A Washington Post headline that makes it seem as though it's a special thing to be able to access the contemporaneous reviews of an old movie. Obviously, it's not. It used to be.
And is there anything special about a movie being 50 years old (or some other round number)? It used to matter because it might make the movie suddenly more available.
As for "Jaws," I've never seen it. I've always imagined that it would bore me. I still feel that way. Waiting around for a shark to attack someone? I don't see the point. I don't have a tag for sharks. I have to give this post my "fish" tag. Have I ever seen a movie about fish? I don't think so.
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113 comments:
It's worth it just to see Robert Shaw eat the scenery. That, and revisiting the world of the mid-70s. I read the book before I saw the movie.
Big Fish?
A Fish Called Wanda?
In the Shoes of the Fisherman?
Finding Nemo/Dory?
I've never seen it either.
Ann, well worth a watch. Still holds up 50 years later. And the cast? All-star ensemble. Nuff said.
You don't have to wait around for the shark to eat someone. It happens in the first scene.
A woman after my own heart. It has never been on my list; given its ubiquity I've seen most of it, in snippets. I watched the last few minutes last night.
I did see "A Fish Called Wanda." Does that count?
"You don't have to wait around for the shark to eat someone. It happens in the first scene."
But then you have to wait for the next one and the next one, etc. Why? It's a fish!
Did you ever watch the Little Mermaid or Finding Nemo? I only have a vague idea of your childrens' ages; I'm pretty confident they were adults when Finding Nemo came out but am uncertain for the Little Mermaid. Those are the only fish movies I can think of that are worth much of anything... Oh, I haven't seen Ponyo, but Miyazaki has positive qualities.
I've seen "A Fish Called Wanda," but I don't remember it involving a fish.
I've seen a couple movies about mermaids, but I don't think that counts. Obviously, whales don't count.
Haven't seen "Finding Nemo." I haven't taken children to the movies in over 30 years.
From constipation to stultification, anticipation of the consecutive meme that is queer perchance weird. Time will surely entertain with a dramatic denouement picked from the jaws of the feeder press.
I was too young to see it on release. That summer we waited in line with mom to see The Apple Dumpling Gang and had to wait with the huge line of people buying Jaws tickets. Since then I’ve seen Jaws at least 100 times. There’s plenty of film class worthy elements of story telling and suspense and Spielberg-ian movie making. The movie didn’t do sharks a solid and it definitely changed humanity’s relationship to the ocean forever…we had a babysitter later that week. I think mom and dad went to see The Happy Hooker…
I find it strange that sharks are classified as fish. They don't look very fishy.
The shark and the jump-scares are the most dated parts.
But the acting is excellent, from the top of the cast to the smaller parts.
The music is classic. Scene with the Mayor on the beach is good. Robert Shaw describing his WW 2 experience and why he became the shark hunter is excellent.
You could enjoy a romantic interlude with a fish on the big screen with a Splash.
The waiting for the shark to attack is not boring—it is super suspenseful—a horror movie technique that too few horror movies use —especially these days. If you like a good horror movie you will love Jaws.
Is a mermaid half fish or mammal?
The Incredible Mr. Limpet with the incredible Don Knots. 2nd best fish movie of all time.
The fish scene in Wanda is brilliant.
Otto swallows Wanda near the end of "A Fish Called Wanda".
Bruce swallows Quint near the end of "Jaws".
Hope that clears things up.
The Little Mermaid has one friend who is 100% fish, maybe other mermaid movies do too. But on second thought that stretches "about fish" too far. That's just "featuring a fish." I agree mermaids don't count. That's a human with a tail.
If I recall correctly, in My Dinner with Andre, Andre orders a fish patê. No bones.
"But then you have to wait for the next one and the next one, etc. Why? It's a fish!"
I think that analysis can easily be extended to apply to at least 80% of movies, more if you include porn. You either feel that waiting for the fish is worthwhile, or you don't. Presumably, those who want to wait for the wish find the fish satisfactory when it arrives.
Don't most people want to know what a movie is going to be about before they decide to see it?
Waiting around for a shark to attack someone? I don't see the point.
Why, that sounds like you don't like fishing either? Waiting around for the fish to come nibble the bait and take the hook.
n.n said...
Is a mermaid half fish or mammal?
*************
Dunno. But the old bon mot about mermaids goes:
"Too much fish to fry, not enough woman to love".
My 11 year old self in 1975 would have agreed with you - boring to wait for the shark. Now it's different of course as the acting and directing hold my attention the whole time. Watched bits and pieces (ha ha) of it on NBC last night and was shocked at all the severed body parts they left in. No safe spaces in the Trump era?
https://youtu.be/VYO224dfoGY?feature=shared
Recent local news interview with Richard Dreyfuss.
The North Shore Music Theatre had a production of The Shark is Broken about the making of the movie. Supposedly fabu…
One enduring take-away from Jaws is the expression "You're going to need a bigger _______".
You wait around to see how the shark is dealt with. And as I recall, it was an explosion of pressurized oxygen tank in his mouth. Pretty creative...
You should watch it. It is a lot better most stuff in the last 10 years. It is actually not that boring the characters are interesting.
Who wudda thunk of that?
My parents took me to see Jaws. I was 6 months old. I was in someone's lap and the shark ate someone and they jumped.
The movie wasn't scary. But flying 3 feet in the air is a little shocking for a 6 month old.
Jaws was first time I had ever seen a line around the block at a theater. Was actually worth the wait, at the time. Plenty of better stuff since then, of course.
And, watching it at home on tv would be a waste of time.
Packed theater, no distractions, it was pretty darn good.
“ One enduring take-away from Jaws is the expression "You're going to need a bigger _______".”
That could go on a long list of movie references that I get despite never having seen the movie.
In a 2022 BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs interview, Steven Spielberg said, “I truly, and to this day, regret the decimation of the shark population because of the book and the film.”
So don’t watch the movie. Why give Spielberg even more money for a film he regrets making.
While being a lot older than our hostess, I did see the movie on release and pretty much agree with her disparaging remarks. Perhaps that was due to Jaws totalling failing to live up to the hype. no "terrifying" scenes, the shark was as realistic as the animatronics on a 60's Disneyland jungle cruise. Movie equivalent of a generic summer read paperback.
"Packed theater, no distractions, it was pretty darn good."
Thanks to the fact there were no smartphones. Today, it would be worse than watching at home.
Good soundtrack.
I read the novel prior to seeing the movie, and enjoyed it. Saw the movie when it hit theaters and enjoyed it. Over the years I find myself enjoying it even more. Also I’ve enjoyed all the sequels particularly the one with Michael Caine. I bought the 25th anniversary DVD when it came out. I plan to rewatch tonight for the first time in years. Part of it is just plain nostalgia (which is also why I have a similar fascination with the Wizard of Oz which I’m looking forward to seeing at the Sphere and if/how that changes the cinematic experience for good or bad).
The shark is probably on screen for less than 60 seconds. It’s not about the shark, it’s about the hunt for the shark.
I saw the movie when it came out -- after I'd read the book. Both movie and book were good, if that's what you like. If that's not what you like, that's fine, too, but not liking Jaws doesn't make you a better person - and neither does liking it. De gustibus non disputandum est.
"Decimation" of shark populations has much more to do with "finning" than this movie. The movie just scared people out of ocean bathing for a few years. If any media hurt sharks, it was TV "Shark Week", year after year.
Jupiter said...Don't most people want to know what a movie is going to be about before they decide to see it?
Learning about a movie is a common step in deciding whether to watch it, but it’s not absolutely necessary. Once I’ve decided to watch it, I don’t want to learn anything more. I like to go in with as clean a slate as possible.
My much older brother took one of my friends and me to see “Jaws” at a theater in Lubbock the summer it came out. I had never seen anything so scary. It gave me a lifelong aversion to violent movies. It also gave me an irrational fear of the beach (even though we lived 600 miles from the nearest seashore). I’ve never watched it again.
As blithe as you are about watching movies, I'm very surprised you haven't seen something as definitive as this. You don't like scary/suspenseful movies? It's worth the experience; Spielberg was hitting his prime, and he was innovative and smart with his directing, and he used a lot of really good local people as character actors, people with no previous acting experience - and they did great at painting Nantucket. Shaw/Scheider/Dreyfus had good chemistry and built their own characters as well. Skip the sequels but watch the original.
The non-shark-related part of Jaws that makes it worthwhile is the “I’m just a middle-aged person floating through my days around here. Wait. Am I supposed to be the one to do something about this?” I always enjoy seeing how characters respond to that.
I was 17 and saw it at a movie theater. The shark looked real to me then and since that day, 50 years later, I've never been in the ocean past my ankles. Watched it last night with the wife (who had never seen it) and she said the shark looked fake. It did, to today's standards. But in a theater, with people reacting to it, it looked and seemed VERY real.
"Have I ever seen a movie about fish? I don't think so...."
You haven't seen Spencer Tracy in the Hemingway story, 'The old man and the sea'?
I, too, recommend The Incredible Mr. Limpet.
Jaws hasn't been scary since Fonzie jumped one.
“ One enduring take-away from Jaws is the expression "You're going to need a bigger _______".”
I learned that line from the Althouse comment section.
“Good soundtrack“
It was the soundtrack that made the movie. John Williams is brilliant.
i read the book maybe a year or so before I saw the movie. Frankly on the night I saw the movie I was glad I was going to sleep in a hotel room 25 floors above Dallas!
But the commenters above are right. Robert Shaw describing the events around the sinking of the Indianapolis including the shark attacks was a fine piece of acting. As the commenter said, Robert Shaw ate the scenery--a little while later the shark ate him.
tim maguire said...
"The shark is probably on screen for less than 60 seconds. It’s not about the shark, it’s about the hunt for the shark."
Yes. And the characters doing the hunting. Great movie.
"It did, to today's standards."
Today's standards for special effects are CGI, just a different sort of fake. I think building a mechanical fake is more impressive, but that's just me.
The anticipation of a big bag of buttered popcorn, a large cup of soda, and a little candy when you could afford it, was a critical feature of the big screen experience.
Barney Miller had a Fish. And the band Phish had an Abe Vigotta as Tessio. “Tell Mike it was only business, I always liked him… for old times sake?”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rciJivTcx6o
Eva Marie said...
In a 2022 BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs interview, Steven Spielberg said, “I truly, and to this day, regret the decimation of the shark population because of the book and the film.”
Kinda balanced out by the millions of "shark sightings and attacks" near beaches, and even some lakes and rivers.
I've never seen it, either.
It's about: na, na... na, na... grin and grab. Explosive!
I first realized I did not enjoy being frightened by a movie when I was 13, and went to see Wait Until Dark at the movies. Scared me to death.
Althouse, forget the plot if it bores you. Robert Shaw's performance is worth the price of admission, probably his best after Henry VIII in A Man for All Seasons.
Well, it's really a horror movie. And, I am not fond of horror movies (Rocky Horror the exception). I recall watching it when it came out, and Robert Shaw's monologue was the only thing that stuck.
Jaws has some great moments. Here, watch the best parts:
Indianapolis scene
I don't want to do too many hot links or it will get swallowed, but here is the "show me the way to go. home" scene
https://youtu.be/n1gdre5Nij8?si=484GpMhi-Dbmi-uU
"Farewell and adieu to my ladies of Spain"
https://youtu.be/yrpmv_zOa0k?si=euNQuD5oWCb-kzgT
Sometimes these movies that everyone likes really are good. I was kind of surprised when I watched Robocop recently that it was pretty good. I guess I was the last to know, at least among my friends.
Phishing with spam is a dramatic genre in the critics" corner.
My first wife and I saw it in 1975 after waiting in a long line in a large midwestern college town. Far, far from any ocean. Made me stay away from oceans for the next 50 years. The acting is great, the directing is great. The movie is not about the shark anymore than Moby Dick is about the whale. An ensemble of terrific characters in their own hunt for a great white shark. See it, if for no other reason than it is damn good enough to be celebrated 50 years later and it seems a little snobbish, even faux elite, to refuse to watch it.
I found "Open Water" to be a much scarier shark movie.
Richard Dreyfus is a pretty good actor, and I think that Jaws was his best movie.
The movie itself isn't that scary, what was scary was swimming in the ocean *after* you had seen it.
“Jaws” isn’t a fish story so much as a story about three very different men, their nascent relationship and how they each react in a life and death struggle. It’s the brilliant storytelling that’s made this movie still worth seeing after 50 years.
When Robert Shaw’s character, Quint, tells his personal story of how he survived 4 days in the sea without lifeboats, surrounded by sharks, watching as his shipmates are taken one by one by the sharks is a tale that will give you nightmares. And it was based on the true story of the sinking of of the USS Indianapolis. Despite the genre of disaster films, Jaws is one of the best movies ever made. See it, Anne.
Apparently the Millius thing about that scene is an urban legend
He did contribute the line "I'll find him for five; I'll catch him for ten."
Big Fish?
A Fish Called Wanda?
In the Shoes of the Fisherman?
Finding Nemo/Dory?
6/21/25, 3:13 PM
How about “The Old Man and the Sea?” Now that’s a story about a big fish.
Jaws (the film, not the novel) is about a fish in the same sense that Moby Dick is about a whale. The novel has a totally useless subplot about Mrs. Brodie having a extra-marital with the hunky marine biologist thereby creating totally superfluous additional tension between the Chief of Police and the shark expert called in to consult. By casting Richard Dreyfuss as Matt Hooper, Spielberg cunningly put paid to that dismal element at the outset, whether it was part of the screenplay or not.
Jaws is the movie that made Spielberg bankable, therefore it is a must-see if you're into film as art. Spielberg has made some stinkers and some purely mass-market schlock. But he's made a few genuine masterworks, as well -- Empire of the Sun, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List -- give Jaws a chance.
'No, I mean real sex dreams.the kind where you grab some naked bitch by the neck and pinch her and punch her in the face until she's all bloody and then throw yourself down to ravish her and burst into tears because you love her and hate her so much you don't know what else to do. That's
the kind of sex dreams I like to talk about. Don't you ever have sex dreams like that?' Yossarian reflected a moment with a wise look. 'That's a fish dream,' he decided.
Catch 22
Jaws is to An Enemy of the People as West Side Story is to Romeo & Juliet.
Captains Courageous (1937) is set on a fishing boat. Spencer Tracy gets tangled in the rigging and loses his lower half without the help of a shark. He wins an Oscar anyway.
I really enjoyed it in the theater when I was a teenager. It made a lot of money for good reason.
A Fish Called Wanda is such a great movie. Kevin Kline guarantees it. He was even good in The Pirates of Penzance, which sucked, but in that movie, he was just great, so if you are going to break your rule about watching a movie about a fish, you might try that one. Though it really is only tangentially about the fish, like Jaws is, and, as we all know if we are long followers of the this blog, Melville considered Moby Dick a fish, and hey! It was his story, his world!
You should watch it. It will make you hesitant to get into even fresh water that you can't see the bottom of.
"Melville considered Moby Dick a fish, and hey! It was his story, his world!"
I doubt neither ichthyology nor cetology were even words when Herman Melville was writing.
“BTW, some of ‘the critics’ like Stanley Kauffmann and John Simon thought it was a boring ‘Popcorn movie’”
Those were the bad old days when movies actually entertained audiences instead of the critics.
“It will make you hesitant to get into even fresh water that you can't see the bottom of.”
And if you do go into water you can’t see the bottom of, always bring a dog.
I remember seeing the movie while staying at a house with a pool. I would not go out by the pool in the dark!
"Here's what Pauline Kael said..."
Thus proving Ms. Kael a profoundly sick and embittered woman.
Aggie at 4:22 nails it. It's a classic, well-made, memorable music, and interesting characters. And rehajm at 3:49 cleverly notes how the actors playing the characters were a story in their own right. PURE Theatre in Charleston put on a great production of "The Shark is Broken" this yea
Ann, so stories with 'man v. nature ' don't appeal to you? Or just v. the subset of fish? You're missing out.
It is a great movie and holds up well even 50 years later. My parents took myself and my oldest sister to see it not long after it opened (maybe the 2nd weekend) and it is the only movie where I ever stood in a line to buy tickets that ran for more a few minutes- we were in line for over a half hour and the line ran down the block and around the corner of the theater.
I recommend the movie for the development of the characters. Even the Mayor, who is not a good guy, is absolutely correct in one of his points early in the movie. Spielberg does draw out the final confrontation, as he does in so many of his movies, but still very much a movie worth watching.
If it'll help, there's a real long scene of men sitting around bullshitting.
I was 18 when I saw it on opening night with no expectations. Absolutely mind blowing experience. People who save it later after hearing all about it did not have same reaction.
“Waiting around for a shark to attack someone? I don't see the point. “ I concur. Imagine my disappointment when Godot never showed up, and that I nevertheless had to write a paper about how great a play that was.
And it inspired the LandShark sketch from when SNL was good.
“telegram… Telegram, ma’am…“
“slide it under the door!”
“… candy-gram…“
We were 5 HS girls in my friend’s station wagon at the drive-in. Saw it again in NYC BAM theater in 2015 I think. That was great fun, since a good number of folks in the audience were seeing it for the first time. And I appreciated it more as a creative, very well-paced film. I think the movie is better for all the technical problems…and it needs to be seen full version, not edited.
Y'all that are scared to go swimming because of jaws might want to scratch hot air ballooning off your list too.
I saw it on TV, almost ten years after it came out. I was in high school, and watching it on a tiny TV in an upstairs room on the east coast of England... and when it was over I didn't want to put my feet down on the floor, lest a shark attack my from under the sofa.
The significance of Jaws is not just in how good a movie it is (and it's great), or how it had people jumping out of their seats. It's that it was the first summer blockbuster. Its success led to major changes by studios in their selection, creation, marketing and scheduling of films.
Rabel said...
"Y'all that are scared to go swimming because of jaws might want to scratch hot air ballooning off your list too."
JFC. "Is it too soon?!"
FWIW, My late brother was a commercial balloon pilot. Even I can see the mistakes made in that balloon video.
I thought AA grew up near the ocean. I did, and it was the first movie I remember standing in line to see. A rainy day so not beach weather.
The summer of 1975 before the movie came out I was staying at my brother's house in Kailua Kona body surfing sailing and fishing and spearfishing and scuba diving everyday for 3 weeks. While I was there in the evenings I read the novel. When I got back home to Southern California I immediately watched the movie.
20 years later I was body surfing the inside beach break at four Mile northwest of Santa Cruz. This is within the famous red triangle of Northern California. The water was pretty deep and then came up onto a sandbar to stand the waves up steeply making it impossible to surf on a board but perfect for body surfing. I was all by myself. After a while my Spidey Sense started bothering me and I could actually hear the famous rift from the John Williams score. I got out of the water in a New York minute.
Every time I go Pond swimming I thank the Lord for not putting great white sharks in freshwater
The ones you have to really be wary of, are the bull sharks. They not only tolerate brackish water, they can almost make it in fresh water. If you're in the tropics, and you're around a river near its mouth, you're in bull shark territory. When I lived in the Caribbean, we had hammerheads, tigers, whale sharks, and bulls. Every single shark attack story over my 20 years there was a bull shark, in brackish water.
I suppose residents of the West Village were just too fucking cool to patronize cinema clearly intended for the plebian masses way back in '75. Jaws, like Moby Dick, is indeed a story about a fish. But like Moby Dick, there is more, so much more. Even Castro liked it.
Hard to believe, at least for me, that you have never seen it, almost incredible…..and you ain’t that much older than me, maybe that’s why. I had turned 15 in May ‘75, so maybe I was the intended audience? Like Star Wars in ‘77…..
All that being said, Jaws was a seminal(?) event, and the story of the making of the movie is almost as interesting.
""Be it known that, waving all argument, I take the good old-fashioned ground that the whale is a fish, and call upon holy Jonah to back me." —Melville Moby Dick
Don't underestimate its nostalgia value. And it is really about the battle between a lawman and town boosters clashing over ruining a tourist season.
It's about how many tourists the shark could eat without eating into the saltwater taffy sales. Really, an interesting period piece.
Last movie I saw for the kids price at 15. I’m heartened to see the Incredible Mr Limpet. It was a huge thing for me, my brother and my sisters. I gotta big smile out of that. As for bullsharks, they’re about the only thing that scares me in the water. I kayak fish a lot by myself in Fort Morgan and I see them enough to keep my head on a swivel. They are nasty buggers and just to put the fear into EVERBODY, they’ve been documented as far north as St Louis.
Not being a fan of that type of film, I avoided it for years. An excellent cast helped quite a bit with the suspense. Shaw telling the WWII story of sailors in the water subject to shark attacks was more impactful than the movie if you actually thought it through. Actually seeing the shark at the end was a total let down. Even in the era when this was filmed, more than one boat would gone after the shark if it was that dangerous.
The other movie about a man and a shark. I've read both this and Jaws, but haven't seen either movie. I may watch this one, although I'd rather watch the 1958 one first.
AA probably won’t like Sharknado, then.
How about "A Fish Called Wanda" did you see that? Except for one thing, it's one of the best adaptations I've seen. I liked that Spielberg tightened up the narrative and eliminated the books Mafia implications and illicit affair between Hooper and the Sheriff's wife. Not killing Hooper was OK. The only downside was the end of the shark. My preference would have been for the shark to just die, like in the book, approaching the Sheriff, instead of the very unlikely shooting the oxygen cylinder and blowing up the shark.
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