JAWS

Directed by Steven Spielberg, 1975.

Date: Sep 17th, 2005. Format: Dvd. Surrounding: Tampere. Previous views: Feb 1992.

I remember myself visiting a movie poster store in London in 1990 and admiring a very very large Jaws poster, thinking, how in the hell could I carry that to aeroplane. I really didn't know that posters can be THAT big. And I hadn't even seen Jaws then, but always liked that then already legendary poster. What happened was that I somehow felt myself disappointed, got angry and mad and walked fast out of the store to just go with the stream. My mother and brother lost me for a while, got worried and rushed after me.. What might have happened if I would have just keepen on walking? Where would I be now? I was 12 years old and quite helpless, so I stopped and they catched me very fast.

There were certain films on television in the late 1980's which were talked a lot next day in school. Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, for example. And Jaws. I never watched these kind of films for some reason or even asked a permission to watch. Don't know why, maybe I was protecting myself from something. Then, later, when I watched Jaws on video, I was quite surprised how far it was from that what I had thought. It felt almost realistic film about shark! It's still my favorite of those Spielberg's blockbuster films which try to shock audiences. Especially I like the brilliant beach sequences. The audience is sensing the threat somehow, but the people in the film are just having fun, enjoying themselves and their swimming bodies, and then it happens so suddenly; the teeth meets the flesh and the water meets the blood.. So anonymously and naturally. Robert Shaw's death is almost unbelievable shock still in these days. I like the theme music, but profoundly speaking, how truly effective thriller this would be without John Williams' adventurous score.. Spielberg should have also used the scene where that one man is in the teeth of the shark and vomits blood but is still carrying a child in his hands to safe. He thought it was too sick.

Making film history as the first real blockbuster film, Jaws got a special treatment from me. I made an honour to it by drinking Coke and eating chips, which I do very very rarely. Only usually when watching Oscars of Finnish elections.. ****