Shark attack: “Jaws” is as entertaining as 50 years ago | Features

So many times that I have seen “jaws” since I lived it for the first time as a 15 -year -old fascinated, terrified and delighted in the summer of 1975, each revisit gives something new, something that has not completely signed up with me the first time I saw him. I have long been to the point where I will be shocked by this first shot on the Skinny diver at the end of the evening Chrissie Watkins, or the appearance of a leap from the cut head of Ben Gardner, or the moment when the shark appears behind chief Brody and we see him just before him. Now, however, it is a question of catching something that would only resonate on repeated views – and to appreciate the sections of shine in the performances of Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, et al.

It was perhaps the third or the fourth time for me when I noticed a blockage in a first scene that had escaped my attention. After Scheider’s friendship police chief Martin Brody has received a call from the medical inspector and the “Shark attack” types under the “probable cause of death” of Chrissie, Brody walks strongly on the village square, almost seeking time with the group which can be heard in the distance when he repeats for the 50th annual regatta of the city. Along the way, the camera of the director of photography Bill Butler briefly captures substantive affairs. First of all, we see a man in gray suit who turns out to be the medical inspector (played by Robert Nevin, a real doctor); Then we see the editor Amity GazetteA Harry Meadows, played by Co-Screenwriter Carl Gottlieb. The two men emerge from their workplace to meet the mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton).

Flash forward a few moments: Brody is on the ferry when a Cadillac coupé de ville de 1974 in the pump on the ground with a failure of “Vaughn’s Realty” on the door stops. Admittedly, Vaughn leads the effort to dissuade Brody from closing the beaches – but it is supported by Meadows, which minimizes the possibility of a shark attack (“… We have never had this kind of problems in these waters”) and by the medical inspector, who accepts: “Although I think I think I think I am limping.” When Brody says, “This is not what you told me by phone,” replied the Mi: “I was wrong. We will have to change our reports. “

Much has been made of the Parallels (Injunction or not) Between Watergate and “Jaws,” Which was filmed in 1974 and was released less Than a Year after richard Nixon Resigned, and How Themes of Paranoia and Distrust of the Government Run Through the Film And Bernstein Were Heroes who in a Couple of Years Would be Portrayed by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in “All the President’s men”, the so-called “Jaws” journalist as well as the medical inspector are also accomplices of concealment and denial of the facts. When the mother of the late Alex Kintner (Lee Prierro) offers a reward of 3 000 Capture of the shark who killed his son, Meadows said to the mayor: “It’s a little story. I will bury it as deeply as possible. “Later, Vaughn said to a television interviewer:” I am happy and happy to repeat the news that we have in fact caught and killed a great predator who supposedly injured certain bathers … “

Unreasonable corruption leaves you out of breath. (That Vaughn was still the mayor of “Jaws 2” inspired countless memes.) Larry Vaughn ranks among the most worthy bad guys in the history of cinema, and rightly so. However, he did not act alone. A large part of the city, notably commercial operators of the upper class, refused to recognize a predator who hides in the waters off the beach until Chrissie Watkins, Alex Kintner, Ben Gardner and the man of the estuary were swallowed up in a rapid succession. It was only then that the shocked vaught signed on the Shaw Quint after the big white shark. Even Brody, a decent family man and a good cop, capitulates in Vaughn et al., Approaching to keep the beaches open for too long. When Mrs. Kintner cracks Brody on her face, he has it to come.

Speaking of victims, we would also want to not talk about Pippit the dog! At the big credit of Spielberg, he increased the stakes when the shark killed a dog and a child. From that moment, we estimated that no one was safe in the water.

Given the level of intensity and the quantity of blood shed, it could have come from a surprise “jaw”, but it is either that or an “R”, because the PG-13 designation was not implemented until the summer of 1984. Zome on the face of Chef Brody while it testifies to an attack on the shore, to the creative use of the plans at the water. “Jaws” is also a masterclass in rhythm and sound, with the emblematic partition of John Williams (undoubtedly the most imitated and the most parodied in the history of the films), the edition of Verna Fields and the sound team of John Carter, Roger Heman, Robert L. Hoyt and Earl Madeera Ginning Academy. (Lateral bar: it is crazy that Spielberg was not nominated for the best director, Scheider was not nominated for the best actor, and neither Shaw nor Dreyfuss received nursing heads. All the great respect for James Whitmore in “Give ‘Em Hell, Harry!” And Burgess Meredith in “The Day of the Lows”, but when you have heard of these films and These films? “Nominations.

Another element that I appreciate on repeated views is how Spielberg and screenwriters Peter Benchley (who came up as a television journalist who interviews Vaughn) and Gottlieb, with great help from casting director Shari Rhodes, created such an authentic slicit of summer life. There are moments, especially at the beginning, when it is almost as if we are looking at an American comedy by Preston Sturges or Frank Capra, as when the local resident of Martha’s Vineyard Peggy Scott makes a tour of the stage as Polly the secretary, who says that the nine years of the school last part by making small chops of Karate. (Also unforgettable: Alfred Wilde as old “Bad Hat Harry”, and local Hershel West fisherman as a Quint companion, Salvatore.) Could be integrated into a dishwasher.

Even after the number of bodies increases, “Jaws” finds room for sneaky humor, as when Hooper appears without guest at Maison Brody with two bottles of wine. Brody breaks down the red and pours it directly into his almost finished glass of what seems to be whiskey, ignoring Hooper’s calls for him to “leave this insufficiency …” The history of Gottlieb included writing for smart comedies such as “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour”, “The Bob Newhart Show” and ” cultivators are in view in the dialogue here.

It is almost impossible to lack things to speak when we dissect “jaws”. How the reference of Quint to his friend “Herbie Robinson, of Cleveland”, being “bitten in half, below the size” by a shark after the Indianapolis USS has flowed foreshadowing the disappearance of Quint. The scene where the waves of tourists descend on Amityville on July 4, swallowing metaphorically on the island. How the films ranging from “Alien” to “signs” to “a calm place” to “no” are cinematographic descendants of “jaws”. The judicious choice of filmmakers not to keep the book of the book on a brief affair between Hooper and the wife of Brody, who would have overturned the whole film. How we still do not know if this dark man who accompanies Ms. Kintner to the quay is his father or his brother – or perhaps a lawyer or a director of the funeral.

Maybe I will find a clue in my next Rewatch.