Posted on 06/06/2025 8:10:58 AM PDT by DallasBiff
Be a clever cinephile, if you want. Walk out of a screening of Jaws and say, “That’s the movie that ruined movies.” You’ll be right, if that’s important to you. On June 20, 1975, Jaws opened on 464 screens at once—a record at the time—breaking the tradition of a slow rollout built on strong word of mouth. It worked. Jaws was the No. 1 film in America for 14 weeks and became the first film ever to gross more than $100 million. Ever a copycat industry, Hollywood imitated the success of this strategy, launching a shift in emphasis from the quality of the art to the quality of the marketing. Jaws itself spawned three sequels, but its real legacy is in the modern blockbuster itself, a film that can capture the zeitgeist before it’s even released.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtoncitypaper.com ...
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Movies suck now.
Have fun it's friday.
I didn’t swim for the rest of the summer.
Ever since The Godfather, I don't get in my car without checking the back seat first.
I remember my mom wouldn’t let us see the movie.
And then we took a flight, and that was the movie they showed on the plane......Ha ha!
“Ever since The Godfather, I don’t get in my car without checking the back seat first.”
Looking for cannoli?
Ever since The Godfather, I don’t get in my car without checking the back seat first.
As long as you don’t see Tom Hagen adjusting his tie, you’re fine.
One of the best movies of my lifetime.
We got there and the place was packed, with people waiting in lines in the water to get on the small slides. So my then about 15-year-old brother pointed out to the deeper part of the river and yelled "Sharrrrkkkk!!!" People got out of the water immediately even though it was 200 miles from the coast! LOL For a couple of minutes we had the place to ourselves! I expected everybody to be mad at my brother but when they came back out to the water they just high-fived him and laughed. LOL
I was 12. I found the movie to be REALLY REALLY boring. It was part of a double-feature with “Nickelodeon” starring Ryan O’Neil. That was the better (not great) movie on the twin bill for me.
Except the mayors outfits😂👍🏻
I friend of mine bought a small boat to use on our local river. I went over to see it.
Me: It looks like your boat can hold six people. But you have more friends than that.
My friend: So?
Me, in my best Chief Brody voice: You’re gonna need a bigger boat.
My friend didn’t get it. I need to find more perceptive friends.
None other than Quentin Tarantino said it was the best movie ever made.
Last summer I rewatched Jaws for probably the thousandth time. But this time I focused on the technique. I just really wanted to pay attention to how the movie worked. Camera work, story structure, all that nerdy stuff. Holy crap. What a perfectly executed movie.
One of the things that really struck me was Ben Johnson. They establish in the marina scene that Brody doesn’t know the local fisherman well (”you know their first names, talk to them”). Then when they do get a shark asks if Ben Johnson caught it, so now they’ve established that there’s one he actually does know. Then of course we find Ben Johnson’s boat for the great jump scare. Just amazing how well established a character we never actually see on screen alive is. And the movie is full of that kind of excellent story telling.
Spielberg gets all the credit. IMHO, John Williams’ music is underrated. Even if you limit Williams’ music scores to just the movies within a few years of Jaws, you’re looking at movies I loved a lot like The Poseidon Adventure, Jaws, Star Wars, Superman, Close Encounters, and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Everybody remembers the Cello/Basses baaaDUP.....baaaDUP...bompah bompah bompah nom nom nom... but really the rest of the soundtrack is terrific.
I took a date to that, a 19 yr old girl from the country church we attended. She was triggered by soda pop to get the giggles. Women were shrieking, my date was laughing, and I was leaning away from her acting like she wasn’t with me. It was embarrassing.
I just remember thinking, you got bait and guns. As soon as the shark comes to the surface you blast its face with a barrage and go home. Stupid movie.
But it was Spielberg, who made the truck chasing car movie ‘Duel’. I remember laughing at that one: a car that couldn’t outrun a loaded tanker. Pathetic. I think that was my first big eye opener to Hollywood’s ability to dumb down the public.
According to articles I’ve read, bull sharks have been found as far north in the Illinois river.
My father-in-law said one time, when talking about war movies (he was a B24 waist gunner, DFC). “There’s no music in battle”.
Yeah, well there is in human/shark interactions.
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.