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The cold pallid grey skin, the blood thirsty focus on where the next feed lies… The silent, shifty, sudden changes in direction. The cold black lifeless pools for eyes.
It is hard not to draw a likeness between Boris Johnson and the monster of this movie…
The Town Mayor, who can be heard crying: “We need summer dollars!
“We depend on the summer people here for our very lives. We don’t want a panic on our hands on the 4th of July.”
The Mayor of Amity, just like our jaded PM, has a laser-like focus on the business at hand. It’s easy to imagine Steven Spielberg stepping in to direct Boris making a similar speech in the face of an invisible menace on Brighton beach.
Spitting through splintered smiles: “Happy Freedom day! Come on in, the water’s lovely. No danger here, No!
“Take that mask off. Feel free to take those skimpies off too.
“Well, it’s all a matter of personal choice. Mine’s a large one! Onwards to victory!”
Speilberg was just a tender age of 27 when he made Jaws. At the time he thought it would kill his career.
Thanks mainly to the vastly expensive models that were made, but not tested in saltwater, where the animatronics simply wouldn’t work. Hell’s Teeth!
Instead young Spielberg presents the viewer with a series of startling images of sea dwelling killing machines and their legends found in books by Chief Brody: “Nobody knows how old they actually are… they could be 2000 or 3000 years old!”
As an audience, we build an unbearable level of suspense… watching, nervously awaiting an appearance from The Beast. The result is a psychological masterstroke.
The first man-eater we actually see is a toothless Tiger specimen strung up. A thirteen-footer which had to be flown up from Florida, when the crew couldn’t catch one that looked big enough to have swallowed a boy in the bay at Martha’s Vineyard.
The giant model we eventually see in the movie, was named Bruce after Spielberg’s lawyer Bruce Ramer.
When Jaws finally bursts onto the screen, we’ve already encountered so many larger than life characters, it’s impossible to fathom what will follow.
The dynamic between Quint (Robert Shaw) and Hooper (Richard Dreyfeuss) is so captivating, it allows Chief Brody (Roy Schneider) and his fear of the water to slip into the background.
Just as you wonder when Quint and Hooper will come to blows, they seem to form a drunken allegiance comparing scars.
Hooper then makes a poorly judged joke about a tattoo Quint has had removed and the humanity drains from his demeanour.
The story of his survival after being on the USS Indianapolis, sunk by Japanese torpedoes is a moment of pure horror.
He recounts that he was part of the crew which delivered the Hiroshima bomb, before capsizing and having to survive predator infested waters for days.
No distress signal was sent from their top secret vessel. Brody and Hooper now realise there is a monster on board, equally evil to the one below.
When Quint smashes The Orca’s radio to smithereens, the violence is understandable. He is akin with The Rogue, now circling beneath his feet.
Quint wanted to hunt alone. But just like The Mayor, he subjugated his morals for money, which ultimately leads to his downfall.
With the trials and tribulations that went into producing this tall tale behind him, Spielberg used to sneak into the back of movie theatres in L.A. to enjoy hearing the collective screams from the audience. Not yet realising he had given birth to the modern Blockbuster.
To say the movie is iconic is an understatement. Jaws is the movie poster you can hear. John Williams’ score is a flight of fantasy, which is good to listen to anytime.
I like to play the theme song when writing to drown out the impending doom of deadlines. It really allows you to get into a zone.
So what are you waiting for? Dive in and give Jaws a spin. He won’t bite. “Amity is French for friendship, you know.”
Wanna submerge yourself in Jaws on the big screen? VideOdyssey’s huge studio cinema is available to hire, alongside 2 smaller screening rooms, which are ideal for private parties.
Top rated on AirBnB experiences in Liverpool, VideOdyssey was also recently listed on Time Out Magazine’s Film Fans must visit bucket list.
Check out the VideOdyssey Studios website for more info