"You're going to need a bigger boat"
Is a classic line.
Posted on 05/31/2015 7:05:35 PM PDT by rickmichaels
It might be safe to go in the water now.
Monday marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Jaws, director Steven Spielberg’s tale of a great white shark terrorizing a picturesque seaside town. It’s a bona fide classic, deserving of all the praise it gets.
But it’s also something of a relic, a throwback to a simpler time in moviemaking when we were less cynical and more easily frightened. For all the monster movie remakes being trotted out this decade, it’s actually not surprising we haven’t seen Jaws sequel since 1987’s Jaws: The Revenge (and not just because that movie was astoundingly, impossibly awful.)
As much as we love Jaws, here are five reasons it would fail if it were to be made today.
1. Audiences have no patience
In adapting Peter Benchley’s novel for the big screen, Spielberg took his time creating characters we cared about and a world we could believe in, then slowly ratcheted up the tension and terror. We don’t get a clear look at the shark in Jaws until more than halfway through the film, and that just wouldn’t fly today. There are some exceptions – Cloverfield, Super 8 and last year’s Godzilla come to mind – but for the most part, modern audiences hate waiting to see a monster movie’s main attraction.
2. Less is no longer more
For a movie about a giant man-eating shark, Jaws spends very little time – only four minutes in total – showing the beast on screen. Again, a handful of modern monster movies have gotten away with this, but even last year’s otherwise solid Godzilla enraged some fans with how little screen time its radioactive lizard got. Doing a killer shark movie with only four minutes of killer shark in it would be box office suicide in 2015.
3. Digital effects would ruin it
Spielberg famously had endless problems with his mechanical shark prop, but the final result on screen was an actual, physical presence, giving the actors something to react to. A movie like Jaws wouldn’t be made today without reliance on computer-generated effects, and our eyes would immediately know that what we’re seeing isn’t real, diminishing its fear factor. That’s why you can bet the all-digital dinos of Jurassic World just aren’t going to have the same impact as the massive robotic T-rex in Jurassic Park.
4. No one goes swimming anymore
OK, that’s an exaggeration. But it’s true that summer beach vacations just aren’t the tradition they once were. Parents and kids alike are burdened with more commitments and less free time, and Griswold-style family trips are becoming a relative rarity. A shark terrorizing a seaside resort wouldn’t resonate the same way it did in 1975 – most of us would shrug and say, “Who has time to go to the beach?”
5. Sharks have jumped the shark
Maybe it began with a computer-generated shark making a meal of Samuel L. Jackson in 1999’s Deep Blue Sea, or maybe it was even earlier than that. But sharks have gone from being a primal menace to a punchline. Imagine trying to make a serious, scary killer shark movie in the wake of Sharknado. You’d need more than just a bigger boat.
Jaws was a classic... great movie...
"You're going to need a bigger boat"
Is a classic line.
When I saw that scene in the movie, my hand involuntarily jerked back and hit one of my buddies sitting next to me.
Hahahahaha...you and I probably saw the same showing at the Framingham Shoppers World Cinema!
I remember the line went around two corners of the building outside!
The only thing that could hurt it might be "shark" fatigue in general.
But I'm positive that a movie made like Jaws could still be successful...
Whereas in JAWS II, half way through everyone in the theater was rooting for the shark to eat those obnoxious teens.
While the shark-hunting scenes are suspenseful enough, for me the most interesting dramatic moment in Jaws was actually Quint telling Hooper and Brody his war story about being on the USS Indianapolis when it was sunk.
6. No tornadoes.
LOL, that was some scary dream!
That scene is always listed as one of film's great monologues. Up until that point, they developed Sheriff Brody and Matt Hooper's characters. Quint was held back as a gruff old seaman, until that dialog. The whole scene with them showing off their injuries and Quint's monologue is what finally bonds them. That scene goes on for six or seven minutes. No movie today would take that kind of time to stop and develop the characters.
“... the distinct impression he didn’t talk to anyone else about it until he and I discussed it that day. ...”
I had a fascinating, evening long conversation with one of Patton’s tank Captains. It was 1985. Amazing and insightful stories! He was the real deal — Silver Star, several Purple Hearts. He didn’t talk about his accolades, he talked about the tanks and crews he lost, how they won battles; he talked about the most real things I’ve ever heard — nothing like the movies.
The next day, his wife told me that he had never talked about his service in the forty years since the war. Not to her, not to his many children, not to anyone.
It is humbling that one of my great moments in life was being told stories by someone else about their great moments in life.
One word: Candygram.
Landshark.
I remember reading somewhere that Robert Shaw had a problem with Bruce because, at least initially, when Bruce was biting and eating him, Shaw would be laughing...because it tickled.
Funny.
That is it, exactly.
I felt humbled,and...privileged.
This fool has not heard of Mary Lee? 3,500 lbs of great white now cruising in the Chesapeake Bay (not sure where)
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