Does ' Jaws ' Still Have A Bite ?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Wildest cat from montana, Oct 6, 2019.

  1. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US

    Yeah. What is the problem with the “Spielberg Touch” that dates them? Too humanistic and organic? I love the family stuff in all his films. Yeah it’s “cute” and, as someone said, don’t share the “street toughness” of many modern films, but that gives it a timeless quality to me, because it has heart instead of bravado. As far as being a “comedy” — which of The Avengers movies aren’t? You can’t blend comedy and action, and I see Jaws as an action film, Not a comedy, because it’s played naturalistically, whereas horror always rests on the supernatural.
     
  2. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US

    It’s not modern gory cinema that has them bored — it’s video game shock-a-second adrenal gland mutation.
     
  3. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    "Jaws 2" isn't even the worst "Jaws" sequel. 3 and 4 are substantially worse!
     
  4. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Due to my age, I saw "Jaws 2" before I saw "Jaws". I loved "J2"!

    In fact, when I saw "Jaws" a year later, I still preferred "J2".

    Now I see that "Jaws" is a classic and an all-time fave, while "J2" is flawed and not especially good, but I maintain a soft spot for it.

    It's not a bad film, honestly - it's just mediocre...
     
  5. cyclistsb

    cyclistsb Forum Resident

    I think the younger generation is oversaturated by visual effects and lost the appreciation for acting....these were outstanding performances, the shark didn't even really need to appear on screen.
     
  6. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    revisited this due to this thread, and yes it still had an impact...I guess ppl being eaten by a massive Great White still has lasting impact! great movie for it's time! and still great!
    and yes it's not a horror movie...it's an adventure! LOL.
     
  7. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    and when it did it was a massive attack to the senses!
     
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  8. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US

    Scary thought.
     
  9. samthesham

    samthesham Forum Resident

    Location:
    Moorhead MN
    For me it was the beggining when the chick 1st gets hit & then taken for a ride by Mr. Jaws but after that the film lost that jolting impact (& I viewed the film on its 1st run) my favorite scene was Shaw, Dreyfuss & almost Scheider comparing battle scars...

    With everything that passes for great film nowadays its fairly easy for me to comprehend why young millenials would think it not that entertaining...

    Note: Jaws really needs to be experienced on a large screen for full impact
     
  10. TheSeldomSeenKid

    TheSeldomSeenKid Forum Resident

    Umm-Dr. Hannibal Lecter(The Silence of the Lambs) and Annie Wilkes(Misery) say :wave:.
     
  11. cyclistsb

    cyclistsb Forum Resident

    If you didn't like Jaws, then you didn't watch the movie...maybe let her watch the most recent Michael Bay TRansformers movie and
    10 Cloverfield Lane was a fun one too...unless you count the last 30 seconds.
     
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  12. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    There are tons of horror movies with no supernatural elements. Dunno why anyone would claim otherwise...
     
  13. TheSeldomSeenKid

    TheSeldomSeenKid Forum Resident

    Do not even need to use Movies as the only examples, as I find most 'Criminal Minds' Episodes(although stopped watching after 5-6 Seasons) to be Horror, as it shows there are real life scary people doing evil things that involve killing people lurking about in the US(and sure in all parts of the World).
     
  14. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    it is but what can one expect? this is not something new...
     
  15. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    Scary. But are they horror films? I bet “silence” is ranked as a thriller.
     
  16. Scott in DC

    Scott in DC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    There have been so many shark movies since the original Jaws that Jaws might seem lacking in bloody scenes compared to newer shark movies. I know that many contemporary shark movies are nonsense but not all of them. Also, the original Jaws (like many early Spielberg movies) had more children that contemporary shark movies. In the original Jaws movies (I & II) the kids got in the way of the story. Both Jaws stories might have moved along at a better pace had they not been dragged down by annoying kids, like when the little brother tags along.

    Scott
     
  17. TheVU

    TheVU Forum Resident

    Close Encounters is a great film for the first 1/3rd. It trails off fast.
     
  18. Chazro

    Chazro Forum Resident

    Location:
    West Palm Bch, Fl.
    Coincidentally, I just watched Jaws for the 1st time in well over a decade! Made me think about what it was like back when it was 1st released. Living on Long Island, where the story takes place, I used to go out to the Hamptons all the time. S'funny, cause the movie definitely plays as an action flick today BUT....I can unequivocally tell you that when Jaws was 1st released, nobody, and I mean NOBODY went further than knee-high (if that!) into the water that Summer!;)
     
  19. yesstiles

    yesstiles Senior Member

    That's the scene where my grandma vomited in the aisle back in 1975 haha.
     
  20. Django

    Django Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dublin, Ireland
    I think its a classic. I couldn't count the amount of times I've seen.
    All on TV.
     
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  21. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    I can tell you there were three or four major scares in the first 1975 showing of Jaws I saw back in Florida where the audience screamed so loud, they blew the roof off the theater. Four of them:

    1) Susan Backlinie swimming naked at night and becoming the shark's first victim (particularly the shot where she's pulled back and forth)

    2) the little kid on the raft, Alex Kitner, getting eaten followed by a small geyser of blood

    3) the disembodied head coming out of the glass porthole underwater [shot only a week or two before the preview, using editor Verna Fields' swimming pool]

    4) Roy Scheider seeing the shark's face for the very first time.

    None of these scenes were funny or good-natured -- they were scary AF, like scream-out-loud scary for the 1970s. I would say Robert Shaw getting eaten alive by the shark and vomiting blood as he died wasn't too silly, good-natured, or funny, either. Nor was his speech from the night before about the 800 men who died aboard the Indianapolis in WWII, many of them killed and eaten by sharks while waiting in the water to be rescued.

    The dolly/zoom "Vertigo" shot of Roy Scheider realizing his kid was swimming in the lagoon with the shark shocked me so much, I momentarily stood up in the theater. That was a great effect, very intense, and -- although it had been used many times in other films -- you can say that Spielberg re-popularized it in the films of the 1970s and 1980s.
     
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  22. Monosterio

    Monosterio Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Florida
    Who cares what young people think about what we liked in our youth? Seriously. They’d probably be bored by The Godfather.
     
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  23. Wildest cat from montana

    Wildest cat from montana Humble Reader Thread Starter

    Location:
    ontario canada
    I know people who find ' The Godfather ' dull.
     
  24. Monosterio

    Monosterio Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Florida
    I’m not surprised. Too much family drama, not enough killings, no cool pop tunes on the soundtrack, etc.

    Oh, and no Mafia guys in tights and capes... :laugh:
     
  25. eric777

    eric777 Astral Projectionist

    The first time I saw Jaws was sometime in the mid 1980s. I didn't care for it at all. For me, it never had a bite. It was a well made film and I love Richard Dreyfuss, but other then that I just didn't care for it.

    I doubt it holds up today as well with the younger generations the way it did when it was first released. The 1970s were a completely different time in regards to how films were made.
     

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