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JAWS 30th Anniversary Festival!


Mike

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This weekend members of the the cast and crew of Jaws return to Martha's Vineyard in the US, where the film was shot, for a festival to celebrate its 30th anniversary.

Three decades on, Steven Spielberg's 1975 shark drama continues to cast a long shadow over Hollywood.

Based on the best-selling novel by Peter Benchley, it was the movie that singlehandedly ushered in a new era of blockbuster film-making.

It also set its then 29-year-old, fledgling director on a course to become one of the industry's most powerful and influential figures.

Before Jaws, summer was considered a graveyard for Hollywood studios - a time when distributors released titles they considered sub-standard and unlikely to turn a profit.

All that changed on 20 June 1975, when Spielberg's shark tale opened on 409 cinemas - a record at the time - across the US.

Backed by $700,000 worth of TV advertising, the movie swiftly became a phenomenon - spawning a craze for Jaws T-shirts, beach towels and action figurines.

The film went on to win three Oscars at the 1976 Academy Awards and be followed by three inferior sequels.

Hitches

And yet it could all have turned out very differently.

For one thing Spielberg was initially unenthusiastic about the project, preferring to put his energies behind a science-fiction scenario that would eventually become Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

"I want to make films," he told producer David Brown, who replied: "This is a big movie. This will enable you to make all the films you want!"

Spielberg acquiesced, though he lived to regret his decision when his movie became mired in shooting problems, budget overruns and technical hitches.

Chief among these was the shark itself, named Bruce after the director's lawyer. Three mechanical creatures were built, one of which sank on the third day of shooting.

But Spielberg's insistence on filming on the open sea rather than in a studio tank contributed to the difficulties, resulting in more than 100 days of shooting and a final budget three times the original estimate.

Script rewrites and casting disagreements further delayed the project. In the words of actor Richard Dreyfuss: "We started the film without a script, without a cast and without a shark."

So it was with some trepidation that Universal began previewing the film in spring 1975.

Accolade

One of the key decisions was to ditch much of the footage involving the malfunctioning mechanical sharks and opt for the roaming point-of-view shots for which the film would become famous.

A decision was also made to hold off revealing the shark itself until the final third of the movie and to jolt the audience with additional scary moments.

The success of these last-minute alterations became clear during the first preview in Dallas on 26 March when a man in the front row got out of his seat, ran down the aisle and threw up in the lobby. "That's when I knew we had a hit," said the director.

How much of a hit soon became clear when Jaws overtook The Godfather and The Exorcist to become the first film to gross more than $100 million.

More than 67 million Americans saw the film, taking its total US haul to a record-breaking $129.5m.

The record stood for two years until George Lucas released Star Wars.

There was a sting in the tale for Spielberg, however. Though the film was nominated for the best picture Oscar, the director himself was passed over in favour of Italy's Federico Fellini.

Indeed, it would be another 18 years before the director was finally awarded that prestigious accolade.

Was Hollywood punishing the wunderkind for his success? Possibly - though it was a success they were keen to emulate.

One only has to look at this summer's roster of sequels, prequels and effects-packed spectaculars to see that the blockbuster mentality he initiated is still very much to the fore.

*The 30th Anniversary DVD is due to release on June 14th. 2005

(which happens to also be my wifes birthday)

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I loooove this movie. I have seen it more times than I can count.

It changed the psyche of an entire generation, and those changes are still apparent today. Who doesn't go into the water, or into the ocean on a boat, and not think about sharks? Jaws did that.

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So true , JR ! The ocean has never been as enjoyable for me as it could be since then . Get out a little far from shore and I hear inevitably in my mind, " Dun DUN ... DUN DUN ! DUN DUN DUN ...." and it's time to turn back !

It also helped to villanize sharks in general , according to a show I was watching on Discovery , and that the harvesting of shark fins or general hunting has gone on unabated to the point that species such as the great white are now endangered ... with little complaint from most people.

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Plus, Quint is one of the best movie characters of all time.

robrtshaw.jpg

Quint: Gamin' fish eh? Marlin? Stingray? Bit through this piano wire? Don't you tell me my business again! Now you get up on the bridge...

Hooper: Quint, that doesn't prove a damn thing!

Quint: Well it proves one thing Mr. Hooper. It proves that you wealthy college boys don't have the education enough to admit when you're wrong.

That's one of my favorite parts of the movie.

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I've seen this film well over 100 times, I don't exactly, but well over 100 times.

I have always found it facinating the way the three principal actors sold us their fear, respect and admiration for the shark. Speilberg is a visionary director that people will be talking about until the end of the world. He took a project that was inherantly frought with problems from the beginning, exhaused, frustrated, and fighting the studio brass to keep them from pulling the plug. He knew that this film would make or break his dreams to make many films he "wanted" to make.

Steven refused to give up, he used his vision, his uncanny ability to see in his mind what the audience would respond to in a revolutionary way. He perservered and overcame so many objections and obsticals to make this film. His sweat and guts can be seen throughout the run time.

In addition, I see the worlds two greatest film makers had similar starts, Spielberg with this one and Lucas with American Graffiti. Overcoming studio brass and the movie business staus quo to make films that literally flipped the film industry over to accept a directors vision over a studios play-book. To make films from the heart, from the soul and not just follow a recipe that had been drawn up based on the status quo and safe bets. To buck the odds and make a film because you believe in it and have a vision, that is the makings of a masterpiece that sets trends instead of following trends!!

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They were talking about this on the news last night and when they mentioned the mechanical shark, Bruce, it made me think of Finding Nemo. The great white is named Bruce....I wonder if that's Pixar's little tribute to Spielberg.

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They were talking about this on the news last night and when they mentioned the mechanical shark, Bruce, it made me think of Finding Nemo. The great white is named Bruce....I wonder if that's Pixar's little tribute to Spielberg.

According to IMDB

Andrew Stanton is a fan of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" (1969) and included a couple of references. The shark is called "Bruce" (from a sketch about the Philosophy Department of the University of Woolloomooloo where everyone was called Bruce (it's also the nickname of the animatronic shark used in Jaws (1975))). The krill say, "Swim away, swim away," (from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)). Bruce also tells Anchor and Chum to 'Swim Away! Swim Away' when the under water 'balloons' (as Dory calls them) are about to blow up. Also, Marlin forbidding Dory to sing mimics the scene at the Scottish castle in Holy Grail.

I love Finding Nemo too!

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Do you remember this song from "Jaws"?

Show me the way to go home

I'm tired and I want to go to bed

I had a little drink about an hour ago

and it's gone straight to my head

Wherever I may roam

By land or sea or foam

You will always hear me

singin' this song"

(Then something starts to batter the hull of the "Orca"!)

::

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