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“Anti-shark cage. You go inside the cage? Cage goes in the water, you go in the water. Shark’s in the water. Our shark.” – trailer for JAWS (1975). Steven Spielberg’s classic Universal horror film is considered one of Hollywood’s finest achievements in terror. The cast is phenomenal, a trio of actors that will never be equaled: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss. The Black Saint and Doc Rotten tackle another groovy horror film from the 1970s.
Decades of Horror 1970s
Episode 18 — Jaws (1975)
Part 1 w/ The Black Saint, Doc Rotten, Dave Dreher and Thomas Mariani
with Special Guest-Host Bill Oberst, Jr.
Joining The Black Saint and Doc Rotten are joined by their Horror News Radio colleagues, Thomas Mariani and Dave Dreher, to dive into the waters off of Amity Island as Sheriff Martin Brody, Bartholomew M. Quint and Matt Hooper battle a 25 tons of man-eating machine, a great white shark named “Bruce.” Just to make sure the shark does not swim up and bite us in the ass, we have a very special guest-host joining us to discuss seeing JAWS for the first time back in 1975, the extraordinary and prolific actor Bill Oberst, Jr.
There is a creature alive today that has survived millions of years of evolution without change, without passion and without logic. It lives to kill; a mindless eating machine. It will attack and devour anything. It is as if God created the Devil and gave him… Jaws.
We want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans: leave us a message or leave a comment on the site or email the Decades of Horror 1970s podcast hosts at theblacksaint@decadesofhorror.com or docrotten@decadesofhorror.com.
Be sure to catch Bill Oberst, Jr. on stage performing a one-man show of Ray Bradbury’s 1948 novella Pillar Of Fire described as “50 minutes of pure prose magic from the Master Of Imagination” by Hollywood Fringe.
http://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/2496
Great episode. You made me really want to be part of the conversation. For me, Jaws is a perfect film. I can’t think of a scene, character or line of dialogue that should be omitted or wouldn’t be missed if it were taken out. There are two films for me that are like operas: these large musical pieces that you have to experience from beginning to end and you know every line of dialogue and every musical cue and sound effect. Jaws is one and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is the other.
Personally I don’t think Jaws is a gory film. The focus on blood and dismembered body parts are minimally displayed in the film until the very end. The film is captivating and frightening through its use of suspense. I showed my twin 9 year olds daughters the film early this year (I know, bad Dad) and they were captivated by it. The funny thing is they weren’t so much scared during the film as they were more morbidly fascinated by what was going on. They reminded me of Jonesy when he saw Brett being attacked and abducted by the alien. Just an utter horrid fascination. Of course it helped that I kept reminding them that it was only a made up story.
As for my favorite character, it has to be Hooper. He’s something of the comedy relief in this film. Dreyfuss’ portrayal of a likeable but arrogant know it all is beautifully contrasted with Quint’ s work experience background. His many lines of sarcastic reactions (“They’re all gonna die†about a group of men overloading a boat) to his declaration of winning the argument about having the greatest injury (“Mary Ellen Moffat. She broke my heart.â€) are a small sampling of the many quick witted lines that Hooper delivers and relates to me the most. Besides he’s the only one presumably to break the fourth wall during an expression of frustration.
Finally, Jaws should never be remade. Like I stated at the beginning of my long post: How can you improve upon perfection.
Great show and looking forward to Part 2.
Luis, thanks for the feedback. JAWS is perfection. And a film dear to my heart. It is also a film that was on both my “must discuss list” and my “steer clear list” – eventually, mostly due to 40th anniversary – it won over with the MUST DISCUSS.
And I am so glad we did. We recorded part two tonight (as you were writing your feedback) and it too is a delightful entertaining and informative look back at Spielberg’s timeless classic.
Thanks for listening.