Re: The Wing Kong Exchange
After the badly mutilated body of a teenage girl washes ashore on the beaches of Amity Island, the police chief, Martin Brody, thinks it may have been the work of a shark. After being convinced otherwise by the mayor, he decides to keep the beaches open only to have the shark attack again. What's worse, its not just any shark, but a 25 foot Great White with a taste for human blood. With the entire town panicking, Brody, a young oceanographer named Matt Hooper, and grizzled fisherman Quint head out to sea in the hopes of finding and killing this beast.
Jaws, released in 1975, has come to be known as the first true summer blockbuster and one of the defining films of the decade. Deftly mixing humour, suspense, action, horror and drama, the film is a true original and one that continues to dazzle audiences some 37 years later. Thinking about it bluntly, can you honestly imagine a film about a shark having that kind of staying power? Clearly nobody did at the time, but the simple fact remains that Jaws didn't just take a bite out of its contemporaries, it literally swallowed them whole. In a time of gritty and edgy action films and sweeping mafia epics, it stands out amongst the crowd as a shining example of how making something unique can sometimes lead to great things. It certainly paid off for its director, a young maverick just starting to make his name in Hollywood, as well as its producers, who saw profits like they'd never seen before. Considering there were a plethora of problems during the filming, its a minor miracle that the film ever saw the light of day, but thankfully it did. Though there have been countless shark movies since, including several sequels to this one, none could ever hope to come close to matching the raw power and unflinching force of Jaws.
"I knew I should have just taken a shower."
Directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Carl Gottlieb and Peter Benchley, the film is actually a very streamlined version of Benchley's original novel. Removing some of the more complex plot details such as the mafia's influence over the mayor and the affair between Brody's wife Ellen and Matt Hooper, the film still manages to pack a lot in to its runtime. Gottlieb and Benchley really manage to capture the essence of the story well and also create believable dialogue for all their characters. There was also some additional dialogue written by director John Milius, Howard Sackler and actor Robert Shaw for one particular scene, but we'll be looking at that in a moment. Suffice to say, the additional dialogue alone could have been nearly enough to garner this film an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay; its really that good. Speaking of good, Spielberg may not have had a lot of films under his credit (though among them was the excellent Duel) but its extremely easy to see the talent this man had even at a young age. His sense of pacing is brilliant and in fact I can easily go on record as saying this is one of the most naturally flowing films I've ever seen. Nothing seems disjointed or out of place and every single moment counts. That's a lot to ask for such a young director, especially considering the subject matter of the film itself, but Spielberg shows a remarkable restraint that would become even more prevalent in his later works. He even chose to shoot a significant portion of the film from water level, so as to create the illusion of the audience treading water, something that works to great effect. Finally, he was already showing signs of his penchant for being an "actor's director" as here he manages to elicit great performances from the entire cast bar none.
"Wait, what do you mean we fucked in the book?"
Roy Scheider leads this incredibly strong cast in the role of Martin Brody, the Chief of Police of the small island town who just happens to be afraid of the water. Obviously this allows for some great moments of hesitation on his part but his other characteristics are great as well. Clearly Brody is a pawn of the bureaucrats in Amity, as evidenced by his somewhat rocky relationship with Mayor Vaughn (a great Murray Hamilton) and Scheider really gets this conflict across properly. At the same time, he's also experiencing some home issues with his wife, played well by Lorraine Gary, and their interactions are at times unsettling even though one can easily glean that they care deeply for each other. Richard Dreyfuss is cast as Matt Hooper, the idealistic oceanographer with a quick wit and I honestly can't imagine anyone else in the role. He really took the character and made it his own with impressive results. Finally, the great Robert Shaw is cast as Quint, the fisherman who has his own personal issues with sharks, and to say he steals the entire picture is a total understatement. Shaw was an exceptional actor and Quint is perhaps his greatest contribution to the film world. His expressions alone are worth watching the film for, but once you add in his chilling monologue about the USS Indianapolis incident it becomes clear that this man was totally robbed in not being nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards. To me, there exists no finer moment in the film than that particular scene and its one that never fails to capture my attention immediately. The credit can be partially given to the above writers (including Shaw himself) for coming up with it, but the delivery is what makes it so real, once again a testament to Shaw's abilities as an actor.
"Would you seriously mess with this much man?"
One of the most recognizable elements of Jaws is its incredible soundtrack, rendered by the undisputed master of film scores, John Williams. The main theme is one of the most well known to this day and earned Williams a much deserved Academy Award. You would be hard pressed to find someone who couldn't hum the opening bars to you, it really is that engrained in popular culture. The fact that Spielberg thought Williams was joking when he first played it for him is a funny little Hollywood story and I can only imagine his shock when he saw how well it fit. Along with Williams excellent work comes another Oscar winning effort from Editor Verna Fields, who here manages to cohesively piece together this story and really give it some continuity throughout. Bill Butler's cinematography is also superb and he really comes up with some marvellous shots that greatly enhance the whole experience. That he managed to do this with the obvious limitations of the day is that much more impressive, though to be fair its clear that every single person working on this film was devoted to making it as great as it could possibly be. From a technical standpoint, there are literally no flaws in this film and that is one of the reasons it still continues to amaze audiences to this day.
"Hey Roy, can I have a puff of that smoke?"
Technical merits aside, the strongest aspect of this film is suspense, and above all else this is seen in the decided lack of shark footage until it is absolutely necessary. This is partially due to the mechanical shark not working properly but it can also be credited to Spielberg's understanding that the unseen is quite a bit more frightening than the seen. If you'd seen the shark from the beginning it would hardly have had the same effect later on, which it obviously does. I can imagine people literally jumping out of their seats when first viewing this back in 1975 because when the shark first rears its massive head out of the water (as seen above) it is truly a spectacle. Again, this effect works because we have seen nothing more than quick shots of it to this point, allowing our imaginations to run wild with the prospect of what it actually looks like. By the time we finally do see it, we've been whipped up into a frenzy and are given a suitable release. Outside of that there are just a myriad of amazing moments here, from the tense shark cage sequence with Hooper to the thrilling final showdown between Brody and the shark itself. I've probably seen that scene more than 100 times and it never fails to get my heart pumping, a remarkable feat to be sure. All in all, there aren't very many perfect films but Jaws is certainly one of them. It's ability to transcend above its clearly mundane plot is reason enough to consider it the very pinnacle of filmmaking, but once you add in the great characters, realistic dialogue and absolutely stunning soundtrack, it truly does become the stuff of legend.
"Now that's what I call a hat rack!"
Jaws was shot on a budget of $8 million and ended up grossing over $430 million worldwide at the box office. That is a staggering return for a film that admittedly doesn't sound all that great on paper. Obviously its easy to simply state that Spielberg has always had the magic touch but the truth of the matter is that this film was a pure team effort from everyone involved and that is why it performed so well. Not only did it make a ton of money and basically create the template for all summer blockbuster's that followed, it did so in style and with critical acclaim. There really has never been another summer film like it nor do I think there ever will be again. Like the Great White itself, Jaws remains an elusive and majestic entity, completely removed from every other film that came before it or after. In case you couldn't tell, that's enough for it to receive the vaunted
10/10 from yours truly and as always, if you haven't seen it please do yourself a favour and do so immediately.
"Holy shit, we did need a bigger boat!"
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