JAWS On A Boat

Last night aboard the good ship Eureka, Hyde Street Pier, silly fog loving citizens gathered on the starboard bow to witness, amass, Jaws, the movie. Based on a true story (with some alterations: the name of the actual town, names of the victims, kill vehicle -substitute big fish for tea party spirit killers) in which the island of Amity's ("Amity means friendship") summer of tourism is threatened with attacks of a very aggressive dorsal finned fellow. Improbable? Probably. Great Whites, having tasted human usually do not desire more (think of elephant seals as a big yummy ice cream cones, and we be asparagus). This is a great film, more suspense than horror or monster, holding up as a Hitchcock movie. All the elements are in place and there are no weak moments. Spielberg is not usually a master of economy but here, he uses implicit terror, character development, a John Williams evocative score, and a nod that despite very large obstacles, getting through them, we have a pretty nice gig.

Some movies are great community movies; hearing the roar of an audience of shared screams, whoops of joy, and laughter can not be replaced at home, or on a little computer screen. During Quint's speech about his experience on the US Indianapolis, the place was very quiet. At one point the Mac broke down and the big screen froze. The maritime stewards got the film going again but skipped a key scene and some of the audience called this out.
"Get over it- you're watching Jaws on A Boat" called out one of the staff. The evening had the feeling of a big pajama party. Taking a short walk on the Pier with the cityscape standing regal between sea and fog, with night sky and moonlight only added to the majestic silliness.

Spielberg's third motion picture- the first "Duel", the second "the Sugarland Express" were both small films. Jaws was not a big budget film. The actors and the director were not the first choices for their parts. A name director originally had the assignment but continually said he was making a movie about a whale. Smarter people knew how troubled filming on the water (third act of the film) would be. Shark rarely worked; would sink or suffer spasms, sailboats would be in the background passing for hours, lighting and movement were always changing and not controllable-managed to only a minimal degree. A later, perhaps worst movie ever candidate, the fourth Jaws, the Revenge ("This Time It's Personal") featured Oscar winner/great actor Michael Caine, who admittedly did it for the money, travel (Bahamas) and on the condition that he would never film any sequence with the shark. The movie has a climax with the principal actor never in a shot with the shark. Jaws 3-D is not as bad, but reeks a bit of dead fish, or dead concept.

The second movie, with the clever title, "Jaws 2" was in trouble from early in production-although Spielberg offered to direct it if the studios would give him more time to finish Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but they did not. It does offer Roy Scheider and another nice score by Williams but is weakened by a group of whining teenagers (less water time for Scheider) which ultimately has you hoping the shark gets every single one of them.