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Jaws (1975)
59 Plays1 month ago
In preparation for the 4th of July and in celebration of its 50th anniversary, Rick and Trav are going back into the water to cover the 1975 original summer blockbuster, Jaws!
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Transcript
Introduction and Creature Feature
00:00:01
Speaker
There is a creature alive today who has survived millions of years of evolution without change, without passion, and without logic.
00:00:14
Speaker
It lives to kill.
00:00:18
Speaker
A mindless eating machine. It will attack devour anything. It is as if God created the devil and gave him jaws.
4th of July Films and Jaws' Cultural Impact
00:00:55
Speaker
Best 4th of July films in general does not have to be horror. Do you have a short list of any? Best 4th of July films? Okay, Independence Day. Yeah, that was that was our generation's jaws, I feel like. I'm back! And he just annihilates them.
00:01:13
Speaker
Randy Quaid. Yes, and Bill Pullman's speech. This is our Independence Day. the Everything after Bill Pullman's speech in America's history has been downhill.
00:01:25
Speaker
Like we peaked. and We came together. we were all friends. We like we had a collective motivation to attack this real aliens.
Travis and His Contributions
00:01:36
Speaker
But Trav, I need to give you a shout out.
00:01:40
Speaker
You know, this is a pretty collaborative podcast. We try to do our part, whether it's the editing or the graphics or the uploading. You have been doing a lot of this lately because I have been up to my eyeballs in work, but I did want to mention what that work is because it's movie related.
00:02:00
Speaker
So this is a, a thank you, Travis. topic Thank you for ah picking up a lot of
Tales from Travis' Assistant Role
00:02:07
Speaker
slack. But yeah, i have I have been functioning as a temporary executive assistant for Sir Kenneth Branagh.
00:02:17
Speaker
i still I've been with him for four days. i still don't know say his last name. Oh, man. If he listens to this, this is all over now. He's going to, because when I ask him to talk about Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, when I ask him to about Frankenstein, he's going to do it. He'll listen to the first 10 seconds.
00:02:32
Speaker
He's very thorough, I've learned. Very thoughtful gentleman. very Dude. But, yeah. ah Bernard. but I think that's how a lot of people say it. Branagh. Branagh. People not familiar with his work.
00:02:44
Speaker
Oh, come on. People familiar with his work. If you're listening to podcast, you know Kenneth Branagh. What I'm driving at here is ah Dude, I have been the absolute worst executive assistant for Kenneth Branagh.
00:02:57
Speaker
The worst. Like I came into this role being like, oh, I did this 15 years ago in L.A. I know I've been on Academy Award winners desks. I've I've worked for talent before.
00:03:08
Speaker
Dude, if you don't use it, you will lose it. I have the like the attention to detail 35 year old man has in his daily daily life that just is not become natural to me anymore. i am the worst assistant. He loves like he loves me. like We talk about movies and stuff, he's just but he's just like, this is not iced coffee. This is hot.
00:03:29
Speaker
Or like he always asks me to make him English tea, and I i don't know how to make tea. And so he's buying me a kettle. What specifically English tea? I don't know. eat English breakfast tea is what he likes.
00:03:44
Speaker
How's that different than normal tea? Bro, I don't know anything about tea. That's what i'm saying. There's so many things about tea that he has taught me. Like, first of all, you're not supposed to like steep it. I always keep the tea bags in, yeah but he takes it out almost immediately.
00:04:00
Speaker
Like... You're supposed to pour the hot water onto the tea bag. and I'm getting so many mixed results because somebody else is like, because he's the biggest fish in this movie. So I'm working on an indie film. I was asked to help and I somehow got put with Kenneth Brennan.
00:04:13
Speaker
It's awesome. It's like honestly a dream because I just being in proximity of somebody who who who works in this field at that level is just pretty cool. um But so
Kenneth Branagh's Professionalism and Shark Films
00:04:25
Speaker
he's the big fish. And so everybody's like always trying to come up to me and like, hey, like, how's it going?
00:04:31
Speaker
This is, this is what he likes. So everybody has all these different ideas. Like, no, he's, he likes two bags of, of, of tea. So I do that. And he's oh mate, this is white. The tannins might way too many tannins. It's too bitter.
00:04:41
Speaker
So then I try to one and he's like, is that, was there any tea in here? Was there any tea? Oh no. And then there's also methodologies and schools of thought around like, do you put the milk on top of the teabag or you pull the teabag and put the milk in? it Wait, he takes his tea with milk Yes, heavy, heavy on the milk. So is that what English tea is? Because I haven't seen anyone put milk in tea before. Unless we get Kenneth, Sir Kenneth on the pod, you or should not be asking me anything about tea other than like, I'm just barely scraping by here.
00:05:13
Speaker
Did he ask specifically for milk and tea? Like maybe that's where you're going wrong is he's like, he can't. Like milk and tea is not a normal thing as far as I'm aware, unless this is completely different culture. I have we he has sat down with me and show me exactly what he wants and I'm doing it.
00:05:30
Speaker
But it's like there's a timing aspect to it and I don't have the right kettle. So he's buying me a kettle. Anyways, the the thing is like this line of work is not something that I have done in a long time. And he realizes that.
00:05:45
Speaker
and And like I'll probably get it by the fourth or fifth day. But then he leaves on the seventh day. so it's like I'm like, Kenneth, I'm going to hit my stride. And you're just you wait, man.
00:05:56
Speaker
You're going to want to bring me back across the pond and produce your movies.
Jaws' Impact on Cinema and Spielberg's Early Career
00:06:00
Speaker
He's really only here on set for seven days. And then he's leaving. ah Ten. Ten days. So it's it's an indie. um ah Do you drive him around?
00:06:08
Speaker
Yeah, everywhere. Does he sit shotgun or does he sit in the back row? I want you to guess. I'd like to think shotgun. Every fucking time. Okay, that's good. I feel like that's a testament to a ah good person.
00:06:23
Speaker
Dude, I don't know why I didn't lead with this because I've kind of been jokey about it, but I want to be earnest for a second. And I'm not being hyperbolic just because I'm on a high.
00:06:33
Speaker
I've like thought about this. He is by far the nicest, most gracious, like hardworking person at that level in this inter industry I've ever been around.
00:06:45
Speaker
is he is so diplomatic and kind with his words. He offers solutions before he criticizes. he's He's not going to bark at you. He's going to be firm.
00:06:56
Speaker
he treats everybody the same. you can tell he fucking loves it. Like, he lives and breathes for this. like ah Think about this. the The director who's making this is not nearly as accomplished. He's great. Reed is great. But like he's not nearly as accomplished as Kenneth Branagh.
00:07:12
Speaker
So think of the anxiety that you have bringing on at an Academy Award winning 20 plus films under his belt. And he's the second lead in a film.
00:07:24
Speaker
What about all the notes he's going to have? And like why are we shooting this or that? And so, yeah, does he have... advice and thoughts he does but the way he communicates them is so fair and not intimidating anyways this pod is not about Kenneth Branagh but I wanted to it's on my mind and it's it's it's the reason that we're recording so late and hopefully we'll have him on one day so um this is the Sunday Scaries I'm Travis Telerik I'm Ricky Townsend we are getting ready for our 4th of July holiday so we're throwing it to
00:07:59
Speaker
probably what is the best horror 4th of July film. And we are covering jaws today on its 50th anniversary year. So extra special.
Thematic Elements and Production Challenges of Jaws
00:08:10
Speaker
I think there's been a ah lot of chatter, at least on Reddit. And you know, I go pretty deep down the horror threads and movie threads ah as you do you, but you are i did and people are rewatching this film right now. Horror threads on Reddit trap.
00:08:23
Speaker
Yeah. You might find me on there. I'm, I'm, uh, I spent too much time there. He's got an anonymous name called Telerik, who has hot sports opinions on the Southern of Methodist University. You could also find me there. Yes. If you go to the NCAA football.
00:08:39
Speaker
How brave of you. You recently asked me, we never talked about this. You asked me to like, ah share my letterbox on this Reddit post and that we would like, like each other's posts.
00:08:51
Speaker
So more people would follow us on letterbox. And I was like, I don't want anybody knowing, Who am I? Oh, you didn't want me to know your Reddit handle? No. oh man. Now, now, now. Yeah, I'm an open book.
00:09:03
Speaker
Hold on. let Let me be clear here. I do have two accounts. You have a burner account? I have an account for adult entertainment where consent, I, what? Where consenting adults can share parts of their life with other people that might be interested in what they're sharing. i and this is going to blow your mind. i didn't even know that was on Reddit.
00:09:26
Speaker
What are you, What? Yeah. Seriously? That's serious. So you don't have to share that handle then when you like my post. Well, that one's like an auto-generated one. It's like leaf bucket six or something.
00:09:42
Speaker
Don't look it up. Okay. I guess I could share my other one. i i feel like a... it just has a lot of questions in 2017. Like what if I don't want to get married and what if my wedding's six months away and I don't want to get married?
00:09:56
Speaker
And what do I do if it's two months away and I don't want to get married? This, this sounds familiar. This sounds like you might've been posted on Reddit at some point. I got dog piled on there. I got roasted so much because it was like you, anyways, um, you were saying you, you went deep into Reddit to find what?
00:10:15
Speaker
I'm sorry, I'm still my mind's blown that you didn't know the capacity and the extent of like so for some people that is Reddit's like main purpose. my biggest subreddits are horror um film in general ncaa like division one football um there's there's a lot of video games i don't play those as much but on the side we could do a separate pod and i can open your uh
00:10:45
Speaker
So we'll have a KB spinoff pod and then we'll have a adult entertainment. Oh my gosh. I hope ka he's not listening by now, man. He's such a gentleman. He would not, he would, he would be very disappointed in me right now.
00:10:57
Speaker
i would change my ways. Anyways. Yeah. So we're, it's the 50th anniversary of Jaws. A lot of people are presumably watching this movie, at least talking about it. i think it's extra cool too. Okay. few, this is jumping way deep into the film already, but in Jaws,
00:11:13
Speaker
they are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the town of Amity. So it's the 50th of the 50th. So technically this fictional town of Amity has been around for a hundred years now. assuming the sharks have it. I mean, I think they left off after jaws for, but assuming the jaws haven't taken the sharks haven't taken over the town.
00:11:30
Speaker
If local leadership is anything like the mayor from this movie, they didn't really have, it didn't really had long-term sensibilities of, of keeping people safe. It was pretty much cash grab. Think you you're only thinking at one summer a time, which I get these elections. I don't know their term limits, but Hey,
00:11:50
Speaker
You know, what have you done for me lately? Yeah, short. What is it called? Short termism, I think is the phrase people are using these days. Anyways, talking about Jaws today.
00:12:01
Speaker
Sharks. There are a lot of shark horror movies. I don't know if there's any that predate Jaws. i'm I'm assuming there might even be a few, but there's been a lot since then. We got let's do the research.
00:12:14
Speaker
Well, we can maybe look at it. I know in since Jaws, there have been plenty of films. There's a few other animal scary films as well. Are sharks the scariest animal?
00:12:24
Speaker
like it Can we agree on that from the get-go or is there any other animal giving them Bears have always got me. Can I tell you why bears may be Trump? Is because a shark, all you got to do is get out of the water. A bear, you can't do anything.
00:12:37
Speaker
ah If you're in the water, it can swim and kill you. If you go in a tree, you can climb and kill you. If you try to run, run and kill you. so Bear will always be number one scary for me, but shark, no fun either.
00:12:49
Speaker
Yeah. there's There's not as many bear horror films. There was that cocaine bear a few years ago. And yeah, it was, I mean, it was, mean, RIP Liotta, all respect to him.
00:13:02
Speaker
I forgot that was, was that his last film he was in? If it was, that's an unfortunate swan song. I think it might have been cocaine bear. and you get, you know, we have snake scary movies. You have anaconda, you have snakes on a plane.
00:13:18
Speaker
You have, um, alligator scary movies like Lake Placid. Lake Placid is dope. love Lake Placid. I've never seen it. all oh Oliver Platt is I've out. never checked out ah Trav, if you're feeling froggy and you want to stay in the the aquamarine fears, you should watch that movie.
00:13:39
Speaker
OK, it's great. Nineties fair. What about 99? So here's my. Andy, we're just talking about Bill Pullman. bill pullman's in it He's in it. Yeah. Oh, that's great. Independence Day and Lake Placid. Well, Lake Placid, I think predates Independence Day. But and I'm pretty in Oliver Platt plays a sweaty, stressed out man. And he's great.
00:13:56
Speaker
So I, yeah, I think about scary animal movies, but here's my scariest. I think you might be right with bears. If you're on land, that does seem scary. That is our domain and they can still tear you up. I think what makes sharks scarier is we are now entering their domain.
00:14:11
Speaker
But when it comes to the scariest creature in the sea, like, of course i think... As I have grown older, more mature, I've realized that orcas like whales are actually the scarier threat out there.
00:14:24
Speaker
I'm just saying as a kid, we had a movie in the 90s called Free Willy, which painted orcas, I think, in a false light of these are your friends. um These are these are animals akin to dolphins that are they are highly intelligent.
00:14:38
Speaker
But now that think of orcas, like they will eat you. They will eat you alive if they find you in the ocean. I'd love to see the change in human attacks since SeaWorld.
00:14:50
Speaker
Is this a revenge tour? Because you think workers were killing people because we imprisoned some of some of their kin at SeaWorld? I mean, typically imprisoning their your kinsmen for decades just to do parlor tricks for fat Americans. It doesn't end well.
00:15:10
Speaker
Look at the monkeys.
Personal Experiences with Jaws
00:15:13
Speaker
You're talking about Planet of the Apes? don't know. You're talking about Harambe? Circus. You think Harambe, that was a like a retaliatory strike? Wait, can we go back though? we We kind of glanced over other shark movies. Can we talk about other shark movies before we talk about this shark movie?
00:15:27
Speaker
Did you find any of that predate Jaws? I assume there might be. but even if we do, none of them are, I mean, let's let's talk about the big ones though. So Deep Blue Sea, The Meg, Open Water,
00:15:42
Speaker
Um, and the shallows are kind of like the ones that come to mind. There's another one 47 meters down. Oh yeah. yeah called Pretty good. Open water rips. Yeah. Water is very good. well water That came out when we were in high school. I think I have a distinct memory of getting asked to, uh, it was like a Sadie Hawkins dance.
00:16:02
Speaker
And since I was so cool instead of going to a party or anything after the dance, We went back to her house, but with a group of kids and we watched open water. This was our post post dance party.
00:16:15
Speaker
But instead of a party, we just party was a group watch of open water. yeah DVD or on cable? Yeah. VHS. I think it was DVD. um It would have been 2007. There was no streaming. i We watched it from start to finish. I doubt we just caught it on TV during a broadcast. I think it was someone had on DVD.
00:16:35
Speaker
Um, that's a fun, that's a fun group watch. A lot of nudity. Yeah, it was like kind of risque, but like not too much where it's like, oh, you're uncomfortable. It's like titillating. It's like, yeah what's that? And then they just get mauled.
00:16:48
Speaker
Yeah. You this is before there was like subreddits for that kind of stuff. So people actually had to watch the risque stuff on shark attack sex. Exactly. Um, 47 meters down is pretty good. The Meg's pretty good too. I mean,
00:17:01
Speaker
Tell me about the Meg. I feel like I missed the boat, no pun intended, on the Meg because it spawned, no pun intended, a sequel. It's just Jason Statham doing Jason Statham things. Like if you want a bald, hard-o British guy in action movies, he's your guy.
00:17:18
Speaker
And they just decided, hey, let's put him underwater this time. I only have eyes for one British man now. Yeah. My knight. Sir Kenneth Branagh. Branagh. Okay.
00:17:29
Speaker
Okay. So my point looking at different animals here is I actually don't in fact think to me as an adult male now sharks are the scariest animal for me.
00:17:40
Speaker
i just think they have a monopoly or pretty close to that on horror films. involving animals because there's a lot more scary shark films than any other type of animal. Let me ponder this.
00:17:51
Speaker
You're you're you're claiming that sharks run the gamut when it comes to if you're going to have a scary movie involving a scary animal. You're saying the more of them are about like nine times out of ten the good ones are about sharks.
Genre Classification: Jaws vs. Jurassic Park
00:18:06
Speaker
I think well. I guess both volume. You can't go with volume with horror because there's a zillion. There's so many. There's so many. Exactly. There's so many now, but notable horror movies involving animals. I think sharks are eating up a lot of the market share, as we say.
00:18:20
Speaker
Shut the fuck up. Anyways. Okay. Let's talk about Jaws. This movie has been discussed and litigated for a long time. It's been out for 50 years. um It was...
00:18:32
Speaker
Integral to the beginning of Steven Spielberg's career, director, i'm assuming many of us have heard of, may may know of. um And so because of that, though, i it's hard to find something fresh. i I think we have a few production notes here, but I also don't want to put the burden on us. Like we have to be thorough as we normally are. Let's say that on the front end here. i think Trav and I talked about this.
00:18:53
Speaker
We do talk off mic sometimes, not always, but sometimes. And one of the things we talked about was like, we don't want to talk about production notes, behind the scenes stuff that everybody already knows about Jaws.
00:19:05
Speaker
Yeah, we can reference them or mention them, but like this is not a deep dive. This is more about our thoughts about Jaws, how we can fit moments in the categories and just kind of discuss the movie and why we like it.
00:19:18
Speaker
But we're not here to tell you how the shark machine didn't work and then they couldn't show the shark as much. And so then they the the movie was better because you didn't see the shark. Mm-hmm. I think that is the most common take is is the snafus they ran into during production. And you know what Before i even get to production, though, for the one or two people who maybe stumbled on this pod who haven't seen Jaws before, do you have the synopsis up in front of you? We should probably just briefly give an overview. I do.
00:19:45
Speaker
When a massive killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community off Long Island, it's up to the local police chief, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down.
Spielberg's Career and Horror Film Structures
00:19:59
Speaker
Yeah, so this is a horror film. And I think it's still canonized as a as a horror film, but it has some thriller elements and other pieces to it.
00:20:10
Speaker
But what I think is really cool, and it's a note that's been hit a few times before, but we've talked in the past or past episodes about how I love horror because I think it could be a springboard for directors into their careers.
00:20:25
Speaker
Here is our you know case in point with Steven Spielberg, because this is very early in his career. And actually, prior to Jaws, I was looking up his filmography. I haven't seen them, but he made two made for TV movies that were both horror as well. So this is where he was starting his career. Which which are you calling this a horror?
00:20:45
Speaker
Oh, I'm talking about Night Gallery and something evil were both made for TV horror movies. Oh, oh, OK, sorry. Yeah, you're right, because Duel ended up getting theatrical release. Duel was made for TV initially, and then it was given theatrical release because it was received so well.
00:21:06
Speaker
Because i was I was about ready to give a take, Travis, that because I think on your Letterboxd review, you're like, why didn't... Spielberg do another horror movie or why didn't he do more or why did he only do one?
00:21:16
Speaker
And I was going to push back a little bit and say that dual in the same way, silence of the lambs or like seven can kind of be, and it's not a serial killer movie. I don't want people to think that it's, it's,
00:21:28
Speaker
it's a chase dangerous guy behind a semi truck is chasing down a dude in a car it but it has horror overlap so I was gonna say you should long way of saying you should watch a duel duel is yeah awesome 1971 it's his first real movie it's his first real movie I think that's just fueling my point, though, that this is really cool to see a director who makes his start in horror, which which is the larger point I've tried to make before. And he hasn't really returned to the well since making Jaws, but this is where he got his career started.
00:21:58
Speaker
You're missing one. if we want If we're talking about tangential overlap, some people would... would put Jurassic Park in. Yeah. ah yeah so did adventure It's adventure and science fiction. I was not missing it.
00:22:11
Speaker
I was not missing it. I was intentionally leaving it off because that was my next point. Why is Jaws considered horror and Jurassic Park isn't? If you look at, I'd say the vast majority of IMDb, Letterboxd, these other film aggregator sites, most of them classify Jaws as horror and Jurassic Park is not.
00:22:29
Speaker
When I think they are, like you're saying, fairly similar. i I think it's because Jurassic Park, it expands into other things. It's a lot about nature versus mankind.
00:22:42
Speaker
It's a lot about wonder and creation. And we go way deep into the characters' motivations about childhood or like having kids and... I don't know. it's It's also even the way that it's ah scored and the way that it's shot.
00:22:58
Speaker
Jaws follows the... Most horror films follow this model. And that is, there's a haunted house and in that haunted house is a secret. And guarding that secret is a monster.
00:23:11
Speaker
And the process is somebody goes in, discovers the secret, is haunted or tracked or traced or whatever, and chased by the monster, And in the process of annihilating the monster, also the haunted house burns down.
00:23:27
Speaker
um You can apply that to a lot of horror films. Yeah. Well, I mean, even here you have some beats like Brody. So one of the first believers that there might actually be a shark out there in the water. That's so-called the secret and he gets dragged into it. Well, this is a funny case where the secret is the monster itself.
00:23:45
Speaker
That's the secret is like, oh, there actually is danger in the water. Whereas Jurassic Park... I don't think it really... I guess it does. The whole thing explodes at the end. It's a good question. i don't have a great answer for you.
00:23:57
Speaker
i think we've been so conditioned to look at Jurassic Park as like a adventure sci-fi with horror as the third rung. But this is why genre specifications can get so...
00:24:09
Speaker
murky because there's little Venn diagram of all this Yeah, it's just weird. I mean, Jurassic Park would be very high on my favorite horror films of all time list if more people consider it horror.
00:24:20
Speaker
So it's just silly that... But Trav, you are all about Bucking Convention. Yeah, maybe maybe I should. Yeah, so I only have a few production notes that I think are maybe somewhat unique or beats that I think would be fun to rehash since so many other ones are out there.
00:24:36
Speaker
and Another one, though, I'm just curious... I looked this up in 2024 worldwide, not in the U S but worldwide. How many shark related deaths do you think there were in the entire world that were recorded at least up to at the time of the release of movie?
00:24:53
Speaker
No, no, no. I'm asking last year, 2024, the world 300, wait, deaths, attacks, deaths, 300, 300 deaths in 2024. Yeah. the world three hundred wait deaths deaths or attack not not attack deaths three hundred three hundred and twenty twenty four yeah There were four.
00:25:12
Speaker
Just four. So I think a knock I've heard on this movie before is did Brody overreact initially when there was potentially a shark-related death on the beach? But I see that number I'm like, but oh, maybe he was reacting just right. Like that's that is pretty insane.
Shark Perception and Quint's Character Arc
00:25:27
Speaker
Sharks, again, going back to why don't find them as the scariest animal anymore. Like sharks are, as we learned in Finding Nemo, most sharks think fish are friends, not food. And ever since then, and then learning the statistics on shark-related deaths,
00:25:41
Speaker
It is very infrequent. Now it's horrifying when it happens. And that's not including that's done including attacks and people getting maimed. There are a lot of shark attack survivors. And I'm not sure what that number is, but I'm sure it's orders of magnitude higher than the four we saw last year.
00:25:57
Speaker
but it's pretty rare. Oh, I didn't look up their names. Oh, so these people who died that you're using for entertainment for our podcast didn't care to look up one. One was in the U S one was say their names weren't here.
00:26:10
Speaker
Um, but it also, so jumping way ahead in the film, but one of the pivotal moments of the film, wait, hold on, hold on. You skipped over something. Yeah. The finding Nemo connection, Bruce, the name,
00:26:22
Speaker
Oh my God. i didn't even realize that. Is that why they named the shark Bruce in fighting Nemo? Because behind the scenes, they call this animatronic shark Bruce, which was named after Spielberg's lawyer. Really?
00:26:35
Speaker
Bruce Framer. Get it? Because he's a shark. um That's incredible. See, I could i can deliver occasionally. The famous monologue, I'd say, from this movie um comes in the third act from the character Quint.
00:26:50
Speaker
Quint is played by um Robert Shaw and he's talking about his time on the Indianapolis, which is a real um battleship that was sunk at the end of World War II off the coast of Japan.
00:27:06
Speaker
And the there's about 800 crew members who were left at drift for three and a half days before rescue. So this is real. It was three and a half days. god This is real thing over those three and a half days.
00:27:20
Speaker
Over 500 of them died. So i well how many of them are sharks? We don't know. Well, exactly. So that's the point is it's just estimated numbers. Like ah the survivors did claim there.
00:27:32
Speaker
I mean, there were a lot of sharks in the water. It's unclear how many were just taking away the dead bodies, like, you know, the easy, the easy meat, which is just already deceased humans versus actually killing them.
00:27:44
Speaker
So they said it could have been anywhere from 12 to 150. But even with those kind of numbers, like that must have been the biggest shark related death scenario that I that I can ever think of. So they were. Yeah, I mean, if you's but on the your numbers are four, if if four is anywhere close to the average, that 500 probably beefed up the numbers for a bit.
00:28:07
Speaker
Yeah, well, 500 died, that they think, related to sharks. It was like 12 to 150. So let me about that scene. um I mean, it's like one of those famous scenes in cinema. So not sure we can add too much, but this is i have I have a take about it.
00:28:22
Speaker
something This is my probably fifth time seeing this movie. Something that I like and I that monologue is like stuck in my brain forever. so I'm usually so focused on it. But since I've seen it so many times, I'm starting to like notice the peripheries of that scene.
00:28:36
Speaker
I forgot how badly I wanted to be on that boat with those guys that are just like comparing scars and getting drunk and like look at this one. Look at this one. Look at my arm.
00:28:48
Speaker
And when Quinn starts talking about in the USS Indianapolis, what a buzzkill. Yeah, guys were having the time of their life. And I get we we got to establish the stakes and everything. But like, I did want to see them like but play some poker, play some darts.
00:29:05
Speaker
Compare war stories. One of that is more lighthearted. Lighthearted scene. Well, it's also, so now we're jumping way ahead. i was going to say this. this ist Everybody knows we can just jump around. but This is, this is a character arc for Quint.
00:29:18
Speaker
That is sad because like his character is based on someone one who went through this horrific tragedy. oh yeah. Related to sharks.
00:29:30
Speaker
So you think maybe, maybe he'll get a redemption arc here. He will be the one to kill Bruce, to take care of business. And instead, he's survived all these decades since the sinking of the indian Indianapolis, one of the very few survivors i to just then get eaten by a shark. disagree. and I disagree.
00:29:50
Speaker
you You think that is a redeeming character him? think had- That's the way he was meant to go. one of my, one of my biggest takes about this movie is that secretly it's a pretty much centralized around or a vehicle for Quint's death wish.
00:30:04
Speaker
Quint has a death wish. He, think he has like survivor's guilt from surviving the indian Indianapolis yes PTSD. He misses his buddies. He's a hard drinking man. you Did you hear the first thing he says to Hooper on that boat?
00:30:17
Speaker
He says he was out celebrating. He says he was out celebrating the demise of his third wife. He was celebrating the death of, this is not a, this is not a well man.
00:30:28
Speaker
This is not somebody who's like mentally stable. I think Quint wanted a reason To join his fellow comrades in the sea.
00:30:39
Speaker
If you told him ah week ago, a year ago, that he would end his days getting eaten by shark, I think he would be like, hell yeah, that's the way I gotta go, mate.
00:30:50
Speaker
Oh, I don't know if that's even close to my top 100 ways to go, but maybe I'm just saying this guy's a fucking psycho. Yeah. And I think that it's kind of poetic and sweet that he could he let's put it this way. He never left the Indianapolis.
00:31:05
Speaker
He never left. He always thinks about It's always on his mind. And so what happens? He slumbers into the deep with all his fellow shark food friends. Well, yeah, I guess that's fitting. And going back to my point, it is incredible to, I did not know the history of the USS Indianapolis that all these sailors were left to drift three and a half days.
00:31:27
Speaker
That is, I don't, I mean, if you think just your, body needing fresh water alone. That's it during that time. And then you add to that. This is why open water is a good prequel to watch the four jaws. You can like get the sense of two of those 500 people just bobbing around where sharks are everywhere.
00:31:48
Speaker
Yeah. Well, that's, I mean, there are so many production notes again that have been said before. are Are there any others that you really wanted to highlight before we kind of move forward and talk about this film a bit more?
00:32:00
Speaker
No, except that Spielberg was very young. was like 25 or something. think they said he was 26 when he started production. ah There was not a lot of... well okay.
00:32:13
Speaker
this is more about the impact of the movie. I can, this changed movies forever for better or for worse. it It created the summer blockbuster. It created how studios program and prioritize funds. And it's weird because in some cases, Spielberg was one of the pioneers of the new American wave, which was the antithesis of the studio era of the fifties. So like the fifties and little bit of the early sixties,
00:32:41
Speaker
all these movies were made communally. They were made by studios, organizations, and like really safe. And the production code had a huge hand in everything. Okay. So like they were not letting, you know, in some cases you can see two adults in the same bed or you couldn't see a toilet floor. It was so, it was so scandalous that psycho showed a toilet in their movie.
00:33:03
Speaker
And that was only 1960. so what I'm getting at is that Spielberg and Coppola and De Palma and, um you know, all these guys, Lucas. Yeah. Sorry. Of course, Lucas,
00:33:15
Speaker
they are all in the forefront of, hey, give us the money because your system's not working. Box office was going down. It was decreasing. And so they put stock into these young filmmakers who broke the mold, had really strong visions, did unconventional things, and ah storytelling that we weren't used to seeing was transgressive.
00:33:36
Speaker
And it's just funny how the snake eating its own tail because Spielberg unintentionally, right? I mean, he he he optioned the book. or I mean, maybe maybe you could talk about how the book was... The book's weird. and like There's like an affair happening in there. like hooper Yeah, a lot more sex between the characters and each other's wives. But this movie is such a hit.
00:33:56
Speaker
Do you know that there's that, that like opening weekend is now a thing because of jaws like before movies just kind of trickled. Yeah. Well, it was a wide release, right? That was, that was, it was the first wide release.
Jaws' Legacy and Spielberg's High-Concept Success
00:34:09
Speaker
And now like any movie that's not a wide release is considered an indie. It was, it was hitting all theaters at once instead of just a few pocketed cities or select cities. used to do a market by market.
00:34:19
Speaker
This movie eventized movies. Mm-hmm. You didn't have a summer blockbuster before this. You didn't have wide release. And now we have entire cottage industries dedicated to tracking box office and releases and projections and multipliers and international gross versus domestic. And it's, you know, like I said, for better for worse, but it's a movie that endures for a reason.
00:34:43
Speaker
Yeah, it it definitely bolstered the business side of making movies when when we saw how much a movie could make and how how much interest there would be to get and see films like this. So yeah, I think that's cool. And again, this is a point that's been rehashed plenty times over, but This was Spielberg taking risk from the get-go, running way over um on budget, on timeline, but they really let him have the reins. And like, i mean, we're talking about like an untested Spielberg, ah a rookie Spielberg here very early in his career. And they they let him run with it. And the finished product turned out amazing.
00:35:21
Speaker
I mean, number number seven all time for adjusted gross domestically. Oh, I did not know that still. Well, but that's and that's still only Spielberg's second highest grossing movie.
00:35:33
Speaker
What number one Jurassic Park? No, if we're talking about adjusted gross, which I think is, i always like look at that not it just for inflation, but you know, you can't do that for worldwide grosses because the currency exchange rate is different everywhere. So that's why you can never do a worldwide, you can never do it, but we can always do it by country.
00:35:52
Speaker
Yeah. So in America, his, his number one is the fourth all time, which is ET, which is massive. whoa One of my, i probably my favorite Spielberg movie. I would not have guessed that was his highest adjusted grossing film here in the US. That's incredible.
00:36:07
Speaker
it's It's funny. ah When you think about his highest grossing movies, it's the highest concept, the simplest concepts. Number four all time, E.T.
00:36:18
Speaker
Alien comes to Earth, is friendly, is charming, is funny, is cute, is heartwarming. Mm-hmm. Jaws, killer shark.
00:36:29
Speaker
Yeah. If you ah his third Jurassic Park, which is the 18th highest grossing movie, unadjusted adjusted dinosaurs. One word dinosaurs.
00:36:39
Speaker
This is like. Make something simple. People eat it up. You always need nuance. um Yeah. ah For again, for better for worse. But I i think that shows us American consumer film.
00:36:53
Speaker
We have a question for you. You we both have said, oh, we've seen this movie a bunch. Do you remember when you saw it for the first time? Yeah, I was ah late teen. Was it prom? Prom after party?
00:37:05
Speaker
Or homecoming? But it's like the 2000s. So this was like 20 years ago. i probably saw it for the first time. So I tried to think. I might have even seen other shark related films prior to this one.
00:37:19
Speaker
Um, but yeah, I, i and do you remember me? Do you remember the emotions? Like, were you wowed? Were you just like, Oh, this is good. Or like you, what you remember the reaction? No, I was more wowed by, we took a tour of universal studios probably right around the year 2000. So I had to be like 10 years old and they used to have an animatronic shark there. I'm assuming they still do.
00:37:39
Speaker
They do in LA too. Shout out to jaws. And that blew my mind more than actually my first viewing of the film. And because animatronics are huge to me when I was a young kid and they were really big in like a lot of our theme parks in the 90s and 2000s.
00:37:54
Speaker
um At least here in Colorado, we had this place called Waterworld with a dinosaur related all animatronic. rise This is not this is not ah Kevin Costner. But anyways, that was my my more impactful reaction was actually going to the amusement park and seeing the film, which is unique. But when when did you first see Jaws?
00:38:12
Speaker
Oh, we're missing out on a shark shoutout. I want sharks with freaking laser beams attached to their freaking heads. Yes. Gotta love Sharks and Austin Powers. And you know, that's because there was a Bond movie with Sharks and Lazers.
00:38:27
Speaker
Don't tell me. it's It's with Roger Moore, right? Spy Loved Me? Spy Loved Me? It's the underwater layer. That's it. I remember loving that one. When you did our Bond series in our film club, was very taken by that film.
00:38:40
Speaker
um There's one more of a movie that I know you and I have not seen, but I always hear it referenced. the The zombie movie that we reference that we mentioned not having seen, Zombie 2 by Fulci. There is an infamous zombie versus shark ah scene, which I am so curious to what that looks like, but I want to watch it one Yeah, just that alone has me a lot more interested in the movie now. Sorry, you were asking me for me when I saw When did you first see it?
00:39:05
Speaker
um Probably... Yeah, probably early 2000s. I don't have like a distinct like, oh, I sat down on this couch and there was this time and watched it. I do remember my mom always harping on the fact that like she was one of those people that did not go into the water for like two summers.
00:39:21
Speaker
And if you live in Southern California, like I did, like you apparently did, which I did not know until last pod. Yeah, I was born in Felton Valley. uh, go fountain Valley. The it's going to the beach is very important. The closer you are, it's like, you got it.
00:39:36
Speaker
You've got to go. That's like, that's what your summer is. So my mom in your twenties, living in SoCal, two of two to three of her summers were just, uh, just staying out of the water.
00:39:48
Speaker
They just were non-existent. Like she stayed at home because she didn't, she could not go into the water. And like, that was the sentiment of ah zillion people. So I yeah think her saying that though, made me think I was going to be a lot more scared. So when I watched it, I was thrilled. I wasn't scared.
00:40:07
Speaker
I wasn't like, Oh, I can't go in the water. Like I still don't even think about sharks when I was swimming the ocean. don't know why. See, This is I think this is the impact the film had and what I was going to say because i I didn't see it. I was later, you know, like late teens or so for the first time, but it was so well known and so scary that even without seeing the film kind of like quicksand as a child, I was scared of going in water because of sharks. I just thought, you know, this is something everyone in life has to deal with on a pretty frequent and common basis. Like this is a real risk is that because there could be sharks. can't go down. I can't take that left. There's quicksand.
00:40:43
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Just like quicksand, like I was saying, but as a child, like, like even in freshwater, even in pools, like I was scared to ever close my eyes. Cause like, well, there, there could be a shark in here. Who knows? So it, it was very impactful even before seeing the film because it was just so well known that like sharks are scary. And this film did, you know, I think you owe a lot of credit to that notion From that. I think he took what was already scary.
00:41:13
Speaker
And I think this heightened it and heightened it. Dude, this is one of those movies where I don't think I can find really anything wrong with it. It's just like a perfect movie. Like, do do I love it? Is it in my top 100? I don't think so.
00:41:25
Speaker
But that doesn't mean I can't appreciate that it is. It's just flawless. It's just like every time I watch it, I'm like, yeah, i no notes. I have no notes, you know, like quick. I think Quint is one of the best ah characters in American cinema history.
Iconic Characters and Poster Influence
00:41:40
Speaker
I think his background, his introduction, his demise, all of it is bananas. You all know me. You know what I do. You know what I do. You know what I do. You don't have to ask questions.
00:41:51
Speaker
With what you're saying, I agree. like This is, for what it was trying to do, it hit the mark. It's it's perfect. created It created the mark. It might not be one of my favorite films either, because just not the type of...
00:42:02
Speaker
film i'm really looking for but i can still really love this film because i see how well it was made this is on tv i'm at least watching 20 minutes of it so that's really all i had for production notes do you have anything else before we jump into our categories i mean again i think anything we say people could read elsewhere and perfect well let's talk about um highlights our favorite scenes here So for me, it's actually the largest set piece, I think, of the entire film, which is the start of the 4th of July. You see the ferries pulling out with all the tourists.
00:42:35
Speaker
The beaches are packed. And very slowly, you see people start going in the water, just knowing ah shark attack is going to happen, but not certain where or when.
00:42:47
Speaker
And I love that scene because you're you're watching the trepidation of the first few people getting in and then suddenly it turns into a big party in the water where it's almost too much and you're like, oh, 100%. Can I add something to your observation that heightens what you're saying?
00:43:02
Speaker
Something that is happening also is if you listen, there's these little murmurs and comments and that happens three or four times until it's really drilled in our head, I think. They're really establishing that this is a close-knit community and that the sheriff is an outsider.
00:43:17
Speaker
yeah Oh, you weren't born here? You're not in island? I'm in New York. Just moved here a few months ago. Yeah, but they they make it a thing. like And that that actually happens on like in Martha's Vineyard where it was shot. If you were not born there, even if your parents...
00:43:32
Speaker
even if you like even if your parents If you were born there, but your parents weren't, you get some shit for it is what I hear from the Northeast. So I'm a, yes, I'm huge Stephen King fan.
00:43:45
Speaker
He, Stephen King from Maine, most of his works, most of his books are set in Maine and he loves to drill in that. There's a huge distinction between the native,
00:43:56
Speaker
ah Northeasterners who live there year round in what they call the summer people. There is a gigantic divide between, again, they they rely on the tourism. It is their lifeblood and a a large part of their economy.
00:44:09
Speaker
But it is one of those areas where if you are not a native, you are looked on entirely differently. yeah I would not call it the most welcoming community. Again, even though they need to welcome the tourists. um Yeah, it's a weird dichotomy.
00:44:23
Speaker
Well, yeah that that sense of isolation and and like ah whatever you want to call it in the same way that we're starting to get anxious of these people going to the water, like you're saying, I think we're also, because we know that eventually the sheriff's going to deal with a problem. And how much harder is it to deal with the problem when people are against you, when you're an outsider?
00:44:42
Speaker
So keep going though. You were saying your favorite part is the set pieces opening up. People are going to the water. It's kind of like a final destination thing, right? Where who's going to, Exactly. Like the audience knows Bruce is showing up.
00:44:54
Speaker
You just don't know where or when or who it's going to impact. And I love that. And there's a false direction as well, right? You have the kids wearing the shark fins on them swimming around the water that they all group around.
00:45:05
Speaker
And so that that by far is my favorite scene. But I I wanted to leave it to you. I know you said you love the, you know, Robert Shaw monologue. Is that your favorite piece of the movie or is well another scene? Before I before I jump to another scene,
00:45:18
Speaker
ah The scene you're talking about reminds me of something that I think it was Blank Check who talked about this. And i'll I'll turn this question to you before we go to the next scene.
00:45:28
Speaker
Is there another movie where its poster played such an active role in your experience in the movie? what The reason I say that is because there is no shot in the film that looks like the poster.
00:45:41
Speaker
Okay, so it's that it's the shark going up and she's on the surface. yeah immediately whether it's subconscious or conscious when you're watching that movie anybody you see in the water all you're imagining is that monster right underneath it gives yeah it gives you that like tension that anxiety or tension which i just think is great um by the way did you know that the artist did not get paid for that and oh no the head producer always gives them that's one of the most iconic movie posters of all time We should give him a shout out just because he's not making money off of it.
00:46:14
Speaker
Roger Castell. Roger Castell. RIP died in 2023. Yeah. He made it for the, oh, he made Empire Strikes Back poster too. Hopefully he made some money on that one. But yeah, he did it for the novel and then for Bantam books.
00:46:28
Speaker
And then when Spielberg was like, hey, can we use this? Spielberg and the producers were expecting him to say yes, but for a fee. And he was like, yeah, just it'll help market the book and I'll get paid more. And then like, I'm sure he got a little bump from the book sales. Yeah.
00:46:40
Speaker
um Um, so what is my favorite scene? Yeah, man. I mean, that's just like one of the best monologues ever. Like, okay. Well, a sign of a great monologue is that whenever I think about that scene, Shaw's monologue on the boat, sorry. Yeah. Shaw's monologue about the USS Indianapolis.
00:47:02
Speaker
There's two monologues that come to mind that show me how effective they are because when I leave that movie and a week goes by or a year goes by and somebody mentions that movie and I think about that monologue, I see the images of their story. I don't see the scene.
00:47:18
Speaker
Like I get so drawn into there. It's like when you're at a campfire and somebody has the art of storytelling and they just enrapture you and they're descriptive and they're colorful. Same thing here. That monologue, I see the black water. I see the black eyes of the sharks. I see people getting ripped up. I see his scared face.
00:47:34
Speaker
The other movie I'm mentioning persona by Igmar Bergman. One of the sexiest sex scenes I've ever seen. And there's not one shed of nudity in it because it's her talking about a little frolicking experience. She had on a Swedish beach with two young Italian men, probably a subreddit for that too.
00:47:54
Speaker
With jaws. What's like the most, one of the most dread inducing scenes. It's like imagining you are in that water. Like, the Titanic except sharks. So yeah, that's gotta be my favorite scene. There's another one that popped to me way more this time, but it's towards the end, which we can talk about. But Shaw is just incredible, dude.
00:48:12
Speaker
had some, a lot of problems. He was like an alcoholic. no Noted alcoholic. Um, so he's, he died pretty early, died young. Um, But what do you think of his performance? I i don't think it's i don't think it's recognized enough. And i I honestly think if you watch it, he he is that person.
00:48:30
Speaker
and like i honestly think he should have got nominated for an Oscar. And this movie was nominated for this picture. i don't know How old do you think Shaw was when Jaws came out? I fucking hate this game now.
00:48:40
Speaker
Please tell me he's at least 50. No. Fuck. 40s though. So you were close. 48 when it released. I think it was like 46 when they were filming. so But yes. That's a tough 46. Exactly. He looks grizzled.
00:48:55
Speaker
ah ha Haggard as they say. Well, and then he and ah Dreyfus. He and Richard Dreyfus did not get along yeah at all. what you can her You can kind of see in the movie.
00:49:06
Speaker
Richard Dreyfuss is, I mean, I feel like this is him, his own person too. He's kind of like needy and annoying Shaw's like, fuck you. Yeah, they're really both playing, i think what a lot of people have described the actors as in real life. Like um they didn't have to method act and change their persona for the roles. i think it was really extensions of who they are, at least from what I've heard about both actors.
00:49:28
Speaker
Why don't you think Roy Scheider had a bigger career? You know, i don't know. I don't know. I think people have deliberated on it, but he is he is great in the role of Brody. He's in the French Connection ah as Cloudy, as like the Gene Hackman's NYPD buddy.
00:49:47
Speaker
Phenomenal in that. Like you just can't take your eyes off him. Jaws, he holds the screen. Like you totally believe that he's this like New Yorker who's just trying to chill and there's a monster here. He's like, fuck. Sorcerer, probably one of the, if not the biggest blind spot in my 70s watching journey, which I would love to see her. And he's amazing in that.
00:50:08
Speaker
All that jazz dude, he plays basically a stand-in for Bob Fosse who directed the movie, who directs musicals. fantastic. He's all like, he's a feminine and he's musical and he's like totally opposite of this guy.
Practical Effects and Iconic Scenes
00:50:24
Speaker
And I look at, I look at his, his career after all that jazz And like Jaws 2, Jaws the Revenge, Naked Lunch.
00:50:35
Speaker
it' Then it's like a bunch of straight to TV. And when I see him, I'm like, this guy has got a great face, a great disposition. Why did he devolve into like Dracula 3, The Legacy? I don't understand.
00:50:46
Speaker
Yeah, it's if you would have told me in 1975, which of those three male leads would have the biggest career after this, I would have never guessed Richard Dreyfuss. Like, because he he did come out in the most and probably most notable films in decades after that.
00:51:00
Speaker
Right. In the most normal die points on the world. shah died shortly thereafter. And and Roy Scheider. you think Spielberg's kind of like God damn it. what Like of all the people had to pick, like, why did it, why did I like anoint Dreyfus? Yeah. I don't know. I don't want to weigh in on that, but um yeah, he he is an interesting fella.
00:51:23
Speaker
i I love stand by me. He's in stand by me, which it's a Stephen King adaptation. So of course, course. um The other scene I was going to mention was, well, sorry i I mentioned one. You you mentioned one.
00:51:34
Speaker
What's another one? Yeah. ah My only other honorable mention was the cold open, which is again, very iconic. Oh, it it really set the standard for all future horror films. I'd say the majority of horror horror films, but maybe only slightly over 50% of cold opens. Um, or sorry, over 50% of horror movies have a cold open scene now because it's fun to get that first kill out of the way. Kind of rip the bandaid off.
00:51:59
Speaker
That, that is one of the best, that is one of the best opening, opening scenes a horror film all the time. Mm-hmm. Awesome. What was your yeah had an honorable mention? Oh, yeah. um When the shark starts to work and we get a lot of animatronics towards the end. Yeah, yeah I I always forget how fucking big that thing is.
00:52:20
Speaker
And I think he looks great. And I you can kind of start to see where it's like, OK, if it's too much, you might. and a But but because of that's placement in the film and it's towards the end and we haven't seen it much, it's I think it's so effective. mean He's yeah literally chomping the boat.
00:52:36
Speaker
It's not a euphemism like he's actually eating the boat. I it's a good reminder that I still always prefer practical effects over CGI because new shark movies, at CGI sharks like or or CGI not done well, because yeah you probably like some scenes that you don't know if CGI is because they enhance it.
00:52:54
Speaker
But there's a lot of notably bad CGI. And so it's just very cool to have this animatronic shark there and and finally see it in all its glory at the end of the film. right, let's move on. Best jump scare.
00:53:05
Speaker
Rick, what is your favorite jump scare and why is it Ben Gardner's severed head floating tude yeah floated in the water? Ben Gardner? That's the character's name. Oh, that's the character's name?
00:53:17
Speaker
They're talking about, yeah, Ben Gardner was out here and then Dreyfus gets in the scuba suit and goes in water at night. That did remind me of movie we recently watched, The Severed Head and Night of the Living Dead.
00:53:30
Speaker
when he goes into the house and he finds that head that's in the closet or whatever. Remember that? In Night of the Living Dead? Mm-hmm. There's the body at the top of the staircase. That's scary, but I didn't realize there's a severed head in a closet. Oh, maybe I was just focusing on the head.
00:53:45
Speaker
and Okay. Yeah. Maybe the head blonde in body. That's important part of the body. But yes, the the head in the water at night. So been a while since I last watched Jaws, and it legitimately- It got me.
00:53:56
Speaker
It worked. It's really... I'm curious what your other honorable mention... I'm assuming this is the best jump scare, but i want to hear your honorable mention. Yeah. This was the only time I really... got free. I jumped at both of these. Maybe, maybe you're a big, strong boy and I'm not. I'm cold blooded.
00:54:12
Speaker
Right. Um, no, it was, uh, Dreyfus in the cage. He's looking around and can't see anything. And all of a sudden, boom, Bruce comes up out of the side or something. That, that is also a very cool scene. Um,
00:54:25
Speaker
Yes, you didn't jump. I didn't jump there. i You know, you know, the shark, you know, the shark's going to get to him when he goes down in the cage. But you don't realize when you're you're expecting to see the shark. I feel like when Richard Dreyfuss goes scuba diving at night, that halfway point in the film, and I was not expecting to suddenly see a severed head pop up.
00:54:46
Speaker
So. that that was my vote for best once again you have this track record of being scared by the not monster yeah you get scared but jeremy renner's scaring his buddy i think it scares you know there's times i've watched enough horror movies and i wouldn't expect the monster and so when uh put a red herring out there or they they switch it up on me that's when it can really get me um all right should we do what happened in your finger scene What's that?
00:55:17
Speaker
Watching through the gap in your fingers. So the highest stress level. highest um I want to. Well, the the most squeamish part of the movie, I want to say for best death because I think that could be like the best. man We'll say for better.
00:55:31
Speaker
OK, I think we have the same one. Yeah. I mean, yeah, but as I don't know. I don't think so. I don't have one for this. I just had the scene you just mentioned when Dreyfus goes in the cage, you know, they're trying to kill a shark.
00:55:46
Speaker
whatever Quint's plan was with the buoys is not working. So they send down Dreyfus in the cage in the scuba suit. ah Just like you said, i it wasn't a jump scare, but just like I was saying why i wasn't jumping is because probably I was, you know, trying to relax, not necessarily going full on fingers over the face, but I was like, oh, well, this is not going to end. This not going to end well.
00:56:12
Speaker
Then... Then messing with the buoys and everything is a whole lot of nautical nonsense. Do you shoot? Do we just move into, um best death?
00:56:23
Speaker
I think this is the best death in like all of horror. Yeah. Like I don't, this might be best death at all of movies. It's quits death though. You're, you're agreeing me. Yes, of course. I mean, what else would it be? I mean, it's, he's the backdrop of his, of this story he gives in his monologue about all his buddies getting eaten.
00:56:43
Speaker
the way that that huge chompers is around his entire, his torso, you can hear him crunching the blood splurging out of his mouth. It gets me every fucking time. It's even it's 1975. It doesn't look cheap. It doesn't look fake.
00:56:59
Speaker
It looks like coming out of the mouth is the best touch. Cause he starts. It looks like a dude is getting eaten by a shark. You see essentially his lower half get just completely ripped off. And then you start getting blood coming out of his, mouth I think it's hilarious that this is a PG movie. at the end of yeah this is This was before PG 13 was a thing. I'm just like, how is this not our, I mean, I know it was different.
00:57:18
Speaker
Uh, MPAA was still figuring this shit out because the production code just went away in 1968 and they're like, what the fuck's happening? But yeah, yeah. What do you, I mean, yeah what else is there to say?
00:57:28
Speaker
i ah That's easily it. I would give an honorable mention. It's not a contender, but honorable mention to them also killing Bruce, Bruce's death, like yeah blowing up. that That's what I had. like That's what I had to. That's amazing.
00:57:40
Speaker
Shoot. Wait, trav I want to know. I want to hear you though. Like if we had a Mount Rushmore of best deaths, do you think it would? I think it's on there. I think it's,
00:57:52
Speaker
Up there. I'd have to There's so many good deaths. Wow. Favorite death from 2024. Says the man who has created life. We did our spookies. It's not on par with Quint's death.
00:58:04
Speaker
But that in a violent nature yoga scene death. is the most recent memorable. Sure. where I was like, oh my goodness. not That is very novel. But my point is you get a few of those every year where think the list runs so deep that but we'll have to return to it at some point. But yes, put it as a nominee for our Mount Rushmore Best Desk Ever in a Horror Film.
00:58:25
Speaker
I mean, the two that come to mind are Psycho Shower Scene and This. Oh, I don't know if I'd put Psycho Showers. in Okay, but you don't, you have to sometimes acknowledge impact.
00:58:37
Speaker
I am. This is 1975 film. I'm agreeing with you on this one. I'm just saying nuance to say like, ring, ring, ring. Yeah, that's the ketchup everywhere. That's not Festa. It's not for me.
00:58:48
Speaker
It is the most. Okay. Let me change the name. Not best. Most iconic. Yeah. Okay, sure. You have iconic. Which then I guess maybe Quinn wouldn't be because not a lot of people talk about this one.
00:58:59
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I think you're right. I think that's where you're talking about two separate things is I think Quints could be one of the best steps, but it's like more iconic. All right. Let's move on to.
00:59:11
Speaker
We talked about, okay. Honorable mention exploding shark. Oh, don't go in there, Ward. i think I misspoke. Don't go down there, Ward. Yeah, this was also Dreyfuss. Don't go down there. This was also Dreyfuss going down in the cage. That's what I meant to say. What was the point of that again? I don't know.
00:59:26
Speaker
He had a spear, which he drops right away, too. He gets the cage, gets dropped in the water, drops his spear, which he was going to fight off the shark with. Yeah, he was like pointless down there. He had no weapon to attack it with. So just to watch, which they used a real shark for the scene, but just watch a much smaller shark. and think it was like a 14-foot shark.
00:59:42
Speaker
And again, I've heard this from another podcast, but they put like a, a little person in the cage to make the shark seem relatively much bigger. And you just get a few minutes of seeing the shark go to town on the cage with, with Dreyfus. Basically Dreyfus is, is gets completely cucked at the end of this movie.
00:59:59
Speaker
Just watches his buddy with big phallic gun. Just have this big explosion with this shark. They've been having foreplay with, I just don't even know. Like the, Okay, so i'll save that I'll save it for dual knives. I have one that relates to this, but we'll we'll get to that later. Okay, do want to try and stick to our format here.
01:00:18
Speaker
um So that's my only don't go in there. Do you have any others for that other than Trifus, Hooper, Grinder?
01:00:28
Speaker
ah like, don't say that. I have a don't say that award when the mayor's like, go in the water. he like goes up to that guy and he's like, why aren't you in the water? Literally like pushes him to be like, you better get in this fucking water right now.
01:00:42
Speaker
He's like pushing, like ah effectively, I think the visual is like he's pushing people to their death for the sake of profit. was just... It's just weird. He's like in a full suit, which I have to admit, mayor, his thread game was on point. Yeah, it was like seersucker. He looks very much Northeastern. Every single scene that guy was wearing something, I was like, man, I wish I could find something like that.
01:01:02
Speaker
Yeah. He looked great. Maybe we need to add a best dressed category. Best costume. I don't mind that. He definitely wins. We talk about doing less categories. You want to add one of those clothes? He wins for this film. I'm with you.
01:01:14
Speaker
All right. Fine. I got a cannon fodder that i feel very passionately about. So I was trying to rush. This is the kid and who just gets annihilated. But it's related to that because, okay, so there's two cannon fodder. Wait, before you do this, can you give me and our listeners, what's the total death count?
01:01:31
Speaker
So there's not including USS Indianapolis. There's Cassie, I think her name is at the very beginning. Then little Kintner. And then the one I want to get into, which is my best cannon fodder. And then Quint at the end.
01:01:42
Speaker
And I think we got in the dog. Oh, okay. Sure. You get a dog and a shark death. How about dogs get half points? Dogs half points. Okay. And I guess, you know, Ben Gardner got killed off screen.
01:01:54
Speaker
What's the full number? 4.5? UC get killed, one that died off screen for humans, and then two animals. Ben Gardner. You see a severed head. Oh, oh yeah. Okay.
01:02:06
Speaker
Yeah. um But so anyway, so here's my whole point. This is ah young Steven Spielberg, very untested, He decides early on the movie, let's fucking go there. Let's kill a kid.
01:02:18
Speaker
And he doesn't just kill a kid. But again, since you, you don't have the animatronic shark working, this is what it's famous for is you have the musical score by John Williams. You see a shadow in the water.
01:02:29
Speaker
we have We haven't mentioned John
John Williams' Score and Shark Attacks
01:02:31
Speaker
Williams yet. I know. and a Kind of important. par And he's, you know, I, I feel like he's done so many amazing scores. Now we take it for granted. Like,
01:02:40
Speaker
to your point and not having brought his name up yet but of course i mean it's not the most sweeping score ever but it's the most iconic yes um uh refrain just like what we say with how jaws is it was a perfect movie for what it was trying to do john williams made the perfect score for what they were trying to do i agree and so my whole point is early in the movie you get the score going you see the shadow going but then You know, Spielberg has to show how is this kid going to die?
01:03:08
Speaker
So they have fucking old faithful, you know, the geyser and Yellowstone of blood just spraying spraying out of the water, a bath of blood. Much of kids killing a kid, killing a kid is a bold choice.
01:03:22
Speaker
So all I can say to this is at the 4th of July scene. Now you have um Brody telling his son, Mike, hey, don't go out in the ocean.
01:03:34
Speaker
You should actually go play in the lagoon that feeds off the ocean, which, sorry, this is a separate tangent. What horrible advice. Like but that's still connected to the water. Sharks like shallow water. That's like, imagine if you're the fricking chief of police in London in like the eighteen hundreds and Jack the Ripper is killing people in Whitechapel and you tell your wife, hey, you can't go out in Whitechapel tonight.
01:03:59
Speaker
But if you're a block off Whitechapel, oh, that should be fine. I doubt. I doubt he's going to venture out there. Like what horrible advice for Brody, who was genuinely scared of the shark telling his son like, Hey, don't go out in the ocean, but you and your friends can go out in the lagoon.
01:04:12
Speaker
And now and yeah shark ends up there. Exactly. The shark ends up there. And now you have Spielberg, gunning for a lot of kids a lot of kids on their boat in the lagoon and i'm i could only send the production company was like hey our quota is you could only kill one kid per movie like you already were too bold so you see the musical score kids he didn't realize he wanted kids until et he like the drew barrymore was cute as shit and he was like okay now to have kids yes but he was killing kids early in his career And so my whole point is, sorry, this is too long winded, but he sets it up again. Now we've had the precedent of.
01:04:48
Speaker
Here's the score playing. Here's the shadow going right for the kid's boat. But it's suddenly off the right side of the screen. There's just some dude in a rowboat who comes out of nowhere just going like, fellas, fellas, is everything all right over there? And immediately the shark, fucking he's on screen for like two seconds before the shark just capsizes the boat. And again, you get old faithful of blood just spraying up and everywhere. So I love that for cannon fodder because you you kind of have the misdirection of the one kid getting killed already.
01:05:16
Speaker
We're like, oh my God, the shark's going to get another kid. And you just have this rando out of left field just hop onto the screen and get demolished. That's like Mr. Cannon fodder. Yeah. So yeah, pretty, pretty peerless win there.
01:05:31
Speaker
So since I just covered most of the deaths, I mean, it's hard to even say another nominee other than Cassie at the very start of the film. Favorite quote. you have one? um So let's just get out of the way. I mean, the the one that's quoted ad nauseum is we need a bigger boat, which is still hits. it It hits. It's perfect. I just it kind of glide through it now because I've heard it so many times. So I liked You're Not an Islander just as a sense of like creating this exclusionary outsider perspective. i like that.
01:06:01
Speaker
um One that I forgot about that I really like, she's like the mom, he's a Brody's about to go out in the ocean and kill the shark. And she's like, what do I tell the kids? He's like, Tell him go fishing.
01:06:13
Speaker
I forgot that one. That is a great line. Yeah. Only, only quote I have to add to that is a mayor Vaughn chat out because early in the movie, he's, he's telling Brody's like yield Barracuda.
01:06:24
Speaker
Everybody says, huh? What yield shark? We got a panic on our hands on the 4th of July, which I think is such a great line. He's thinking business. Yes, exactly. Exactly. That's like everything you need to know about the mayor and that one quote.
01:06:37
Speaker
Um, What's his name? Mayor what? Mayor Vaughn. Mayor Vaughn.
01:06:44
Speaker
Wrongly accused? Mayor Vaughn Wright? I think mary Mayor Vaughn had a lot of sense to him, but also... Vindicated? Because he's thinking he's taking a big picture here. Yeah. ah People die all the time.
01:06:56
Speaker
i thought he was a great character. I'm bummed you don't see more of him in the back half of the film, which goes right into... So I'm jumping into Dole Knives. Second half, almost the entire half of the movie is Brody Quint and Hooper on the boat.
01:07:10
Speaker
And they are ready to go hunt this shark. But their actual plan how they're going to kill him seems pretty lackluster. Like, Quint sounds so sure of himself early in the movie when he introduces himself. He's insane.
01:07:25
Speaker
You pay me 10 grand, like, I'm going to kill this shark. But like, what was his plan? But Trav, I think the first time you see this movie, you're supposed to be like the townspeople. Like, oh, and like, kind of scared, kind of enamored.
01:07:39
Speaker
By the third time you see this movie, i think you're supposed to understand this guy has serious post-traumatic stress and like he also has probably a lot
Climactic Showdown and Narrative Changes
01:07:46
Speaker
of other... You think Brody, as the newcomer to the town, was not as aware of who this quick guy is? The locals might know, like, oh, he's the crazy old fisherman.
01:07:54
Speaker
Brody's like, oh, well, I think this guy might actually have a real plan and just kind of got hoodwinked and going with him on a boat yeah and then Hooper going with him on a boat where he he didn't really have a plan.
01:08:07
Speaker
There is nothing more relieving when you're in a crisis. And then even if it's harder to see the bullshit when you really want somebody to help in a situation and Quint with that look and his confidence, I probably would have done the same thing.
01:08:22
Speaker
i'm like, this guy's saying words, little, little strategy there. Little do we know there's a lot of nautical nonsense, but in the moment I don't blame them because they're, Nobody's dealt with a fricking mutated monster shark. man They just said he was three tons. That's huge.
01:08:38
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's right. I kind of raised my eyebrows about that. Three tons. I think so. is An elephant. An elephant is over two tons, right? 25 foot shark, right?
01:08:49
Speaker
Yeah, I think it was over 25 foot shark. heaviest shark ever. well Yeah, I think this was... Oh, wow. Yeah. Okay. The whale... Well, that's a whale shark. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Half-brained attempt for actually how they were going to kill the shark. And then immediately when Quint's plan doesn't work, they're like, right, we've send Hooper down the cage.
01:09:10
Speaker
The cage is They moved very quickly. They moved very quickly. They're like, all right, someone's got to go down there. ah because i Because I'm Sir Kenneth Branagh's squire, like...
01:09:20
Speaker
i like missed the the discussion getting into the cage i was gonna ask you on this pod like remind me why he got in the fact that you're like because he had a spear and then he dropped it there wasn't a lot i think i think he had like sedatives or poison or something on the tip of the spear you could try to use that do you know what this is okay this is totally pulling this out of my ass so i could be wrong but In the book, one of the main other main three guys dies. i don't know if it's Brody or Hooper. Hooper dies the book.
01:09:50
Speaker
Oh, then this makes sense. That's why he's in the cage in the movie. Yeah, that's where he died, yeah. Well, no, it's because they had to get it they just took him out of the script for a bit. They're like, okay, well, fuck. Brody's got to explode the shark. We don't want Hooper whining around him on the boat, just like getting seasick and stuff. Yeah, I guess that's good point. That's sort of the plot narrative. but isn't a funny image of him just like hanging out down there? Yeah. As all this stuff's happening. Imagine him like hearing explosions. is they oh no.
01:10:14
Speaker
God, what's happening? He kind of like ducks under a reef, like a little coral reef and just hangs out presumably for a few minutes till everything blows over. Why is it every movie that I hear about Richard Dreyfuss he's always talking about bullied he got.
01:10:28
Speaker
He got bullied by Robert Shaw in this. He got bullied by Bill Murray on What About Bob? He got bullied by like the kids in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. like hey, get out here, kids.
01:10:40
Speaker
He fits that role well. But I think that's why a lot of other people say he's a whiny individual. um Only other Dole Knife, very minor, but for film presumably set in the Northeast,
01:10:53
Speaker
Not a lot of Northeastern accents, no Boston accents. ah tough So, you know, I feel like especially the further Northeast you go, the more distinct the accent is. No, they never really, so even though it filmed at Martha's Vineyard, they don't say exactly where Amity is. Maybe the assumption is it's a little further South, but um that was it. Cause like you said, it's pretty much a perfect film.
01:11:14
Speaker
So I really had to reach even to identify those two. um All right. Winners and losers. I got a few. You want me to rat off my list? Hmm. i want i want I want to think of some.
01:11:27
Speaker
Some winners and losers? Yeah. you want me to start saying mine? Losers, probably sharks. Losers, just sharks in general? You think cast them in a negative light because of this film? Way more have died now because of this. Okay.
01:11:40
Speaker
Are you kidding me? Everybody's, I think, shark hunting. that That went up as a Jaws, do you think? I would imagine. I can't imagine this are hunting kid unless I'm missing some like world renowned charity that gives back to like shark relief.
Impact on Shark Perception and Nostalgia
01:11:58
Speaker
and I don't think this movie, I don't see how this movie is good for sharks. It's more attention on them. We're fucking with their environment more where maybe some local beaches are like, let's, let's hire ice for sharks, you know, get them out of the water.
01:12:15
Speaker
mean, that's really what we're trying to do. We're saying, hey, if you if you come into our waters, we we're sending you back out. be je Hey, smart sorry. I know we're doing winners and losers and i want to hear your list, but this just came to mind and my brother would be incensed if I did not bring this up at this point.
01:12:33
Speaker
Did you ever play with Street Sharks? Yeah, of course, dude, the toys. And they were there was a brief period of time where McDonald's ran a promotion where those were the toys in your Happy Meals. Oh, smaller versions them. Yeah, the smaller versions.
01:12:46
Speaker
And that was so cool. I remember, like, I was begging my parents to take me to McDonald's. Do you remember the function of the toys? No. Okay, i'm gonna i'm go I'm going to remind you, and you're maybe you'll have a little nostalgia-ism here.
01:13:00
Speaker
You would squeeze their legs, and they would do something. They would like open their mouth. Usually, it's to open their mouth, yeah right? So with with um Jab, who was the hammerhead, he had this mouth that opened like that, and all of their teeth glue in the dark.
01:13:17
Speaker
So sometimes when it was time to go to bed, and I wasn't- Glowed? Glowed? Did I say glue? Yeah, which made me think glue the past tense of glow, but I think it's just glowed. so I've been saying glue in the dark for a long time. I don't think that's a thing.
01:13:32
Speaker
That's like saying brung. I bring, is it, I bring this. all right it's brought okay it's i really hope i hope i really hope it's okay i really hope sir kenneth is not listening love street sharks street but what i want to say was i would sit in my bed and i would have little like puppet shows with just their mouths because all their teeth would glow in the dark and they would like talk to each other i love street sharks all right tell me your winners and losers Okay,
Jaws' Influence on Blockbusters and Spielberg's Rise
01:14:02
Speaker
winners.
01:14:02
Speaker
The summer blockbusters. Again, this is kind of starting us off. We already touched on it earlier in the episode, but this what gave us summer blockbusters. winners um lorraine gary her whole acting career was pretty much jaws jaws 2 jaws 3 and she was also in spielberg's 1941 so this is this is big for her 1941 is or i haven't seen it's one of like eight movies or five movies that spielberg haven't seen i think it's considered it's not one of his best i think some consider it his worst yeah i think most consider it his worst uh
01:14:36
Speaker
um Got some losers. We've been dancing around this and I'm i'm a little pissed at this user on this app I have where I do live auctions for like DVDs. and I bought the whole Jaws one through four and he sent me he sent me he missed out on two so I couldn't I really wanted to see Jaws two.
01:15:01
Speaker
I've seen Jaws two. it's Is it good? It's the same movie, just kind of remade. It's classic like critique of a sequel where there's nothing really new added in the mix here.
01:15:13
Speaker
um Losers, small town mayors and authority figures. I think this really set the trope of if we need a villain for a film, like you see this parroted so many times in the eighties, like people are coming to the ski town and the mayor's getting in the way, or it really just made mayors, cast them in a poor light or other authority figures like that.
01:15:35
Speaker
So do you think, do you think Rudy Giuliani looked at that and was like, I'm going to, I'm going to take what a mayor is and like crank it up to something else. Giuliani, truly on a this could be a whole separate podcast. He was America's mayor.
01:15:51
Speaker
I've never seen someone regarded so highly fall from grace so quickly. like um Somewhat like Anthony Wiener. Yeah. Well, that, yeah. Wiener had to overcome a hard last name from the get-go, so... He lived up to it. Yeah. ah Yeah, Mayer's... Yeah, he definitely... I wonder if this role in this movie played a part in...
01:16:15
Speaker
political skeeziness like this guy's a car salesman almost yeah it did not help politicians maybe that's the better loser not just small town mayors but just politicians in general trump is here because of jaws ah normal normalized salesmanship into politics i am another loser uh swimming in open water at night something i adamantly refuse to do have you ever skinny dipped at night have you skinny dipped in the ocean Well, yeah, that's like the best place skinny dip. Yeah. no Well, again, I live in Colorado. I skinny dipped in a... yeah so I don't have too many opportunities. Oh, I see.
01:16:53
Speaker
I skinny dipped in Lake Michigan once. Yeah. But generally swimming open water at night, I think this film, especially with that opening scene, and just really ruined that for a lot of people. Like you were saying, even with your mom. When do you think it is appropriate? Like, when is when is it too old to skinny dip, do you think? When is it more like, oh, that's weird that you just did that? Because remember being a time where I'm like, did you do this weekend?
01:17:14
Speaker
Oh, I saw a movie. I got dinner here. And now I went skinny dipping. And ah there was a time when I was like, haha, yeah. And I feel like if I said that now, don't know, it would be like what you just did and just want to move on from the conversation.
01:17:26
Speaker
Well, yeah, I'm perplexed that you went back to the well here on this one, but um I just haven't talked about skinny dipping in a while. And i just feel like the movie, I know people older than me who still swim naked. So maybe that's just more the Boulder vibes that I grew up in Boulder, Colorado. It's, it's not that swim naked. Why don't you swim naked means skinny. too Exactly. That's what i'm saying. Like, it's not too uncommon for older people to still do it here.
01:17:52
Speaker
Is it legal? I don't think it's ever been legal. I don't think it was legal when you were. Maritime rule. International waters. I don't know if maritime law applies, especially, again, when you're in a landlocked state.
01:18:03
Speaker
Maritime law. I don't think you can in a lake here and and claim maritime law. but Okay. I'm just asking questions. We're on a podcast. I'm just asking questions. All right. Scream king. Scream queen. Okay, this, again, just like the best death award, any and and any winner not Spielberg is... Yeah, it's Spielberg. It's easily Spielberg.
01:18:24
Speaker
It's a lie. Sometimes I try to reach for someone who's not director, but this being so early. Yeah, it's just a smashing success. Um, I mean, this is the start yeah of everything. Yeah.
01:18:35
Speaker
You know, he was the wonder kid He had promise. He had hustle, had a vision making these little TV movies. Maybe we were starting to hit. He makes that, you know, sugar land express me with Goldie Haunt, but then this is his first, this is what gets him his blank check to do whatever he wants later.
01:18:54
Speaker
hmm. Yeah, I agree. That's Spielberg. Well, I think that is it. um We will be back next week and this time, but I've said it before, but next week we are truly doing Megan 2.0.
01:19:08
Speaker
It releases this weekend that you'll be listening to this pod, but we're going to take our time, collect our thoughts and have that episode out to you after the 4th of July holiday. For all you guys, enjoy your 4th of July.
01:19:20
Speaker
um Follow us on socials again. It's The Sunday scary dot pod on Instagram. It's the Sunday scary dot pod.
01:19:30
Speaker
all right. For both of us at the Sunday scaries. Thank you guys for listening. We'll see you next week. When you say for both of us, does that mean I don't say anything? You could say, I would love for you to say something. In fact, but if you say for both, you are typically the last person to say anything on the episode. So I'll give you that chance again. Enjoy your 4th of July. Rick, the floor is yours.
01:19:50
Speaker
Bye. Bye.