Thursday 4 July 2024

Jaws (1975 Steven Spielberg)

As it was 4th July. 1776 might have been more appropriate but who wants to see a seventies musical about the founding of the United Sates of America?

I was wondering if there's a textual link to Herman Melville, 'Moby Dick'. Isn't this the story of a slightly crazy (Quint smashing the radio?) sea captain in obsessive pursuit of a dangerous sea creature?

I'm sure I heard somewhere that when the truck 'dies' in Duel, there's the sound of an animal on the soundtrack, and that this same sound was used when the shark is exploded and sinks. It's a very artful soundtrack / mix / sound effects worthy of study on its own. I love those bells - the one on the buoy at the beginning, the ship's bell at the end.




In the 1986 Halliwell Film Guide, the old git writes "despite genuinely suspenseful and frightening sequences, it is a slackly narrated and sometimes flatly handled thriller with an over-abundance of dialogue"... What a load of shit! He gives it ** out of ****, whereas if you cast your eye up, the cheesy Harryhausen picture Jason and the Argonauts gets ***!

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