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JAWS (1975) is back in theaters, in a new 3D version. (Not to be confused with JAWS 3D!)
‘Jaws’ in 3D Was Made to “Make You Feel Like You’re in the Water”
I'm seeing it on Saturday.
‘Jaws’ in 3D Was Made to “Make You Feel Like You’re in the Water”
I'm seeing it on Saturday.
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Great stuff. Have you seen it in cinemas before (the 2D version, that is)?
I finally got to see Jaws in the cinema during a re-release perhaps ten or fifteen years ago. It was an afternoon screening and had been showing a little while, so the cinema was almost-empty, which I loved.
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I had not seen JAWS in theater previously although, if my memories are accurate, JAWS 2 may have been my earliest movie on a big screen; if so and based on how old I would have been, I seriously question my parents' judgement in taking me!
I usually watch JAWS (and sometimes its immediate sequel, but no others) in early summer, but this year I never got around to it. It was therefore rather fortuitous for the film to be released in theaters again just as summer is winding down. I always love seeing a classic film on the big screen; very often, it's like seeing the movie for the first time. The movie is about as enjoyable, effective and beautifully filmed as any I've seen. About the film's only flaw is its painfully fake looking shark, which is not helped at all on the big screen; but Spielberg shrewdly kept his camera from lingering too long.
The 3D conversion was technically impressive, but I find the format to be a gimmick. It was effective in a few scenes, but also occasionally distracting; overall I'd say it added little value. I would have been just as thrilled to see the movie in 2D on the big screen.
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Oh wow.
Jaws 2 is the one that's eluded me on the big screen (I saw the final two films in cinemas first time round). I suppose Jaws 2 isn't considered classic enough to be re-released in the same way Jaws was, but I did manage to see Supergirl on the big screen again a few years ago thanks to a bad film club, so never say never.
I think the PG rating fooled a lot of people into thinking the films were a lot gentler than they were... especially the first one. I think I'd have been seven when my parents first let me watch Jaws on TV, which I'm sure would horrify parents of more recent times.
I'm glad it worked out so well for you.
Last year was the first in many summers where I didn't watch Jaws. I think I'd watched too many reaction videos to people watching Jaws for the first time and was all Jawsed out.
Same here. It's been a thrill for me to see a number of Hitchcock films on the big screen over the years, plus a lot of other classics I never dreamt I'd get to see that way.
Agreed. It holds up incredibly well.
I did wonder about this, and since it was never intended to be 3D I'd feel the same way. If I were to attend a screening it would be because it's Jaws on the big screen, not because it's 3D.
Wonderful! The whole thing is brilliantly done, but I got the biggest laugh from Quint's revised chalkboard doodle at 28 seconds.
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Last night, I watched JAWS 2 because ... well, why not. Unlike my annual viewing of JAWS, I only get around to the sequel maybe every 5 or 6 years. And then I remember why I seldom watch it: it's lousy. It's really like 3 movies, of varying degrees of entertainment. The film works best as a revisit to Amity. JAWS has a clear sense of time and place; Spielberg made Amity seem like a real place filled with real people. I kind of wish there was a mid-70s TV show set in this town, midway between Mayberry and Peyton Place (no shark needed!) JAWS 2 is a nice chance to see this town and its inhabitants again.
I assume JAWS 2 was heavily targeted at teenagers, because a good chunk of the film is taken up by the town's high schoolers. This part of the movie is fine. I'd rather have spent more time with the obtuse mayor or the clueless deputy, but the teens aren't too vexing. The movie seems to be at least partially structured like an 80s slasher film, minus the horniness.
And there we get to the worst part of the movie: everything involving the shark is abysmal. The shark is preposterously fake looking, but the filmmakers lacked Spielberg's restraint. Any pretense of an apex predator on the hunt is gone; this is Jason Voorhees as a fish. Credulity isn't strained, it's smashed and stepped on. Even John William's score feels like someone doing a parody of a John Williams score.
Earlier in the summer, I saw the original JURASSIC PARK on the big-ish screen; an outdoor showing on the beach in July. It hasn't aged as well as the original JAWS. The CGI dinosaurs held up impressively well, but I was surprised at how dull long stretches of the movie were. Without the grounding of being established in a place that felt real and relatable (i,.e., Amity), there was nothing but an hour of pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo before the action started.
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It's similar for me. Jaws is an annual affair, while Jaws 2 is usually every four-ish years. The remaining sequels even less frequently, though I do revisit them from time to time (with the understanding that they're going to be terrible).
Of all the Jaws sequels, Jaws 2 is actually the most disappointing as time passes. And it's most disappointing because it feels as though it could have been better. It's easy to misremember it as being far better than it actually is because parts of it show such promise, particularly the land-based stuff with Roy Scheider.
Absolutely. Even though they filmed a lot less on Martha's Vineyard for this film, and Florida doubled for Amity a great deal it was well done. There was enough of the Vineyard and its familiar faces to satisfy so that I could really feel we were back on familiar territory.
Among many other Jaws-related childhood fantasies of mine, I remember having a clear vision of a Jaws mini-series, based upon Peter Benchley's novel version complete with its dinner parties and social airs and snobbery. This went on to become essentially an Amity series which showed life going on in the years between the films. We've now had had Bates Motel and a plethora of other film-based TV spinoffs, so who knows... we may still get our wish.
Agreed. It looks terrible. The very idea that a Great White shark will look more terrifying if it has burns and scars is absolutely laughable. And we certainly get plenty of chances to see its face from every angle.
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Steven Spielberg regrets decimation of shark population after Jaws
Steven will appear on Desert Island Discs this morning, saying he fears sharks are "mad" (angry) at him for "the feeding frenzy of crazy sword fishermen that happened after 1975".
I'm sure back in The Jaws Log, Carl Gottlieb wrote something about Spielberg fearing some kind of karmic retribution from sharks and avoiding the water. It's interesting to know that he still feels the same way, almost five decades on.
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Which means this year is the 45th Anniversary. How time flies.
I commemorated the occasion by watching this series of 45th Anniversary interviews with many of those involved including both directors, Joe Alves, Jeffrey Kramer and most of the kids. It's good to get some more details and memories from them, and to see how fondly they view that time.
It's especially gratifying to know that they're still all good friends and to hear about their recent impromptu reunion at a restaurant, attended by even Lorraine Gary and Sid Sheinberg. With this in mind, it's a bit of a a shame that the virtual interviews couldn't have been a group one (or a series of smaller groups) as I'd dearly love to see them interact with one another.
Over the last couple of evenings I also watched the film itself and the bog standard Making Of that appears on the same disc (both of which, of course, I've watched countless times.
Gosh - was it really only last year I last watched? This perhaps helps explain why this weekend's viewing felt particularly underwhelming.
Many of my views from recent rewatches still stand. In lieu of repeating myself I'll simply quote myself and say that most of these statements went double for me this time round:
Believe it or not, Jaws 2 is the sequel that disappoints me most on rewatches, because unlike the third and fourth it's the one that could have been great if it hadn't taken so many wrong turns (don't get me started on Scarface The Shark).
Watching The Making Of..., I felt annoyance watching David Brown saying how "ill-equipped" Hancock was for this film and how he "left" the film as though he'd bailed instead of being sacked.
Another problem I have with The Making Of is that it highlights the worst parts of the film - showing the shark a lot; giving the shark a villainous scar; putting a saddle on the shark to shoot the POV shots; the shark outrunning the speeding waterskier; that laughable moment where the fake shark smacks into the boat and its mouth bends, showing off the hydraulic machinery inside - and attempts to spin them as golden assets that made this a great film.
Well, last night it was amended to "Eat her up! Eat her up!", but the sentiment was still there.
This was the biggest struggle for me last night. The way the kids went from 0-100 at the drop of a hat really pulled the film down. Due to this, it peaked too soon and had nowhere to go. And the bloody screaming is beyond irritating. The older I get, the less tolerance I have for it. Give me the first film's quiet desperation any day!
Watching the 2023 interviews with the cast helped a little.
All the same, last night felt like a reinforcement that - for me at least - the concept of Jaws 2 is far superior to the film, and my disappointment in it deepens with each rewatch. I feel fairly certain I won't watch the film again until the 50th anniversary. And then I'll probably dislike it even more.
The Hank Searls novel and the Marvel Super Special (both based on the John Hancock version of the film) are both absolutely wonderful. While we'll almost certainly never see John Hancock's Jaws 2 as filmed back in 1977, I'm now wondering if some kind of animated version based on the original screenplay could bring it to life. Perhaps paired with a similar project based upon Benchley's Jaws book. Well, I can dream... In the meantime, I think I may dig out that Marvel Super Special and dive in.
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I've been enjoying a few of this guys videos recently (Alien, Bond, Terminator) and they are always well researched, exhaustive and fun. This one is no exception.
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Not directly connected to JAWS, but I started the summer reading the novel SILENT CAME THE MONSTER. This is a (not very) fictionalized account of the Jersey shore shark attacks of 1916 -- which, in turn, were the inspiration for the novel JAWS. The book reads like an unofficial prequel to the most famous shark story. One of the problems with the sequels -- and, indeed, all subsequent shark attack films -- is that JAWS covered all the bases. What else is left, other than repetition? I thought the novel had some nice angles to the tale, most notably that it was set at a time when sharks were barely understood.
I live about an hour from where those 1916 shark attacks occurred and there were several great white sightings and a few minor shark attacks this year along the coast. None of this stopped me from going into the ocean a lot this year, but I had the JAWS theme in my head the entire time.
I live about an hour from where those 1916 shark attacks occurred and there were several great white sightings and a few minor shark attacks this year along the coast. None of this stopped me from going into the ocean a lot this year, but I had the JAWS theme in my head the entire time.
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I'm really glad you've mentioned this because I had no idea there was a new book on this subject.
I've read Close To Shore and Twelve Days Of Terror many times each. The former book is probably similar to Silent Came The Monster: a linear telling of the events with some filling in of gaps here and there. It paints a very vivid picture of the time and place (with the war, the polio epidemic, etc.) as well as describing the events clearly. Twelve Days Of Terror is a truly fascinating read as it goes into much more analysis and forensic stuff, as well as diverging to discuss other similar series of shark attacks.
I'm sure I could be persuaded to read a fictionalised version. That said, I struggled with the 12 Days Of Terror film with its addition of the fictitious characters, so I couldn't guarantee I'd love it.
Yes, it's quite mind-boggling to think that experts were reassuring people that sharks' jaws were too weak to bite a person, while the general public were believing the attacks to be a large cod (or something like that). People didn't even know whether or not a shark bite would contain venom, so there were all these myths floating about. These events really brought the idea of shark attacks into the public consciousness.
I can relate. We don't really have any dangerous shark species on British coastlines (though with climate change influencing water temperatures and making marine animal migration far less predictable this could be changing) but it's still something that crosses my mind whenever I enter the ocean.
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After seeing JAWS (probably 2) as a kid, I recall being afraid to jump into a lake. Silly kid stuff -- except now I know many of those 1916 shark attacks happened in inland rivers. My irrational childhood fears weren't quite entirely irrational.
Many of the beach towns along the coast here have free movie nights on the beach. JAWS was one of them this year. Needless to say, I couldn't bring myself to go for a moonlight dip after watching it.
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Yes. I had such an overactive imagination as a kid that I'm glad I didn't know this. Especially as I lived around 150 yards from a river.
The Matawan Creek attack on Lester Stillwell - and the man who tried to recover his body from the shark - was particularly chilling because it seemed so far removed from the other attacks on the ocean, and (from images and maps, at least) it looks as though the route inland is particularly tortuous, so it all seemed improbable.
Bull Sharks can live in in both salt and fresh water, and there are varieties that live exclusively in fresh water rivers, which is the reason there are still serious and fatal inland river attacks. Some theorise that the Bull Shark is the most likely suspect for this particular attack, although many also feel it's the same juvenile Great White that was later caught in Raritan Bay with human flesh inside. Twelve Days Of Terror recognises this as a strong possibility, while Close To Shore outright identifies the shark in all attacks as the same young Great White.
I'm already curious about which approach Silent Came The Monster takes regarding the species and number of animals involved in the attacks. Since the lone shark theory probably makes for the more dramatically satisfying story, I'd guess this might be the preferred version for a fictionalised account (and it could well be true anyway).
What a great experience.
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Would you dare to swim in the Loch Ness Lake?
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I think my biggest worry there would be frostbite. Or - since I can barely swim a stroke - drowning.
If there's a shallow end and someone can heat it up for me, I'd probably give it a go.
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You live on an island but you can't swim? What a most edgy situation.
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"It's only an island if you look at it from the water."
Chief Martin Brody
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