Just when you thought it was safe . . .

I’ve had many loves in my time. Some are new (the nieces E & I), some are steadfast and continual (the rest of my family, a good latte, sleeping in and the entire back catalogue of Crowded House), some are constantly renewed (George Clooney – sigh, be still beating heart, be still) and some are just . . . inexplicable (American politics. Don’t ask. I can NOT explain it.) One of the largest and most influential of my life is my love of films (and no, I didn’t intend this blog to be about movies every single time I wrote, its just what I’m usually most passionate about) and there are two movies that I can absolutely name as the source of origin. The first was the Empire Strikes Back. It had George Lucas before it seemed like he hated his fan base, a great love story, an awesome bad guy and some righteous heroes. The sheen has tarnished slightly on Episode Four with the First Three movies – only Ewan MacGregor has saved those for me – but I will still watch Empire with girlish, childish glee, loving the whole Leia/Han thing and digging the asteroid scenes. Even the updated version doesn’t terribly bug me. Empire will always be a great film in my eyes.

The other is my all time favourite movie - even though it has had some so-so sequels and one realllllllly awful one, let me tell you, a LOT of time has had to pass for me to forgive Michael Caine and Lorraine Gray for the fourth film – and it has sat at the top of my extensive and ever changing list of fav films for nigh on sixteen years and doesn’t look like giving up its spot anytime soon.
Jaws. *shudder* JAWS!! (In my head, I hear the theme music . . . )
My love affair with the Great White started with the book by Peter Benchley. It sat on my grandparents book shelf, this tattered little paperback, and the back cover proclaimed that the first six pages would keep you up all night (or words to that effect). I think I read the first six pages of that book a dozen times over the years of seven to ten, whenever we stayed at their house I would sneak it into my lap and surreptiously read. Let me tell you, the first six pages of that book are awesome. The death of Chrissy (stuntwoman Susan Backlinie in the movie) is told in grim, horrid detail. It gave me goosebumps.
By the time I was eleven, I was reading at an advanced enough age that my mum didn’t notice when I picked up Jaws and sat determinedly reading it cover to cover, one Christmas holiday in my not so mis-spent youth. (You would have thought that the black/blue cover with the massive shark aiming at the body of a teeny tiny female swimmer would have rung some warning bells but hey, I was reading all kinds of crap, everything I could get my hands on and I think it took me a day to read it anyway so she didn’t get much time to notice - hola mamma!!) I loved that book. I loved that book so much I took it home with me and read it again and again and again. I read it so much that the spine cracked and pages started falling out. I almost cried when I threw that book in the bin - but I didn’t because I already had another copy. Then another. I’m currently on my fourth copy of Jaws. The constant rereading slowed somewhat after I saw the movie when I was 15 but I still enjoy the book immensely. (The movie is slightly more satisfying in that Hooper isn’t such a butt head and doesn’t *spoiler* die in the movie like he does in the book – although you kind of want him dead in the book because he’s screwing Brody’s wife and Brody ROCKS.)
Book. Love. Movie? Freakin’ love.
I was fifteen when I first saw the Best Movie Spielberg Ever Made In My Opinion Thanks. I don’t know why I waited, I don’t remember if it was my parents who put their foot down about me seeing it (mostly because if I watched it, then my little brother and sister would want to see it also) or if I didn’t want to ruin the book, I don’t know. But my sister and I were babysitting some kids (also infamously known as the night of But He Looked Old Enough To Sit Up On His Own Without Me Holding Him) and my parents friends had left us some video’s to watch. Jaws was one and I leapt at the opportunity. I don’t think my sis was too pleased at my choice but by dint of oldest, choice was mine!
I sat on the edge of my seat as Chrissy went spiralling through the water pulled by the massive great white, I pulled my feet up onto the chair as young Alex Kintner came to a nasty end on a rubber yellow floatie mattress, I scrunched my nose when Quint scratched his nasty fisherman nails down the chalkboard at the press conference and I jumped pretty damn high when Brody was chumming and that big head comes out of the water leading to the immortal line (ad libbed by Roy Scheider) ‘You’re gonna need a bigger boat’.
DUDE. Spielberg took hold of my head with both his hands, cracked it open and poured in a love of films in the first 25 minutes of that film. The editing alone is SUPERB. Almost without equal for its time - especially since it was edited in Verna Fields summer house and done mostly by hand. Jaws was massively over budget, they kept waiting for the studio to shut them down because they were only getting an hour or so of filming done each day and Spielberg was convinced it was going to be a horrendous failure. Not the most auspicious start for the young 27 year old. He could not have been more wrong.
Instead, it was the first of the big blockbusters. It creamed the opposition in the box office and heralded the dawning of a new moneymaking Hollywood era. I have the 25th Anniversary edition and I hear that the 30th doesn’t have a lot of new stuff – but if you get a chance, the extra’s on the DVD are pretty cool. Lots of tales about how the shark was constantly broken . . . poor Bruce, he didn’t move too great, he looked plastic and he almost never worked properly but! the fact that they had such problems with him is why the shark is hardly ever seen – which adds fantastically to the atmospheric quality of the film.
I can rave on for ages about this film, about the scenes shot in a backyard pool, about all the adlibbing Robert Shaw did, including that brilliant scene where he talks about being on the USS Indianapolis. I can go on and on about shark triva, I can tell you the story of the two actors who played Mrs Kintner and her son meeting accidentally at a restaurant owned by one of them years later, I can point out Peter Benchley in a cameo appearance in the film. I can blather about how much I love the cheesy Jaws 3D - hee! and that I quite enjoy Jaws 2 as well for its teen horror feel. I can (and most likely will) rave about how the underwater shark scenes (live ones) were shot in the Great Australian Bite by Ron and Valerie Taylor. I can tell you how freaking angry I got the first time I watched Jaws The Revenge (gah) and Sean Brody died in the first ten minutes. The scream of 'but Brody's don't DIE' must have been heard all over the neighbourhood.
Sigh.
I love the bollocks out of this film.
Happy 30th anniversary Jaws. Thanks for all the memories.
Love Tallulah
xx