The JAWS Appreciation Thread

[Leto Atrides]

we need a Jaws 5

3 and 4 were horrible and 2 wasn't very good, so probably not.

 

[Brian Braddock]

Haha

That's true. Makes you wonder if Benchley told the producers after Spielberg declined to return for the sequel, "I know what a shark looks like, cause I've seen one up close! And you better do something about this one (IE possibly another director who wants to make a movie about a killer whale and not a shark), cause I dont intend to go thru that hell again!"

Lolz.

3 and 4 were horrible and 2 wasn't very good, so probably not.

Y'know, I actually like 3 - you'd think that because the original is my favourite film that I'd hate it but .

I like that it tried to do something a little different; The theme park setting was cool, Quaid was solid, it has Louis Gosset Junior and Mannimal in it and I love Alan Parker's score (which I can't get hold of ). Hell, it was directed by Joe Dante for heaven's sake.

Obviously, there are major issues with the effects - most of 'em are truly diabolical; but despite this I have a soft spot for the movie.

Certainly moreso than I have for Jaws 2.

 

[Jochimus]

Hell, it was directed by Joe Dante for heaven's sake.

Eh, actually, no, it was directed by Joe Alves, who was the production designer on the original film. If Dante had directed Jaws 3, it would actually be INTENTIONALLY funny.

 

[The Shredder]

The idea of JAWS 3 being INTENTIONALLY funny, makes me wonder exactly how would have the original idea of JAWS 3 being a lampoon titled, "JAWS 3, People 0" would have turned out?

The producers for JAWS and JAWS 2 stated that this is where they intended to go with the series, but after Universal made it clear they wanted another screamer, they decided to drop out. And ultimately, JAWS 3 (3-D) is what we got.

 

[hitmanyr2k]

I saw Jaws on the big screen for the first time last night in a packed theater and despite seeing the movie countless times on bluray it was like a brand new experience. There's nothing like seeing one of my all-time favorite movies with great fans and people experiencing the film for the first time. The audio/video presentation was great and everything held up well. It was by far the best time I had in theaters in years. This film is timeless and I hope it never gets remade. If my AMC theater had shown it more than once I would have gone back for more.

 

[GremlinZilla89]

My favorite movie ever made. Well, tied with Gremlins. Gremlins fills the warm, nostalgic "everything is ok in the world" void for me. While Jaws fills the "you just watched a perfect movie" void.

I saw it when I was too young. I was merely 4 at the time. It left such a strong impression on me till this day most of my nightmares involve the ocean, beach, and sharks. Sometimes one. Sometimes all three. No joke, I've rarely ever had a nightmare that I remembered that didn't involved those three things to some degree. The worst one was re-occurring. I would be at the beach with my mother. I would be waist deep in the water just kinda standing there. The sky was a bizarre kind of tinted dark pink and purple, which was just really unsettling in a way I can't describe. Then I would feel this awful sense of impending doom and danger, like something was coming for me, and I had to get out of the water NOW. But I couldn't move. The doom feeling would build and build until I was completely blinded with absolute panic. It would intensify and I knew whatever was out there was getting really close. It sounds cliche, but when the fear and doom would reach it's zenith, right before it got me, I would wake up screaming. I had this nightmare FIVE freakin' times. Technically it's not a shark dream, as I never actually saw anything, but it that's what it always felt like to me.

No movie has left that big of an impression on me and probably never will again. It also kick started my fascination with sharks in general. Sharks are the only animals that scare me. I can deal with spiders, snakes, rats....but sharks just freak me out on a primal level. Their power, their beauty...it's magnificent.

I adored the film and was terrified by it at the same time and would watch it every time it came on TV and owned it more times than any other film. There really isn't much to say that hasn't been regurgitated over and over again. It's a perfect film. It's universally well acted, has smart dialogue, realistic characters, perfect suspense and horror, an iconic score and it's just all around a once in a lifetime movie.

 

[hitmanyr2k]

I get the feeling quite a few kids are going to have the same nightmares as you leaving the theater last night . I was surprised by how many youngsters were in the crowd. I could tell there were plenty of people seeing it for the first time because of the reactions some of the scenes got. Everything was just 10x more powerful on the big screen. That shark looked freakin enormous.

 

[Jochimus]

Bit of a bump, but I'm gonna leave this here anyway...
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jaws-returning-theaters-40th-anniversary-798528

 

[Lasirius]

I just found out the first Jaws will be playing at a local indie theater this Sunday. I'm so stoked.

 

[Lord]

Obviously, there are major issues with the effects - most of 'em are truly diabolical; but despite this I have a soft spot for the movie.

Certainly moreso than I have for Jaws 2.

A shame, out of all the Jaws sequels, Jaws 2 is the one that deserves more points.

 

[lukebrodyg]

This is easily in my top 5. I can remember watching it at 5 years old and it created a dwelling affinity for sharks that has never left me.

 

[Thundarr]

A shame, out of all the Jaws sequels, Jaws 2 is the one that deserves more points.

Agreed. Jaws 2 might have been an unnecessary sequel, but it was a very well done sequel none the less. Parts 3 & 4 were just terrible.

 

[Thundarr]

we need a Jaws 5

No . . . Just . . . Just no.

 

[PalmerTheThing]

My favorite film of all time. The definition of tension.

 

[lukebrodyg]

No . . . Just . . . Just no.

I agree but I would rather have a "Jaws 5" than Hollywood try and remake the original.

Speaking of, would Spielberg have to give clearance for them to do that?

 

[Silvermoth]

I wish they would try again with a jaws video game. It would be so much fun

 

[Thundarr]

I agree but I would rather have a "Jaws 5" than Hollywood try and remake the original.

Speaking of, would Spielberg have to give clearance for them to do that?

I don't know. Some remakes can be pretty good. Just look at the remakes of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978), and The Thing (1984). Even Platinum Dunes' remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre was pretty good (not great, as it glossed over the whole "cannibalism" part of the story, but it had good suspense, plenty of action, as well as like-able and memorable characters).

Of course more often than not we get utter crap, like The Stepford Wives, Rob Zombie's Halloween, the remakes of Friday The 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street, and Psycho.

But with sequels? You're almost 100% guaranteed that any movie sequel is going to be worse than the original. Even the better movie sequels, like Halloween 2 (1981), Friday The 13th Part 2 (1981), Jaws 2, etc, are at best AS GOOD as the originals. And in nearly every movie that turns into a huge franchise, the quality usually drops beyond all hope by the third or fourth movie. By the time you get to Part 5, you're pretty much beating a dead horse.

 

[Lord]

With a remake of Jaws you would either follow the original book beat for beat, and end up making something unimaginative like Carrie and Poltergeist, or you would be truer to the original novel, which was aparently not very popular with critics and the filmmakers of the original already took out what most critics felt was unnecessary in the novel.

If someone ever revisits this, i hope they either make a modern film dealing with shark attacks in Amity Island, acnowledging the attacks from the first and second film, or make a prequel dealing with Quint.

Jaws is very limited as a franchise when it comes to what you can do, but i can see these 2 options working very well, as one is a prequel that can be a completely different type of movie (War/ survival), while the other is a straight up modernization of the Jaws concept without being an actual reboot. Thing with most new shark films around is that they're all pretty shlocky, a properly marketed Jaws film with a major budget for some good cinematography and imagery could easily take the Summer season by storm.

That said, i don't think the world needs yet another old franchise running around, nothing can top the original, it's a story that doesn't lend itself well for sequels.

 

[Broseph44]

I actually enjoy 2 a lot. A worthy sequel and gets flack that it really shouldn't I think. Oh well I like it haha.

 

[Lord]

I actually enjoy 2 a lot. A worthy sequel and gets flack that it really shouldn't I think. Oh well I like it haha.

Been years since i watched it, but i remember liking it a lot back then. I was around 13 back then and i remember enjoying it as much as the original, since then i have rewatched the original film 2 times, but have yet to go back and rewatch the 2nd one.

 

[Thundarr]

With a remake of Jaws you would either follow the original book beat for beat, and end up making something unimaginative like Carrie and Poltergeist, or you would be truer to the original novel, which was aparently not very popular with critics and the filmmakers of the original already took out what most critics felt was unnecessary in the novel.

If someone ever revisits this, i hope they either make a modern film dealing with shark attacks in Amity Island, acnowledging the attacks from the first and second film, or make a prequel dealing with Quint.

Jaws is very limited as a franchise when it comes to what you can do, but i can see these 2 options working very well, as one is a prequel that can be a completely different type of movie (War/ survival), while the other is a straight up modernization of the Jaws concept without being an actual reboot. Thing with most new shark films around is that they're all pretty shlocky, a properly marketed Jaws film with a major budget for some good cinematography and imagery could easily take the Summer season by storm.

That said, i don't think the world needs yet another old franchise running around, nothing can top the original, it's a story that doesn't lend itself well for sequels.

If you watch any documentaries on the making of Jaws, you'd know that there were several scenes that were planned out and story boarded, but never got shot due to technical difficulties. For example, we were originally supposed to see the shark as it attacked the girl skinny dipping in the beginning of the movie, but they couldn't get the mechanical shark to work so we got the opening scene that we all know and love.

With the advancement of CGI, a remake could arguably use the original story boards and make a new version of the original story the way that Spielberg wanted to make it back in '75 but couldn't because of the limits of technology at the time. They could also avoid mistakes made in the first film, like Spielberg insisting on shooting on the actual ocean rather than in a water tank on a sound stage. That decision caused all sorts of problems and cost the studio millions of dollars.

I'm not saying a remake is necessarily a good thing, or that I would like to see one made. However, it could be used as an opportunity to make the movie that was originally planned instead of just rehashing the one we eventually got.

 

[Lord]

I knew about some of those technical problems yeah, but i would say that some of them worked for the film, not seeing the shark built more tension and made him scarier, as what we saw was the human perspective.

 

[titansupes]

He doesn't regret filming in the ocean at all, though, in spite of it being hell. What it lent to the movie was well-worth it.

 

[Thundarr]

He doesn't regret filming in the ocean at all, though, in spite of it being hell. What it lent to the movie was well-worth it.

I think his feelings on it are mixed actually. On the one hand, it made for some very authentic looking scenes. On the other, Mother Nature is notoriously uncooperative and unreliable. Shooting on the ocean put the film months behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget. He's happy it turned out as well as it did, but it very nearly destroyed his career before it even really began.

 

[Thundarr]

I knew about some of those technical problems yeah, but i would say that some of them worked for the film, not seeing the shark built more tension and made him scarier, as what we saw was the human perspective.

True, the film was far more suspenseful without seeing the shark right away. I'm just saying that a remake might not be a shot for shot regurgitation of the original like Psycho was, or be a more faithful retelling of the book like Red Dragon was. It could be more along the lines of the special editions of the original Star Wars Trilogy, only with a whole new cast. Remaking it as the film that Spielberg originally envisioned. Which could end up being pretty good.