie with only four minutes of killer shark in it would be box office suicide in 2015.
3. Digital effects would ruin it
Spielberg famously had endless problems with his mechanical shark prop, but the final result on screen was an actual, physical presence, giving the actors something to react to. A movie like Jaws wouldn’t be made today without reliance on computer-generated effects, and our eyes would immediately know that what we’re seeing isn’t real, diminishing its fear factor. That’s why you can bet the all-digital dinos of Jurassic World just aren’t going to have the same impact as the massive robotic T-rex in Jurassic Park.
4. No one goes swimming anymore
OK, that’s an exaggeration. But it’s true that summer beach vacations just aren’t the tradition they once were. Parents and kids alike are burdened with more commitments and less free time, and Griswold-style family trips are becoming a relative rarity. A shark terrorizing a seaside resort wouldn’t resonate the same way it did in 1975 – most of us would shrug and say, “Who has time to go to the beach?”
5. Sharks have jumped the shark
Maybe it began with a computer-generated shark making a meal of Samuel L. Jackson in 1999’s Deep Blue Sea, or maybe it was even earlier than that. But sharks have gone from being a primal menace to a punchline. Imagine trying to make a serious, scary killer shark movie in the wake of Sharknado. You’d need more than just a bigger boat.
It could make bank for 7 days during shark week.
ping
Yes, they would have to use a computer instead of machines for the special effects. Outside of that I think it was a good movie in general.
I was in Miami the week the movie opened. For days, people did NOT go in the ocean...
Throw in that they can create horrors that are much more scary than sharks these days.
All of the reasons why it would not work today are all the reasons it would imho I am sick of cg and no camera shots lasting more than a nano second I could go on but I am going to pop my dvd in of jaws thanks
6. It isn’t based on a comic book franchise.
7. It’s been done before and it isn’t cool enough to reboot the cycle.
8. Killer shark films have jumped the shark.
9. Sharks/zombies don’t eat zombies/sharks.
10. Left Shark at Superbowl 2015 turned sharks into a laughing stock.
Completely disagree with the author.
CGI is ruining movies. I can understand using it for the Marvel and other superhero movies, but for your run of the mill action flick?
We all saw it at a drive in the week it came out we are all ocean boat surfing people we went down to toes beach in playa del Rey after the movie about midnight we all went in we did not stay in long we did get the hee bee gee bees running out with our backs to the sea
nor that he would be married, for a long time, and that the family would eat together at the supper table..
and that there even was a big shark, or any sharks, global warming and all....
Need a new horror flick about Catfish.
Real reason: Some woman (taller than all the men) would have to be the hero. Yawn.
I hate to break your heart, but in the book the wife and the shark guy have an affair. I was so glad they left that out of the movie.
And, in today’s world, would there have to be the obligatory homosexual character????
June 13, 1975, I was deep sea fishing out of Ensenada Mexico. One of the kids was running all over the boat, and we were in rough seas. I told my buddy that kid was gonna fall off the boat. About 20 minutes later he did...... I went into rescue mode and dove into the water..... sure seamed I had a lot of time to think about sharks (Jaws) before I hit the water, anyway, I finally hit the water and the little jerk actually saved me.
I thought Jaws the movie was much better than Jaws the book. A pretty rare thing.
My #2 movie right behind Lawrence of Arabia.
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