Posted on 06/20/2015 7:31:28 PM PDT by beaversmom
Steven Spielberg's breakout film brought on an era of big spectacle
Forty years ago Saturday saw the release of Jaws, an adaptation of a beach-read made by a promising but relatively untested young director, Steven Spielberg. Forty years later, Jaws‘ impact can be felt across moviegoing.
The shark tale is perhaps most notable for its box-office success; Jaws became the top-grossing film of all time after its release (and did so more quickly than had its predecessors, with a marketing plan based on blanket advertising rather than a slow rollout). Jaws, with its technical mastery and ability to manipulate the audience into fearing something that for so much of the film’s running time they could not see, was a movie that demanded to be seen as soon as one could, just like later blockbusters including Star Wars (which, two years after Jaws, replaced it at the top of the all-time box office list).
Jaws established Spielberg as an economic force, which means more than one might think; he has proven, in the intervening years, to know exactly what the public wants, from ultimately vanquishable scares (Jurassic Park) to charismatic heroes (Indiana Jones) to sweet sentiment (E.T.). Jaws gave him the capital to do whatever he wanted; his next film was the more adventurous Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Directors less technically adept than Spielberg, though, took from Jaws the lesson that bigger is better. This summer’s biggest movies so far (Furious 7, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Jurassic World) are all heavy on chases, fights and/or explosions. Jaws had a mechanical shark, yes, but its impact as the first true blockbuster in Hollywood history...
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
They didn’t see graphic violence in Jaws. They saw graphic AFTER violence but the only graphic violence is the death of Quint. Most of the movies with really violent reputations aren’t actually violent, they imply things and let you fill in the blanks in your head. Your head is much more effective than any director, so people THINK they saw things they didn’t.
I was scared of baths! No joke. I was kind of a dumb 7 year old. :)
That’s the complete list of victims. But the only one we actually see get bit is Quint.
David Lean was a director that believed in that. Let people fill it in with their imaginations.
I don’t know if it changed Hollywood but it sure changed the beach!
Yes, you are correct. :)
Jaws is a very intelligent and adult film.
The lines at the theater...only seats left were in the very front. Perfect viewpoint for the shark coming out of the water. I think I moved the entire row of seats several feet backward.
Related:
40 Things that Wouldn’t Have Happened Without Jaws
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/06/jaws-40th-anniversary
We need a bigger thread...>>
we sure do, lol, and a bigger boat too!!
the exorcist is also a classic for me.
It invented the summer blockbuster. Prior to Jaws summer was a dump zone for movies they didn’t like. Then Jaws hit. Then Star Wars did it and proved it wasn’t a fluke. And now it’s when the industry makes all their money.
I’ll have to watch that again. I saw it a VERY long time ago. Wasn’t there a more modern Exorcist in the 2000s that was supposed to be pretty good, too? I enjoyed the Omen I must admit. That little boy was so darned cute, but very naughty. ;)
I hear ya. I kept my feet up on the seat the WHOLE time.
Look at those two kids who got their arms bitten off last week, where was that North Carolina? Somewhere on the east coast I think. The girl almost lost her leg too. And they were pretty young teenagers, I don’t think they were too far out.
I used to go to the beach a lot in those days, for at least a year or two after I saw jaws I heard that music in my head every time I got to the shore.
It’s not my fave movie, but those beach scenes are really well done.
I took a date to see Jaws when it came out. The Pepsi she drank made her giggle and laugh throughout the show. It was embarrassing. (First and last date with her. lol)
The exploding diving tank...HA! I also doubted that even a fish that big could pull that many barrels of air under water and hold them under. Low and behold I find out the ‘mythbusters’ busted those two things and more years later.
A few years before, Spielberg directed the movie ‘Duel’ about a psychotic truck driver chasing a wimpy traveling salesman (Dennis Weaver). I was 17, but was already familiar with driving straight trucks, loaded or empty, and of course, cars.
I laughed at so many places, thinking how so many people would be caught up in the ‘realism’ of the film. The MOST glaring fact was the obviously loaded tanker, laboring up the mountain grades, would STILL catch up with the car when going down the other side. Then the means (by braking the car) of which they showed the truck closing the gap so quickly in Weaver’s rear view mirror, LOL! And the going around curves like it was empty, etc. In reality, Weaver had ample opportunity time and again to leave the semi truck ‘in his dust’.
And then the time Weaver’s car overheated, puking out a couple of gallons of coolant, and COOLED back down, never to get hot again!
Then the tanker (wearing ‘flammable’ placards) goes over the cliff, crashing into rocks as it goes down, and not a flicker of flame.
As Jed Clampett would say: “Pathetic..juussst pathetic.”
I remember the dinosaur eating the cop in THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS. (1952).
And Kong eating the natives in KING KONG(1932).
**The exploding diving tank...HA! I also doubted that even a fish that big could pull that many barrels of air under water and hold them under.***
In the book the shark ate Quint, the guy in the cage, then died because the barrels kept him slowed down so much he could not get enough water flowing across his gills.
I LOVE that scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGoekw7e-3U
Yeah, Mayor Vaughn was a typical politician, but he was partially thinking about the businesses that needed the summer business. I love his suit jacket with the anchors on it! :)
Thanks for the link. :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.