Latest / The Front / Jaws at 50: We’re gonna need a bigger cinema

Transcript

Jaws at 50: We’re gonna need a bigger cinema · The Front

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. This is the weekend edition of the Front.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: I'm Claire Harvey. Jaws, the movie that's haunted anyone that's
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: ever set foot in the ocean, turns fifty this year.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: It's easy to look back and think of Jaws as
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: a guaranteed hit with its mix of sun, suspense and
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: that trademark two note double bass motif. But the opportunities
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: for Jaws to face plant were endless in nineteen seventy five.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Steven Spielberg was young, like twenty six and without a
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: proven record as a director. The main character wasn't an
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: a lister of the day like Jack Nicholson or Clint Eastwood.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: It was a shark. It was based on a book
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: released only a year before the movie was made. It
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: was the first movie where filming on open water was
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: even attempted, but producers went all in on Jaws, throwing
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: a huge marketing budget behind the film along with a
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: wide cinema release. The resulting success created the modern blockbuster template.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Joining me to poke under the hood of this fifty
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: year old mechanical shark is The Australian's film critic Stephen Romay. Stephen,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: you've been back to the cinema to catch up with
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: this movie again in preparation for it being in cinemas
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: this weekend. Were you terrified?
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: I was less terrified this time than when I first
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: saw it when I was about ten years old. But
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: fifty years on it is a great film, and even
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: at my current age, there were a few moments where
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: I jumped from my seat in terror.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: That's quite od. I think I saw it when I
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: was about three, and it scared me out of the
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: water for a lot of time.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: It's scared a lot of people out of the water,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: and it also led to a bit of a crackdown
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: on sharks. Sharks did not get a good deal out
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: of this film, and as it happens, the author of
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: the book on which it's based, Peter Benchley, and his
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: wife Wendy, devoted themselves afterwards to shark protection. So when
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: I saw it as a ten year old, yes, it's
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: a similar feeling. We would go to the beach and
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: you'd be more nervous about going into the water.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: I still sometimes have those double basses playing in my
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: head when i'm that ominous double note. Let's talk first
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: about the sound of Jaws. That signature theme of the
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: shark that introduces the shark before you even see it.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: That's a big part of why Jaws is scary, isn't it?
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: It is?
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: And it's also a really good explanation of what a
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: good film maker Steven Spielberg, the director is because the
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: sharks were robotic sharks and they simply didn't work. They
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: were like driving terrible used cars around the street. They
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: broke down all the time. In fact that the crew
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: had a nickname for the film Flaws. So Spielberg had
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: to work around that. And the way he did it
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: was to make the possibility of the shark the threat
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: the scary part. And so the sound became important in
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: that the well known music as you say, which sort
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: of leads up to a possible shark attack, but also
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: the use of silence.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: So the underwater photography is excellent.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: You're looking at what we look like from a shark's
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: point of view, So you're looking at legs, particularly children's legs,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: treading water, and you just think how vulnerable are those legs.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: And Spielberg mainly uses silence, and the silence is what's
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: scary because the silence could be broke, can very soon
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: by three hundred white teeth gnashing away.
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: It's children's flesh.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Yes, there's something timeless about this film. It doesn't feel
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: like a fifty year old film. I don't feel like
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: it's trapped in the nineteen seventies. But I also think
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: it could have been a nineteen forties film. There are
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: hints of films like The African Queen to me in it.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's the very sort of bogut like nature of
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Roy Scheider. You know, he's got the strong jaw and
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: the kind of mysterious style. But I think one of
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: the differences is the sound. You know, one of the
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: things that spiel were brought at the age of just
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: twenty six was this sophisticated use of the soundtrack with.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: The African Queen. Of course, the predator were leeches.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Now for leeches, you did not need a bigger boat.
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: You've got to need a bigger pot.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: There are some kind of forties fifties touches to the film,
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: particularly between the three main characters beyond the shark, Roy
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Scheider as the police chief, Richard Dreyfus as the marine biologist.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: And Robert Shaw as Quint, the captain of the boat.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: They go out looking for the shark on And this
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: is Spielberg at twenty six, well before Close Encounters, Raiders
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: of Lost Dark Et, Jurassic Park, name them all. He
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: wasn't a particularly well known filmmaker at this time, and
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: once again, what he does so well is prepare you
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: for the possibility of something life threatening without needing to
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: show it. And his previous film Duel in nineteen seventy
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: one about a traveling salesman driving through the desert of
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: California overtaking a semi trailer and the semi trailer got
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: annoyed with him. Now in that film, once again you
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: don't see whoever is driving a semi trailer. Maybe perhaps
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: right at the end you do. But it's the threat
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: without having to see the clear psychopath that makes the
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: film so kind of edge of seat tense.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: And it's the same in Jaws.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about that we're going to need a bigger
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: boat scene. It's actually a comic moment, isn't it.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: It is, And in fact Jaws does have comedy in it,
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: particularly between the three men on the boat. That's an
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: interesting scene because when they first shot at it, it
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: wasn't like that. He sees the shark, and he says,
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: you're going to need a bigger boat straight away.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: When they test screen that before it was released, the
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: audience was so shocked at seeing the shark pop up
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: they didn't hear roy Scheid as lyme, so they went
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: back and reshot it. That's why he walks back into
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: the wheelhouse of the boat and says the line. So
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: that is once again a good bit of filmmaking, responding
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: to an audience seeing the original scene and not hearing
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: the line because they are all going like that.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: That's an interesting point about Spielberg's commercial sensibilities, isn't it.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: In Jaws, Even though he was twenty six and quite raw.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: It's interesting that he was sophisticated enough to listen to
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: what the audience was telling him in a test screening
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: and then change his movie.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Well, that's right, and all people involved in the arts
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: should be responsive to the people they're creating that art
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: for the film. By the way, when they started making
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: it wasn't expected to be a blockbuster at all, and
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: the budget to make it was about three to four
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: million dollars US. It ended up costing about nine million US,
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: so well over budget. It went for far longer than
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: the scheduled shoot because the robot sharks didn't work, but
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Spielberg stuck at it and at the latest numbers I've
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: looked at, its box office returns are close to five
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: hundred million, so not a bad nine million dollars spent.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: What are some of your other favorite scenes.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: One of the most interesting scene is the shark cage dive,
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: when Richard Drivers's character the marine biologist goes down in
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: a shark cage. Now this has a really interesting Australian angle.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: There are some real sharks in Jaws and they are
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: in the shark cage scene, and they were filmed by
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: the Australian documentary makers Ron and Valerie Taylor, and they
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: used a smaller shark cage and a very short actor
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: to make the sharks look bigger. But what happened in
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: the filming of it is the shark did bust open
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: the cage. In real life, the actor got away and
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: they all was well. When they saw that footage, they said,
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: this is so good, we have to keep this in.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: It wasn't originally the plan, and so they kept in
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: the shark cage being busted open by the Shark. We
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: won't reveal exactly what happens to Richard Drivers's character in
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: case you haven't seen this film before, but there's a
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: great line in it when one of the producers of
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: the film said in an interview, he said.
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: That shark from Australia rewrote the script. And it's true.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: They did rewrite the film because of what a real
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: shark in South Australia did in that one scene featuring
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: a real shark.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: You know, I hadn't seen Jaws between the age of
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: three and forty nine. I think I'm forty nine, and
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: I had thought that I would find the shark ridiculous
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: and stupid now and that it wouldn't be scary anymore.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: But I put it on the other night with my
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: husband and he was so horrified that we had to
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: stop watching it after seven minutes. Had to wait for
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: him to go to bed so I could watch it
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: by myself. And I think that's because the victims are
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: first of all, a beautiful young girl, second child. That's
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: another sign of Spielberg's sophistication at the age of twenty six,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: isn't it. He made the victims even though you only
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: see them alive for a short period of time. He
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: kind of made them lovable. You didn't want them to die.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: That's right, And you were hardened to the film, you
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: see by seeing it at three years old, which you
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: might have to ask your parents about. The second victim
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: wasn't the boy. I have to put this in. It
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: was a labrador. Oh, that's right, it was, yes, And
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: I felt for that labrador.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the stick.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: The stick floats back to shore once again. That's how
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: Spielberg made the film. You didn't have to see the
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: labrador being chomped on by the great white. You just
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: saw a stick floating in the water without a dog
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: chasing it.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: He probably couldn't afford a rubber labrador.
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: It probably could not. But you're right.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: The victims are not bad people. The third one is
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: a child, and the scene where the mother of that
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: child confronts the police chief in the street is one
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: of the best scenes in the film. You knew it.
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: You knew there was a shark out there, you knew
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: it was dangerous.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Brodie, the police chief is the hero. Who's the villain.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: When I watched it this week, I have to say
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: I started rooting for the shark. I kind of wanted
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: the shark to eat them all. I felt sorry for
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: the shark. It was just going along doing its shark stuff,
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: shark sharking, you know, firing all these harpoons into it, etc.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: Etc.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: I certainly wanted to eat Quint. The Robert Shaw character
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: the skipper of the boat for one reason alone, which
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: is to stop him singing these stupid sea shanties all
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: the way through about Spanish eyed women.
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: So who is the villain?
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: Well, it's an interesting question because the film kind of
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: unfolds in two halves. The first half is the resort
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: town of Amity, which is fictional but it's on Long Island,
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: and the mayor, I suppose there's a villain because he
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: doesn't want to shut the beach. He says, we need
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: the summer dollars, to which the marine blogist replies, you
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: may be ringing a dinner bell for the shark. So
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: he's the villain at the start. And then the second
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: half of the film, where they go out hunting for
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: the shark. You can make your own mind up as
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: to who's the villain. I'm going to say it's Quint.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Well, Quinn becomes absolutely obsessed with the shark and it
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: kind of becomes about Quint's personal battle with this particular animal.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: Doesn't it.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: It does, And I mean one of the influences, of course,
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: was maybe Dick Herman Melville's novel in which Captain Ahab
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: is obsessed with finding the whale. Quint and a Have
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: are very similar characters, and that was a deliberate kind
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: of nod to that great novel.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: More of my chat with Stephen Rome after the break.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: There's a debate out there in sort of cinema world
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: about whether or not this is a horror film. I
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: don't get that. Why would it not be.
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: It's horrifying, really, I don't think it matters.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: I think it's sort of people getting a bit too
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: hung up on the genre. If you're horrified by it,
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: then you can call it a horror film. I would
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: call it a thriller, but for cares, it is a
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: horrifying film that you can call it whatever you like,
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: except perhaps a romantic comedy.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Finally, how big was Jaws at the time? How big
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: was its impact? And what do you think has been
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: its legacy?
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: It was a one of a kind film. Films about
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: sharks eating people weren't particularly common, and when it came out,
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: it went off. It's set over the summer in the US,
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: just before the July fourth holiday, and they released it
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: at that time in the US, so it came out
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: when everyone was thinking of going to the beach, and
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: it did extraordinarily well at the box office. In fact,
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: it soon became the biggest hit at the box office
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: in film history until two years later, Spielberg's friend George
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: Lucas made a certain film called Star Wars and that
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: became number one.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Stephen, the safe place to be this weekend will be
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: not at the beach, but in the cinema watching Jaws.
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: Yes, indeed, thanks for having me.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us. Stephen Romee is the Australian's film
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: critic and a regular contributor to Review, available every Saturday
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: in The Australian and anytime at the Australian dot Com
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: dot you. This episode of The Front was hosted by
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: me Claire Harvey and produced by Jasper League, who edited
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: the episode and also wrote our theme. Thanks for joining
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: us on the Front this week. Our team also includes
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Kristen amiot Leat, Sammerglue, Tiffany Demack, Josh Burton and Stephanie coons,