S.M. Douglas

Welcome to the home of author S.M. Douglas.

Category: Action / Adventure (page 2 of 3)

Star Wars In The News

Needless to say with the upcoming December 18th release of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens all things Star Wars are everywhere. Now some may bemoan this marketing blitz, but this is nothing new.

Back in the Star Wars “golden age” of the late 1970’s to early 1980’s we also had marketing appearances by the actors, toy promotions, and all kinds of other fun stuff. And yet those efforts to further capitalize on the immense popularity of George Lucas’ creation seemed so much more innocent. Continue reading

Twenty Things I Bet You Never Knew About The Making of Jaws

If you are a fan of the movie Jaws then you know that tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of the film’s release (June 20, 1975). Last month I discussed some of the reasons Jaws may have been the greatest horror film ever as part of a follow up to a previous discussion of nature-horror films. What many people don’t know is that quite a bit of “movie magic” went into the making of Jaws.

Making of Jaws

Let’s take a look at some fun facts about the making of Jaws even hard core fans of the film might not know:

1. Peter Benchley (author of the novel Jaws) spent his summers on Nantucket (where his parents lived). Yet prior to the movie’s filming he had never set foot on Martha’s Vineyard (the location chosen for filming) even though it was literally the island next door.

2. Though Jaws Production Designer Joe Alves immediately fell in love with Martha’s Vineyard it was the island’s underwater charms that sealed the deal. The seabed off Martha’s Vineyard’s eastern shore has a flat sandy bottom crucial for deploying the platform that would move the mechanical shark they had designed.

3. Steven Spielberg was not the first choice to direct Jaws. However when the original director chosen first met with Peter Benchley and the producers he completely alienated Benchley by constantly referring to Jaws as a whale. Producer Richard Zanuck promptly turned to Spielberg, whom he had worked with on the film The Sugarland Express.

4. The mechanical shark was named “Bruce” after Steven Spielberg’s attorney Bruce Ramer.

5. Led by Casting Director Shari Rhodes, the Jaws team ended up using Martha’s Vineyard locals for the overwhelming majority of the roles in the film. In fact, other than Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, and Murray Hamilton, pretty much everybody else cast in the film was a local – including all of the kids, most of the fishermen, and even Jeffrey Kramer who played Deputy Hendricks.

6. Quint’s boat, the Orca, is actually a 30 foot retired lobster boat named Warlock. The pulpit, mast, and big plate glass windows seen in the movie were all add-ons. This was much to the detriment of the vessel’s seaworthiness. The big plate glass windows were a particular no-no. A wave could easily punch right through the windows and swamp the boat. Surprisingly the Orca actually survived the filming process (a replica was produced for the sinking scenes).

7. Much of the script was reworked during principal filming (which began on May 2, 1974). Carl Gottlieb was the principal writer, but Scheider and Shaw made now legendary contributions to the script. A dozen more had a hand in creating some of the film’s best lines. For instance local resident Henry Carreiro played “Felix” in the film. During the fishing armada scene when Richard Dreyfuss (playing Hooper) asks where he can find a good restaurant Carreiro ad-libbed the line about walking straight ahead (and off the dock). Everyone laughed, and Spielberg decided to go with it. Though Spielberg takes flack for his work on Jaws, he should actually get considerable credit for creating such an open collaborative process and knowing when a good line worked no matter who it came from.

8. Local Vineyard waitress Andrea Muir “played” Chrissie’s hand during the scene when her remains are discovered on the beach. Muir spent hours laying on the beach with her hand made-up to look like it had been floating all night at sea.

9. Robert Shaw modeled Quint’s salty language and personality off two of the most colorful islanders: Craig Kingsbury and Lynn Murphy. Both played key roles in helping with production of the film. Murphy in particular was an expert sailor who time and again bailed out the production team; particularly involving the filming of the movie’s third act.

10. Roy Scheider was slapped in the face seventeen times filming the scene where he is confronted by Alex Kintner’s mother. Luckily he was a former Golden Gloves boxer and could take it.

11. The scene at the dinner table where Roy Scheider and Jay Mello (the six year old local boy playing his son) are copy catting each other initially occurred during a break in filming. Scheider brought it to Spielberg’s attention, and Spielberg liked it so much he put it in the movie.

12. The filming technique “day for night” is used to do most of the night scenes, whereby they actually film during the day but with a special filter on the camera. It was popular in the sixties and seventies, but didn’t work all that well. In Jaws it was more convincing by using techniques such as filming on overcast days and doing additional work in the lab to create the feel of night.

13. Great efforts were put into making the mechanical sharks look realistic. This included spray-painting them with a rubberized paint to make the skin like rough shark skin. The teeth were actually made out of a substance that was similar to rubber. There were two sets, one hard for biting boats and one softer for biting people. The sharks ended up quite impressive looking for the day, but obviously were lacking in many ways. I would love to see what someone could do today instead of relying on all the cartoonish CGI bullshit. Sorry for the editorializing, but sometimes creating real physical special effects works wonders for making a movie an experience. If you don’t believe me then you should go see the new Mad Max (pure movie making with almost no CGI) and then watch the new Jurassic Park (a cartoon fest).

14. Robert Shaw really was hammered off his ass for the Indianapolis scene (all three actors were drinking). And he still rocked it. The man was a genius (plus he could hold his liquor).

15. The dirty ditty sung by Quint about the lady who died at 103 and “for fifteen years she kept her virginity….not a bad record for this vicinity” came from a gravestone Robert Shaw saw in England and added into the script.

16. The guitar player on the beach at the beginning of the film is playing a stylized version of Otis Redding’s “The Dock of the Bay”.

17. The scenes shot on the sinking Orca were mostly done within one hundred yards of the beach.

18. Robert Shaw and his stunt double had to wear a special padded vest to protect themselves from the shark teeth during the filming of Quint’s demise. Though the teeth were rubber they and the jaws snapped hard enough to deliver quite a chomp.

19. Not all water scenes were shot at Martha’s Vineyard. The shark cage sequence was a composite of real sharks shot in Australia and a swimming pool in California. Ben Gardner’s boat discovery scene was also shot in the same pool, as were the scenes of the swimmer’s from below.

20. To get the sea gulls to swarm around after the shark is blown up and Brody and Hooper are kicking to shore potato chips were scattered all over the water (which apparently sea gulls love).

 

 

Was the Greatest Horror Movie Ever Really a Horror Movie?

Last month we discussed the topic of “nature-horror” and as part of that discussion the movie Jaws came up. Given we are fast approaching the forty year anniversary of the film’s release (June 20, 1975) let’s revisit one big reason why it was able to become a massive blockbuster, unlike Grizzly, Orca, Piranha, and so on….

Jaws_Movie_Poster_

First off, remember that Jaws is widely regarded as one of the best horror films ever, with the opening scene rated by Bravo as the scariest moment in film history.

People were so terrified by Jaws many spoke of being afraid to even take baths. Now some of this is hyperbole, but as a kid I more than once found myself peeking under the water in fear when in a swimming pool or lake, no less the ocean. That didn’t stop me from watching the movie over and over again. To this day it is my all-time favorite, and a huge influence on my life – including a primary reason behind my twenty plus years as a scuba diver.

When people discuss why Jaws became such a cultural phenomenon they often point to the strong cast, John William’s great score, the superb editing done by Verna Fields, the decision to leave the shark unseen for most of the movie (though this can backfire as anybody who has seen the latest Godzilla film will attest), and other such elements. But I believe there is another reason Jaws achieved the cross-over appeal most other horror flicks can only dream about; and that’s because Jaws was more than a horror movie.

Now, many of my readers will blanch at such a statement. After all what is more quintessentially horror than a giant man-eating shark laying siege to an entire town? But careful viewers of Jaws will note that it’s really two movies. The first half is an unquestionable scare fest featuring numerous gruesome deaths capped by the bloody shark attack in the estuary. The second half is more of a man versus nature adventure film. Don’t get me wrong the final act is also filled with classic horror techniques, including many “gotcha” moments to make the audience jump – plus Quint’s ghastly death. But that’s also why the film works so well where others fail.

In combining the genres of horror, adventure, and even comedic aspects Jaws connects with the viewer in ways standard horror movies struggle to emulate. The strong character development, intense pacing, and story don’t hurt either. But without blending genres as he did I seriously doubt Steven Spielberg and the immensely creative team of actors, screenwriters, editors, and so on working with him would have been able to so viscerally tap into our most primal fears. And before you say “well if mashing together different genres is the ticket to the big-time then why doesn’t everybody do it” note that doing it in a way that works is far from an easy task. One need look no further than Peter Benchley’s novel of the same name.

Sure Jaws the book was a best seller that achieved tremendous success, but when measured against the movie version it is one of the few books that comes out the loser in such comparisons. For instance, and for whatever reason (perhaps to piggyback on the Godfather’s coattails) Benchley included a mafia related sub-plot that simply did not work with the horror/adventure genre’s he tied together and Spielberg’s team improved upon. That’s why come June 20th I will plop down on my couch, dim the lights low, and not crack open my early edition hard cover copy of Jaws. Instead, and for the hundredth time, I will pop into my Blue-Ray player this all-time classic. And I will love every minute of it.

 

Thoughts on The Recent Godzilla Movie

In May I, like many others, ventured out to the local movie theater to watch the latest incarnation of Godzilla. I’ll be honest, I initially enjoyed the movie. In fact Gareth Edwards created a wonderful film. It was thoughtful, the beginning of the film featuring Bryan Cranston, playing American engineer Joe Brody at a nuclear power plant in Japan, offered a particularly interesting lead in to the Godzilla concept. A genuine sense of both personal loss and climactic foreboding pervaded the film’s first half hour. In short, and unlike so many other Hollywood blockbusters it offered a real story.

Now, this does not take away from decent size plot holes in the film, and a somewhat bland generic feel to the protagonist (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson), Joe Brody’s navy officer son Ford. However, the supporting cast beyond Cranston is quite solid and generally the acting is not the issue with the film, nor is the plot, neither is the special effects (which were spectacular), or the attempt to link the film to very real underlying themes of the threat posed by nuclear power (much as did the first Godzilla of sixty years ago), and man’s general impotence in the face of nature. As such I walked out of the theater that Saturday late spring afternoon feeling that all in all it wasn’t a bad movie….but for one nagging problem that at the time I was willing to put aside.

Fast forward to two weeks ago. I was on a flight home from Europe. After six hours of reading and whatnot I was looking for more of a distraction for the last hour and a half of the flight. It wasn’t enough time to watch a movie I had not seen (something I did on the way there the week before – if you have not seen Snowpiercer do so – it is probably the best original Science Fiction film since District 9). But it was enough time to cue up something I had enjoyed enough on a previous viewing. Hence I picked Godzilla. And an hour and a half later and with the numerous interruptions provided by the pilot announcing one thing or another about our impending landing what had I seen? A significant chunk of a movie named Godzilla without seeing hardly anything of the actual Godzilla. And that my friends is the biggest problem with this film.

The fight scenes between the monsters or the monsters and the military, when they do happen, are spectacular.

Godzilla_2014_Image_San_Fran_Bay

But they are so brief in time, even the final battle is not more than a couple of minutes, that the movie commits perhaps the cardinal sin of a reboot of a popular franchise. It sidelines the very reason anyone is watching the movie in the first place: that being Godzilla himself. I get that the director, Gareth Edwards, wanted to offer a tribute to the first great Godzilla film, but that’s just it; this isn’t the first time anyone has seen Godzilla. It’s the thousandth time. Thus, any new Godzilla film better have Godzilla. Especially one as terrifying as the monster Edward’s team came up with; undoubtedly the finest rendition of any Godzilla – ever.

Godzilla_2014_Image

Thus the film serves as a cautionary warning. If you are going to make a monster movie, don’t forget the monster.

Richard Kiel “Jaws” Dies at 74

Richard Kiel, famous for his role as the James Bond villain “Jaws” in the 1970’s Bond films The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker has passed away just a few days shy of his seventy fifth birthday. The 7 foot 2 inch actor was born in Detroit Michigan in 1939. Though he appeared in a number of other films and television shows his role in the James Bond films will forever be remembered. the-spy-who-loved-me-jaws-richard-kiel

Older posts Newer posts

© 2024 S.M. Douglas

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑