JAWS

What can I say about Jaws? I'll start by admitting that the main reason I enrolled in the 70's class was because I couldn't pas up an opportunity to see Jaws in the screening room. This film makes the list of my favorite three films of all time. It is always a pleasure to watch, and I notice something new with every viewing.

First of all, I feel that this film is about homage. I feel that the story owes a lot to Hitchcock's The Birds. From the island setting, to the enemy being a force of nature, there are many parallels in these two films. The scene when Hooper goes into the water to examine the abandoned boat he and Brody come across brings to mind a similar scene in The Birds with Jessica Tandy. In Hitchcock's film, Jessica Tandy goes upstairs into the home of a local farmer and finds him dead, his eyes having been plucked out by the birds. When Hooper inspects the boat of a local fisherman, he finds the fisherman dead, one eye hanging from its socket. Jaws is also a film that inspires homage. There is a scene in Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy in which the characters are sitting in a booth much like the one in the Orca, comparing scars like Hooper and Quinn do in Jaws.

This film also reminds me of my personal history. I can remember many nights as a child watching Jaws with my mother. Every time we watched it, she would tell me the stories of she and her friends refusing to even get into a swimming pool after seeing the movie in the theaters. She would also tell me the differences between the movie and the original novel. I listened to her tell me about how Hooper had died in the book every time, although I had heard the stories before. For that reason, Jaws will always remind me of my mother.

Jaws is truly a classic film. It single-handedly changed 70s cinema. Every element of the film is amazing, from the acting, to the soundtrack, to the special effects. There is nothing superfluous about this movie, with every scene being absolutely necessary by moving the story along. I might just claim that Jaws is the perfect film.

The Conversation

This was a great film. It was good enough that I found myself on Friday night trying to explain the movie to my intoxicated, uninterested friends. It fully embodies the paranoia of technology that was such influence in 70s culture.

One can't help but relate this movie to the Watergate scandal. It wasn't just that Watergate made the American public, especially the younger generation, doubt their government. Watergate also pointed out just how far surveillance technology had come. If government officials could have their phone conversations recorded and be unaware, then what chance did the general public have? It seemed that if anyone could be recorded at anytime. This film certainly didn't put any paranoid fears to sleep.

I also enjoyed the film's theme of obsession. We watched this man's spiral into a debilitating fixation about this girl and her situation. Everything he did was for her. It was interesting character development and I found it fitting that the film ended with him sitting amidst the result of his obsessive personality.

The Parallax View

Some thoughts on the opening and ending sequences:

The opening parade scene in very communist looking. The colors are primary red and the marchers seem to be primarily Asian, both images that would symbolize Communism to American audiences. This scene immediately precedes the first assassination.

The closing parade scene is very patriotic. The tables are red, white, and blue. The marching band is dressed in blue and they are primarily white in ethnicity. These images, completed by the enormous pictures of the Presidents create a very American scene. This scene is followed by the second assassination.

This seems to tell the viewer that the conspiracy is everywhere...