Jaws on Home Video

I will have to watch it again. I can't believe I never noticed that before.

 

Huge horror fan and only three movies have really ever wrecked me growing up.
Night of the living dead
Exorcist
Jaws.
I still tweak a bit when I go in any water other then a swimming pool.
I'm not kidding either.

 

I was hoping this thread had been bumped due to an announcement it’s coming out on 4K disc soon. Jaws has to be front of the line for a 4K release, especially since ET has had one and that’s also Universal.

 

I saw this film for the first time in ages on Netflix last week. When I previously saw it, in 1981, I remember thinking the shark was poorly realised, even by the standards of that time. This film would be a prime candidate for CGI-tampering of the kind that George Lucas likes to indulge in, but only if it focused on the shark to make it more menacing and less obviously a prop.

I should add, that I'm better able to suspend disbelief than most people of my age and I don't think good SF can make a bad film into a good one, or a good one into a bad one. Jaws succeeds primarily on the strength of the performances of its three principal actors, all of whom were relatively cheap to hire in 1974.

 

Spielberg has said he regretted the "revisionist" re-edit he did to E.T. back in 2002 to remove the guns being pointed by government agents at the kids:



Because of that experience, he's said he's now opposed to changing any of his films and says all they'll do is just "clean up" the films in terms of mastering but leave their content alone. He was asked what he thought of George Lucas' alteration of the Star Wars films and said, "well, you'll have to ask him about that. Those aren't my films." But he did volunteer that he's vetoed any changes to the Indiana Jones films, and he did direct all of those (so far). I don't think there's a chance of any fundamental alteration to Jaws, though Universal has had to drop out a few background music cues due to music rights clearance issues.

 

I can understand him regretting that choice but I think a degree of 'upgrading' can be justified if used selectively and if it improves the quality of the film. Before seeing it done, I was instinctively opposed to it, but some of the improvement to the sfx on the BBC Doctor Who DVDs have shown how it can be done sensitively and not too expensively, either.

 

The bigger concern for me was always the fate of Ben Gardner (whose mangled head startles Hooper in the wreck of that boat). Gardner is, presumably, another victim of the shark, but unbelievably nothing more is said about him or his fate. In the clip (linked below), which follows the night time Gardner boat scene, Chief Brody says there have been "three incidents - two people killed inside of a week!" But, if Gardner has been killed, then up to that point in the film there has been three deaths: Chrissy Watkins (the nude swimmer), Alex Kintner (the boy on the raft) and Ben Gardner (whose head is in the boat). Indeed, Brody tells the Mayor "It was Ben Gardener's boat. It was all chewed up. I helped tow it in - you shoulda seen him!"

It's always confused me why the incident is so completely glossed over in the film, particularly when the head-in-the-boat sting is probably the greatest jump scare in all of Jaws!

 

Really? Which ones? The obvious stuff like Olivia Newton John or some more obscure tidbits?

 

The shot of Ben Gardner's head was added during post-production, long after principle photography had ended (shot in Spielberg's swimming pool in his back garden)... and I always thought Brody said "I helped tow it in, you should have seen it"... maybe I'm wrong though.

 

Actually shot at night in editor Verna Fields' pool up in the Hollywood Hills, with a guerrilla (non-union) crew because Spielberg didn't want to incur going even more over budget. I think they did that like 3 weeks before the movie was released. Spielberg later regretted it, because he said now the film had two massive scares instead of just one, and it watered-down the other moment.

Because the head reveal was the last scene shot for the movie, and there was no time (or money) left to drop in a conversation about it. Sometimes things happen because of logistics and scheduling, not so much for story and character reasons.

 

I'm under the impression that they had to change the music for earlier video releases but the original songs had been restored.

Same with the 1982 "Thing" - IIRC, it lost Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" on the path to video but it came back at some point...

 

I can't believe you never noticed it, either - it's always stood out!

 

Right now I only have Jaws III on its official MCA HOME VIDEO tape.... In my opinion part 3 is the last good part.....

 

it's all about money...

 

but the BD is pretty good. That'll do fine.

 

As I've stated before, watch out for the "Some Music Rescored" disclaimer that appears on some copies of Jaws.

 

Spielberg is now worth $3.7 billion dollars, so I don't think he gives a crap about the money at this point:

Steven Spielberg Net Worth

Another $100K or even $200K in extra home video money is not even a drop in the bucket.

 

WOW...

 

I don't think Spielberg changed the guns to walkie-talkies in "ET" for money - I think he genuinely thought it was the "right thing to do".

It wasn't, but I get his feeling that way,

Actually, the walkie-talkies make that scene more logical. In the 1982 version, the feds pull out rifles, a demonstration that shows their willingness to use deadly force to recapture ET.

The kids then fly over the feds and no shots get fired, as apparently their airborne status makes them untouchable.

Can't these guns shoot up?

 

In interviews 15 years ago, Spielberg said that when he shot the movie in 1982, he didn't yet have any kids. Once he had kids in the 1990s, he said he was very concerned with the idea of putting children in danger and having guns pointed at them in films, so that was why he opted to take them out of E.T. in 2002. (Never mind the little kid that gets eaten by the shark in Jaws.) But then a few years after that he made the statement of never making any revisionist versions again.

 

Right, and it’s important to take into account that this was immediately after 9/11 (and the word “terrorist” was also removed). Still a bad decision, so glad he publicly backtracked.

 

Blu-ray.

 

Spielberg also discussed how different "CE3K" would've been if he'd had kids when he made it, as Papa Steve couldn't imagine a father abandoning his family.

All this makes me glad he shot "CE3K" and "ET" before he had kids!

 

Wasn't the terrorist line removed before the VHS version in 1988?

 

Do you have a contact for him? I'd like to give him an address where he could send it. Fingers crossed.