Fifty summers ago, this Roger Kastel-illustrated poster made its debut on the exteriors, and in the lobbies, of movie theatres across the nation and around the world, promising filmgoers a terrifying cinematic experience. However, movie posters often promise things that the actual movies then fail to deliver. Did Jaws live up to its poster's promise? Well, if you were a filmgoer fifty summers ago--and most people didn't bother with movies during the summer until this one completely changed the business model--you already know the answer to that question, but play along with me anyway as we watch the trailer:
Trailers also sometimes promise more than the actual movie delivers, even as it's a slicing and dicing of the actual movie. Trust me, though, Jaws delivered (with a lot of slicing and dicing of a different sort.) Personally, I've always found the film more exciting than out-and-out scary, but that's fine with me. Whatever gets the heart thumping. Based on a then-recent bestselling book by Peter Benchley (Robert's grandson) and only the second feature film by the then-still-in-his-20s Steven Spielberg, it quickly became the all-time box-office champ and remained so for the next two years until topped by another summer blockbuster Star Wars (which in turn was topped a few years later by Spielberg's E.T., the Extraterrestrial which made its debut during--you guessed it--the summer.) One thing that had no chance of topping it--at least not in the commercial sense--was some magazine parody, but that doesn't means my then-middle-school-age-self couldn't get a giggle out of this:
I had a friend who house-sat for Peter Benchley in the ‘70s. She said he had that shark painted on the bottom of his pool.
ReplyDeleteMitchell, I imagine that shark bought that pool.
DeleteI've never seen it. The Benchleys were local, not specially liked, and I, like other locals, didn't bother! I was surprised at its impact.
ReplyDeleteBoud, even though the book was a best-seller, the movie is really Spielberg's baby. The impact is his, not Benchley's.
DeleteNever having seen the movie, nor read the book, I have nothing cogent to add.
ReplyDeleteI'm not picky, David. I'll take what you got.
DeleteThere was a line early in the book about young men lying on the beach and grinding their crotches into the sand that hooked me. The Jaws film was terrific, as is the poster of an innocent lad swimming above the whale.
ReplyDeleteI saw the first Star Wars, because my partner wanted to.
ET was great, but sadly young people now don't get when I say 'Phone home ET'.
Innocent lad? Looks like a lass to me, Andrew, unless you're talking about Alfred E. Newman (and you can't get much more innocent than "What--Me Worry?")
DeleteI remember that MAD cover, lol! Hard to believe it's been 50 years since Jaws hit the theatres. You know, I must be the only person in the world who still hasn't seen that movie. Maybe I should finally get around to watching it now in order to mark the big anniversary. I love those 3 actors and Spielberg so I really have no excuse why I haven't seen it yet.
ReplyDeleteAnd to think, Debra, Spielberg is still making movies, though I doubt anyone refers to him as a "boy director" these days.
DeleteHello Kirk, While on the subject of relatives of the film's talent, you neglected to mention that co-producer David Brown was the husband of Helen Gurley Brown. I also admit to having never seen Jaws, which makes three of us so far in your comment section. You need some more with-it readers. Speaking of with it, I'm sure you noticed that Ozzy Osbourne just died. A little different than those you usually feature, but a major entertainer of recent decades.
ReplyDelete--Jim
Actually, Jim, I ignore a LOT of celebrity passings (there's been like four or five in the last week I've ignored.) Because I occasionally remark on some celebrity's death, people think I do it all the time. But I don't want to go down that path of being an official celebrity death noticer. Why not? Because this blog is meant to be SUBJECTIVE, not OBJECTIVE. It's just my point of view. I think that's obvious when I write about politics, but apparently not-so-obvious when I write about pop culture (indeed, one reason I have a mixture of the two on this blog is to make the point that neither one is immune to subjectivity.) If I were to record every celebrity death, that would be like saying every celebrity is the same to me. And they're not. It also could lead to the conclusion that I think celebrity is more important than talent. And it's not. At least not to me. Connie Francis' demise hasn't gotten merely enough attention as the demises of Ozzie Osbourne or Hulk Hogan, mostly because she lived so long, she outlived her celebrity, as well as a good portion of her fan base. Quite frankly, she was a has-been. But being a has-been doesn't mean she didn't have talent. By pointing that out, I feel I'm BUCKING rather than CELEBRATING celebrity culture. At least who the media tells me I should care about at any given moment.
DeleteAnd Jim, I don't mean to jump all over your comment. As always, I appreciate you giving it, but I was expecting, though not necessarily from you, a "that person died so why don't you care" question, and I had the answer ready. As far as whether my readers are "with-it" or not, I ask that you go look at my response to David's comment.
Hi again, I agree fully with you that this blog is your individual take on, among other things, the celebrity world, and that often celebrities come into focus at the time of their passing. You have your favorites, and often go down rabbit holes searching for interesting material to show off their talents and importance This is how all your readers would have it. We can reminisce with you about our favorites, or learn from you when you feature a figure only dimly known to us. We never demand that you keep tabs on all celebrity lives, or that you give all of them equal consideration.
DeleteYou also make interesting connections between objects of interest, as for example Jaws' secondary connection to Robert Benchley. It was in this spirit that I nominated Helen Gurley Brown. Most of my comment was related to the topic of this blog. I have never seen Jaws; neither am I a fan or, or have ever knowingly listened to, any song by Ozzy Osbourne. I of course know his name, and my sister does happen to be a fan, so at the time of replying to your blog, Ozzy happened to be in my mind. I even stated that he was not your usual material to feature, and this certainly was not a request to get on the ball an make an Osbourne post.
In other words, just keep on doing what interests you, and I and your other readers will be happy to follow along.
--Jim
p.s. the "with it" comment was meant humorously, and I included myself!
Thank you, Jim. Again, I appreciate this comment and your earlier comment. In fact, I appreciate EVERY comment, even those of the "I never heard of this person" or "I don't follow politics" variety. The only comments I don't appreciate are ones that involve calling me names, the ones from spammers, and totally self-indulgent comments like the one from the guy who was always talking about the girl he supposedly made out with in high school. But that's why I have comment moderation.
DeleteAs for your original comment, it just afforded me another opportunity to expound on the goals of this blog, which I realize can be kind of murky at times. Basically, I want the blog to be seen as idiosyncratic ("Normalcy Reconsidered"), but you know what? Idiosyncrasy can be a hard sell. So many folks favor predictability but trying to satisfy that demand would dull my senses and would turn something I'm not even getting paid for doing into the deadest of dead-end jobs.
I didn't mention Helen Gurley Brown's husband simply because, unlike the author of the novel the movie was based, I didn't feel it particularly necessary to mention the producers. Since I did mention one Benchley, the mention of another was simply an afterthought (as is so often the case when something appears in parathesis.) But, Jim, since you have brought up the producers, I'd like to point out that Richard D. Zanuck was the son of Darryl F. Zanuck, the cofounder and longtime head of 20th Century Fox (now owned by Disney, cofounded by brothers Walt and Roy.)
50 years ago eh! I was talking about a gig I went to and then realised it was 20 years ago. That made me feel old! Time is really passing fast for me!
ReplyDeleteI know, Ananka. It seems like it takes forever to reach the age of 20, and then once you do, everything goes into fast-forward.
DeleteI saw this a the theatre when it came out. I've seen it many more times on the TV movie channels.
ReplyDeleteMike, I take you liked it.
DeleteIt kept my attention. If I run across while I'm scanning the channels looking for anything, I'll watch it.
DeleteHey, have you heard about Dolby ATMOS? It's a nine channel sound system. We now have one hooked up to our living room TV thanks to my son. It really "surrounds" you with sound. Many movies are upgrading their sound track to the new system.
I'm afraid I haven't, Mike. How pricey is it? If it's too much I'm fine with the just being able to hear the TV, surrounded or not.
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