The Jaws Thread

[James from London]

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Jaws is heading for the West End. Starring Son Of Quint.

A new play about the famously troubled production of Jaws attracted a sea of five-star reviews when it premiered in Edinburgh in 2019. The response made one thing clear to the producers: we're going to need a bigger theatre.

The Shark Is Broken, which is about to transfer to London's West End, offers a glimpse at the strained relationship between the three stars of Steven Spielberg's 1975 film.

 

[Sarah]

Ah ok - sounds interesting - I didn’t read the full post at first and wondered how on Earth you can recreate Jaws for a stage!!!

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I didn’t read the full post at first and wondered how on Earth you can recreate Jaws for a stage!!!

It has been done:

(badly)




Here's a peek at the new version:

One tiny little niggle from this video and the BBC article above: I don't like the way the actors repeatedly refer to the Jaws actors by their surnames only. I'm reminded of old-fashioned teachers addressing their pupils by surnames, or an army sergeant barking orders at his subordinates. It seems inappropriately over-familiar and rather dismissive at the same time.

It made me think of the beginning of this interview:

 

[Sarah]

Thanks for the info @Mel O'Drama

Oh I wonder will the show have a special appearance by BESS ARMSTRONG???

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Oh I wonder will the show have a special appearance by BESS ARMSTRONG???

She'll have a cameo as The Happy Sun on the Welcome To Amity billboard:

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Who'd have thought I needed to see this?...

So much creativity. Even the shark painting that freaks Ellen out has been lovingly recreated.

Tim's great in all the roles - from Martin to Meadows and even Robert Nevin's coroner - but his Larry Vaughn is a tour de force.

And I defy anyone not to laugh at his hilarious Ellen Brody run at 5:12.​

 

[Sarah]

Who'd have thought I needed to see this?...

So much creativity. Even the shark painting that freaks Ellen out has been lovingly recreated.

Tim's great in all the roles - from Martin to Meadows and even Robert Nevin's coroner - but his Larry Vaughn is a tour de force.

And I defy anyone not to laugh at his hilarious Ellen Brody run at 5:12.​

He's so funny! Saw him in panto with Linda in Cinderella. Proving that I can (and I will) indeed tie any thread to Linda Gray.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Saw him in panto with Linda in Cinderella. Proving that I can (and I will) indeed tie any thread to Linda Gray.

Well, I've seen him doing Jaws and Columbo. Perhaps he could be persuaded to re-enact scenes from Dallas. He ought to make a great Sue Ellen since he's spent time with the real thing.

 

[Sarah]

Well, I've seen him doing Jaws and Columbo. Perhaps he could be persuaded to re-enact scenes from Dallas. He ought to make a great Sue Ellen since he's spent time with the real thing.

Oh she'd love that!!! I know Linda would find that v v funny!!!

 

[JR-Rules]

JAWS is my All Time Favorite movie! I'm exited there's a thread about it! Will read the 11 pages tonight!

 

[Mel O'Drama]

JAWS is my All Time Favorite movie! I'm exited there's a thread about it! Will read the 11 pages tonight!

Great stuff @JR-Rules.

I can never get enough Jaws talk so it'll be really good to read your thoughts!!

 

[JR-Rules]

He is, but he's a loveable old jerk. I love his blazers, his coiffed hair and his lairy grin.

And his gift for understatement:

I agree with that in JAWS...
BUT in JAWS 2 there's a deleted scene about Brody to get fired when he shows the mayor & 4 other people the shark pic. Brody is waiting for their decision and next we understand he was fired.
In the deleted scene (6:52 --> 7:44) we can see Vaughn against all the others voting to save Brody's job.

I have to say though - Mrs Kintner is very old looking don't you think? And had she just come from the funeral? Hence the veil?

I second that... In reality she was 46 at that time. Alex was 12 so that works but I thought for years she was way older

 

[JR-Rules]

In the next scene, where Hooper and Brody are having a conversation with Larry Vaughn, neither of them mentions the head. They're trying to prevent Larry opening the beaches for the Fourth Of July, so this information may have been slightly useful, don't you think? They even discuss the tooth he found at the scene but when Larry asks Hooper if he still has it, Hooper just casually mutters that he lost the tooth. And that's it! Wouldn't one of them mention that he dropped the tooth because he had the crap frightened out of him by a disembodied head?! Call me old fashioned, but the head of a local fisherman they all knew seems at least as important as the tooth he lost.

Pretty funny cause I thought the same thing at first. Then I tried to understand how the movie editing works and why some scenes are deleted and, in that case, why they didn't mention the Ben Gardner's head.
I really thinks it's all about rhythm and going to the main point.
I think in that scene between Brody, Hooper & Vaughn, all the viewers are now well aware of what the shark is capable of even if we already knew the shark was massive (because of the bite radius).
But in that scene Spielberg wants Hooper & Brody letting the mayor know how big and dangerous is the shark. So when Brody is telling the mayor that Gardner's boat was all chewed up, it involves Ben Gardner's death without extending the scene. Then Hooper add the tooth size and then that the fin size painted has the correct proportions.
The Spielberg's main goal was all about how gigantic and powerful the shark is to convince the mayor of the urgency. Adding Gardner's death doesn't implies that since everybody already know the shark is a man killer. But this is an unprecedent man killer...
Just my thoughts

By the way It always bugged me why Hooper would go in the water when he knows there's a man-eating shark out there. He seems pretty sure the shark is not there at that special moment

All the same, it hadn't previously occurred to me that Ted Grossman's character might have survived the attack. And it's true, there isn't definitive proof of his death. It's a sobering thought that he might have shown up in one of the sequels with a Quint-type grudge against sharks. Perhaps even with a wooden leg made out of the remains of his rowing boat.

​

He survived... Why? Simply because he was bare feet when Bruce attacks him.
So I guess Ted goes to the nearest mall to buy some shoes, went back to the pond, put a shoe on his cut leg then letting her go in the water...

 

[Mel O'Drama]

in JAWS 2 there's a deleted scene about Brody to get fired when he shows the mayor & 4 other people the shark pic. Brody is waiting for their decision and next we understand he was fired.
In the deleted scene (6:52 --> 7:44) we can see Vaughn against all the others voting to save Brody's job.

Yes. It's such a shame this was cut. I know many of the scenes featuring the Brody/Len Peterson rivalry were cut to speed up the pace and spend less time on land (and also because they were less important once the rebooted Jaws 2 dropped the mob subplot from the original John Hancock version), but I really liked them and thought they had lots of nice character moments which for me would be preferable to watching the Amity Kids goofing around.

Of all the cut scenes, the vote is the one that really should have stayed as it was such a nice moment for Murray Hamilton and we already saw too little of him in this film.

It also felt more truthful for Larry and Martin considering where they'd left things in the original Jaws. While I get that if everyone believed Martin immediately there'd be no film, it feels wrong that Larry of all people was so dismissive of Martin's concern that they had another shark up to this point. Including this scene would have really shown that Larry had his reasons for acting the way he did publicly, even though personally he quietly respected Martin after the events of the first film.

The scene put things into quite a different context for the viewer, but didn't affect around it because we can assume that Martin simply never found out.

I really thinks it's all about rhythm and going to the main point.
I think in that scene between Brody, Hooper & Vaughn, all the viewers are now well aware of what the shark is capable of even if we already knew the shark was massive (because of the bite radius).
But in that scene Spielberg wants Hooper & Brody letting the mayor know how big and dangerous is the shark. So when Brody is telling the mayor that Gardner's boat was all chewed up, it involves Ben Gardner's death without extending the scene. Then Hooper add the tooth size and then that the fin size painted has the correct proportions.
The Spielberg's main goal was all about how gigantic and powerful the shark is to convince the mayor of the urgency. Adding Gardner's death doesn't implies that since everybody already know the shark is a man killer. But this is an unprecedent man killer...

Yes. I can appreciate that stopping to address this key piece of information would have really changed the rhythms. That scene at the lighthouse is one of the film's most kinetic with all three moving round and quickly talking over one another.

But if you really stop to think about it, it's just not what would happen. With so much emphasis put on Chrissie's remains and the ones of Alex Kintner thought by some to be inside the Tiger Shark, it's a strange choice to completely not mention the head floating around in a known position.

I do agree that from a cinematic it's the right choice and it's one of those things that most viewers wouldn't think about too much because they're too invested in the film at this point. But I think more hardcore fans like us get hung up on these little details.

It always bugged me why Hooper would go in the water when he knows there's a man-eating shark out there. He seems pretty sure the shark is not there at that special moment

Ha ha. Yes.

In the real world, a marine biologist like Hooper would understand that statistically speaking the odds of being attacked by a shark are minute. But he's just examined Chrissie's remains. He knows that two people were attacked. He believes the "rogue shark" theory and he's claimed that Bruce is "a night feeder". All of which should really keep him from diving down into the dark night water.

I put it down to his scientific curiosity getting the better of him. He's so excited at the idea of learning more about the shark that he simply can't wait. Or perhaps he's worried about evidence being eroded by the water if they wait until daylight.

 

[JR-Rules]

@Mel O'Drama I agree with most of the things you say! That's really interesting to talk with another hard core fan!!

Another thing I was thinking when I saw JAWS the first few times:
We can cut the film in 2 parts. 1st one near the beaches, 2nd one in deep ocean.
Why would the shark only follow or stand by near the "Orca" instead of returning time to time where his meal is: near the beaches???
I don't buy the "it's personal" as we can see in the ugly JAWS 4 but we all know it's never the case...
But I know it was great for the film, for the Quint character, to see the hunt etc...

 

[Mel O'Drama]

We can cut the film in 2 parts. 1st one near the beaches, 2nd one in deep ocean.

Oh yes. Definitely. The final act begins as they head out to sea.

Because of the intimacy of that final part - with only three actors appearing - I once convinced a teacher at school to allow me to review Jaws when we were asked to review a play.

Why would the shark only follow or stand by near the "Orca" instead of returning time to time where his meal is: near the beaches???

That's a great point. I don't know if I'd thought of that before.

If I was asked to come up with a solution, I'd say it was because the beaches were probably closed after the 4th July attack in the pond (and even if they weren't, nobody was risking going into the ocean after that). Plus they were chumming from the Orca to attract the shark and with Quint's experience and Hooper's knowledge they were probably able to keep the shark's attention better than the "vigilante" fishermen earlier in the film.

I don't entirely buy the idea of it being personal either. Like you, I think that would be silly. But I can get on board with the shark stalking the boat because it's picking up food signals from the chum (and in the film's heightened reality because it also has that association of the people on the boat with food after eating Ben Gardner). And I can understand how Quint (and Brody) would perceive this as being a personal attack.

But I know it was great for the film, for the Quint character, to see the hunt etc...

Yes. It was a great battle of man versus beast, and I like that the people underestimated the shark as much as the other way round.

 

[JR-Rules]

If I was asked to come up with a solution, I'd say it was because the beaches were probably closed after the 4th July attack in the pond (and even if they weren't, nobody was risking going into the ocean after that). Plus they were chumming from the Orca to attract the shark and with Quint's experience and Hooper's knowledge they were probably able to keep the shark's attention better than the "vigilante" fishermen earlier in the film.

Good point. But without filming some others scenes near the beaches they could used the radio (before Quint broke it) to tell the trio that the shark kills another time and they have to move to confront Bruce.
Not necessary on the island (your explanations are good!) but on some long Island beaches.
If you remember JAMS's novel was based on the 1916 New Jersey shark attacks. And that shark didn't stay at one place...
But I don't say all that to criticize the film but, since I'm interested by Great White Sharks for decades I'm asking myself some questions, forgeting at times that reality doesn't always match to build a great film!

 

[Mel O'Drama]

But without filming some others scenes near the beaches they could used the radio (before Quint broke it) to tell the trio that the shark kills another time and they have to move to confront Bruce.

That could have been a nice twist. We think we know where the shark is, so finding out something like this would have made it all very unpredictable and possibly add to Brody's guilt.

This scenario reminds me of a scene in the novel where Hendricks arrives to tell Brody about a shark attack he's just witnessed on the beach. We don't "see" the attack first hand, but hearing that it's happened really amped up the stakes.

If you remember JAMS's novel was based on the 1916 New Jersey shark attacks. And that shark didn't stay at one place...
But I don't say all that to criticize the film but, since I'm interested by Great White Sharks for decades

Same here. And it was Jaws that got me fascinated.

Have you read any of the books about the 1916 attacks? Close To Shore is a really nice simple account of how it might have happened, and it really paints a picture of the time and place in which it happened. Twelve Days Of Terror is incredibly detailed in laying out the evidence and asking the reader to draw conclusions. I love both books in different ways and revisit each of them every few years.

reality doesn't always match to build a great film!

Very true indeed.

 

[JR-Rules]

That could have been a nice twist. We think we know where the shark is, so finding out something like this would have made it all very unpredictable and possibly add to Brody's guilt.

Sure!!

Same here. And it was Jaws that got me fascinated.

I don't know if you'll like it but I build a video about Great white sharks... Maybe you already saw it! Enjoy

Have you read any of the books about the 1916 attacks? Close To Shore is a really nice simple account of how it might have happened, and it really paints a picture of the time and place in which it happened. Twelve Days Of Terror is incredibly detailed in laying out the evidence and asking the reader to draw conclusions. I love both books in different ways and revisit each of them every few years.

Unfortunately no I saw a documentary about that but never read any books