Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: JAWS

This is topic JAWS in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 06-05-2011, 04:42 PM:

CINEMA: Landmark's Esquire, Denver Colorado
AUDITORIUM: 1 (downstairs)
FORMAT: 35mm Scope/ Original Mono.
PRINT: A- (just a few minor scratches)
PRESENTATION: Sound and picture were great. Comments from the peanut gallery were annoying. Landmark needs to do a better job of shutting people up.

I've seen JAWS in the theatre about a dozen times over the past couple of decades, and it never fails to impress on the big screen. I hope I still have the chance to take my kids to see it when they are old enough.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 06-05-2011, 06:18 PM:

I recently handled a 35mm print that had SRD and was not mono. Judging from amplifier activity, it looked like full 5.1

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 06-05-2011, 10:08 PM:

I've heard it on 35mm in both mono and 5.1 I loved the mono mix, but the 5.1 really brings the music out. Even though the 5.1 mix has some new effects created, the music is so good that I preferred the 5.1.

AJG

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 06-05-2011, 10:24 PM:

How was the color? Any idea if it was an original print or a reprint?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-07-2011, 08:40 PM:

JAWS seems to be getting a lot of attention lately. I've been seeing ads around the Net for the audiobook version-- which I bought since it's one of my favorite books. I listened to the book over the past week or so, and then last night I watched the DVD. It makes the story seem to move lightning-fast as compared with the book!

My favorite parts of the movie are Quint's smartass remarks ("I see you brought your rubbers!"), and Hooper's arguments with the mayor ("You're going to ignore this particular problem until it swims up and bites you in the ass!")

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 06-07-2011, 08:49 PM:

That was a fun summer of 1975 when "Jaw'd" came out-Spielberg introduced to us, 'the summer blockbuster movie'.

I didn't run the movie until the following spring at a 2nd run theatre.

True though, wonder if it was the original Eastman release (since this wasn't an IB release), or a reprint.

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 06-07-2011, 11:06 PM:

"Here lies the body of Mary Lee. Died at the age of a hundred and three. For fifteen years she kept here virginity. Not a bad record for this vicinity."

Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 06-08-2011, 12:27 AM:

The color on the print I saw was good. A few scenes felt a little "muddier" than i had remembered from other screenings over the past few years. I have seen (heard) JAWS in 5.1 in the theatre once or twice out in the SF Bay area, but I think this was mono. My completely amateur guess is that this print was 5-10 years old, from before the 5.1 release.

Posted by Ian Parfrey (Member # 5122) on 06-08-2011, 05:06 AM:

And shot in really real anamorphic, too!
A comparison to Super 35/video origination and/or DI would be an eye opener.

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 06-08-2011, 08:58 AM:

Original release British prints were dye-transfer Technicolor. Original release American prints were Eastmancolor. I got to see an original release British print a while back, and wow, it looked good.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 06-08-2011, 12:24 PM:

"Amity MEANS friendship."

Posted by Victor Liorentas (Member # 5272) on 06-08-2011, 01:22 PM:

If you don't get it right square,I blow your ass out the little round window on the side!Come on chief this ain't no boy scout picnic, see you got your rubbers!

Posted by Jim Bedford (Member # 4) on 06-09-2011, 09:04 AM:

Corrected quotes from Quint:

quote:

~ Front - bow, back - stern. Ya get it wrong, squirt, I'll throw your ass out the little round window in the side.~

~ Break it up, will ya, Chief. Daylight's wasting...Come on, Chief. This isn't no Boy Scout picnic. See you got your rubbers! Ha, ha, ha.~

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 06-09-2011, 10:49 AM:

"JOWLS" scary pig movie. Louis

Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 06-10-2011, 10:50 PM:

The thing I remember most about Jaws is that it is really two separate movies: the first half which takes place on land and the second half out on the water on Quint's boat.

The dividing point of the two halfs of Jaws is almost exactly half way through the movie in Reel 4. In order to fit the seven reels onto two hour long reels it was necessary for me to split Reel 4. The point where I chose to divide Reel 4 was the last scene on land with the second hour long reel starting with the boat leaving the harbor heading out to sea.

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 06-10-2011, 11:35 PM:

Ooooo boy. So you cut a reel in half and added cue marks to it? What's wrong with having a second change-over?

Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 06-11-2011, 10:42 AM:

No cue marks - just changeover foil.

Posted by Victor Liorentas (Member # 5272) on 06-11-2011, 12:22 PM:

This explain why many prints I have seen have what looks like a end of reel wear at that point.
2 prints i have show signs of it.

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 06-11-2011, 03:44 PM:

Well I guess that is one time where we can honestly say that reel-to-reel theaters treated a print WORSE than a plattered multiplex would have.

Posted by Andy Frodsham (Member # 4061) on 06-11-2011, 04:24 PM:

I'd always run to a third reel and second changeover in such circumstances. Nothing can excuse deliberately mutilating a print.

Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 06-11-2011, 06:32 PM:

People - you have to remember we are talking about 1975. There were no platters around at that point (at least none anywhere that I worked at that time). The first time I ran a platter was not until late 1978.

In the case of Jaws .... we were running it at a twin theatre on both sides simultaneously ... with but one print! This was very common in those days. The shows would be scheduled to start every hour (e.g. 1:00 on screen #1, 2:15 on screen #2, 3:30 on screen #1, 4:45 on screen #2, etc.). You had to rotate the print back and forth between the two screens up in the booth. In these situations it made it a lot easier to make the movie fit on two 6,000 foot reels. (Often because of the size of various individual reels this was the only way you could do this and meet the scheduled showtimes.) Never any "mutilation" (nothing missing or taken out) .... just a re-arrangement of the reel breaks.

Whenever I had to split a reel I tried very hard to find a natural break point such as a fade out/fade in or a major scene change where the continunity shifted. For Jaws it was where the land scenes ended and the boat went out on the water. And this turned out to be almost exactly half way time wise for the entire feature.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-11-2011, 08:34 PM:

quote: Jonathan M. Crist
Never any "mutilation"

Sorry buddy, you're not gonna win this one. ANY intentional splice is "mutilation" and will make the print look worse over time.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 06-14-2011, 12:00 PM:

Wow, "JAWS" make the No.1 Most Scariest Movie on REELZ Channel.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 06-14-2011, 02:36 PM:

quote: Jonathan M. Crist
In these situations it made it a lot easier to make the movie fit on two 6,000 foot reels. (Often because of the size of various individual reels this was the only way you could do this and meet the scheduled showtimes.) Never any "mutilation" (nothing missing or taken out) .... just a re-arrangement of the reel breaks.

We sometimes are called upon to "do what we have to do." I get it. but splicing the movie like that...well...it kinda sounds like mutilation to me.

Did you re-mark the print with new changeover cues? Coz that's even more mutilation, in addition to the splices.

Question: What was wrong with the original reel breaks? Were you unwilling to have a 3rd reel?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-14-2011, 04:08 PM:

Manny - if you go back and read his most recent posts, he explains why he did it, and also that there were no c/o marks, just foil.

But that doesn't make it right! [Big Grin]

Posted by Victor Liorentas (Member # 5272) on 06-14-2011, 04:58 PM:

I remember the Odeon 1 in London had the reels either doubled up or maybe 6000 ft reels but they always changed over to a solo reel 7.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 06-14-2011, 05:06 PM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
Manny - if you go back and read his most recent posts, he explains why he did it, and also that there were no c/o marks, just foil.

Thanks - Somehow I missed that. The foil cues that bug me are the ones that cover the soundtrack area. Unfortunately, sometimes the operator doesn't have much choice in the matter.

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 06-15-2011, 05:55 PM:

I was helping out at a 700 seat theatre when this film came out. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the entire audience react when the fishermans head came rolling out of the hole in the wrecked boat... Everybody pushed back in their seats... like a giant wave. I loved it.

When I graduated high school, we went to Myrtle Beach, SC for graduation hijinx. Jaws was in the theatre on the other side of US 17. Already, there were people that were just wading in the water, and not swimming.

It was the first film I got when I bought my laserdisc player... DiscoVision!

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 08-23-2012, 11:14 PM:

It has been 435 days since the last post.

Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 08-23-2012, 11:14 PM:

Saw JAWS tonight at the Century Boulder. Digital print, presumably based on the new master from the recent BluRay release. Auditorium 9.

Not sure if it was 2k or 4k. The movie had that "mushy" low-contrast digital look. Outdoor/ daytime scenes looked good. Screen was decently large (~40'?). A thin strip of the image was projected above the screen, which was slightly annoying.

Audio was good, with more bass and a wider front soundstage than I remembered. The final word in Brody's line "Smile you son of a bitch!" was inaudible, as folks have been complaining about on the BluRay.

Wow, what a great movie! I enjoyed it more than I expected, especially having seen it in the theatre less than a year ago. I was smiling through most of the movie, absorbing it all and noticing little things I hadn't noticed before. And I saw it with a few folks who had not seen it before, and had a great time.

Looking forward to Raiders in two weeks, even in LieMax. Planning to see it at the AMC Orchard based on some comments by Joe in another thread...

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 08-23-2012, 11:31 PM:

quote: Geoff Jones
The final word in Brody's line "Smile you son of a bitch!" was inaudible

Perhaps it was replaced with a walkie-talkie squelch?

I like the movie myself. The only thing that bores me to tears is when they're on the boat at night. They get to talking and singing and I really have to work hard to understand what's-his-face's accent. That makes the entire scene a chore and it goes on for far too long.

I have also noticed that Early Spielberg likes to have two simultaneous conversations going in during at least one scene in each movie. I don't like this and glad he gave that nonsense up.

Posted by Tim Asten (Member # 4051) on 08-24-2012, 04:08 PM:

Quints USS Indianapolis speech, just for Joe... [Smile]

Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss): You were on the Indianapolis?

Brody (Roy Scheider): What happened?

Quint: Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, chief. It was comin' back, from the island of Tinian to Laytee, just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. Thirteen footer. You know how you know that when you're in the water, chief? You tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know... was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. Huh huh. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, chief. The sharks come cruisin'. So we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know it's... kinda like ol' squares in battle like a, you see on a calendar, like the battle of Waterloo. And the idea was, the shark comes to the nearest man and that man, he'd start poundin' and hollerin' and screamin' and sometimes the shark would go away. Sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a shark, he's got...lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin'. Until he bites ya and those black eyes roll over white. And then, ah then you hear that terrible high pitch screamin' and the ocean turns red and spite of all the poundin' and the hollerin' they all come in and rip you to pieces.
Y'know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men! I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand! I don't know how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday mornin' chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player, boson's mate. I thought he was asleep, reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up and down in the water, just like a kinda top. Up ended. Well... he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us, he swung in low and he saw us. He's a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper, anyway he saw us and come in low. And three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and start to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened? Waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water, three hundred and sixteen men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 08-24-2012, 04:45 PM:

quote: Geoff Jones
Saw JAWS tonight at the Century Boulder. Digital print, presumably based on the new master from the recent BluRay release. Auditorium 9.

Not sure if it was 2k or 4k. The movie had that "mushy" low-contrast digital look. Outdoor/ daytime scenes looked good. Screen was decently large (~40'?). A thin strip of the image was projected above the screen, which was slightly annoying.

Audio was good, with more bass and a wider front soundstage than I remembered. The final word in Brody's line "Smile you son of a bitch!" was inaudible, as folks have been complaining about on the BluRay.

Wow, what a great movie! I enjoyed it more than I expected, especially having seen it in the theatre less than a year ago. I was smiling through most of the movie, absorbing it all and noticing little things I hadn't noticed before. And I saw it with a few folks who had not seen it before, and had a great time.

Looking forward to Raiders in two weeks, even in LieMax. Planning to see it at the AMC Orchard based on some comments by Joe in another thread...

The Hanover Maryland Cinemark showed this yesterday on their XD screen. 7.1 audio and all. Strange that the projected image would be 'mushy' since it's a DCP.

Sounds like your theater overmatted the image. With the film screening on the XD screen at the Egyptian - there would have been black borders framing the top and bottom of the screen.

Posted by Victor Liorentas (Member # 5272) on 08-24-2012, 04:58 PM:

I showed it in from an original near mint IB Technicolor print with the mono sound running through a 31 band eq for a powerful Jaws presentation that closely mirrors seeing it in a good theater in 1975!
We played it 3 times and made a small fortune!
In this case the bluray hype really helped.
I wonder if it will still work next summer with everyone now owning a Jaws bluray?
I hope so...

Posted by Brent Francis (Member # 5008) on 08-30-2012, 11:32 AM:

Funny about Quint's speech... it's the one that I keep hearing singled out in reviews as the best piece of writing in the movie. (That & the fact it was written by an uncredited John Milius).

Posted by Victor Liorentas (Member # 5272) on 08-30-2012, 12:26 PM:

First his speech was a outlined by Howard Sackler then Milius wrote 10 pages. So then Robert Shaw re wrote it down to 5 pages.
Another interesting thing is how Indianapolis was only declassified when the film was being made.
Much of the world first learned about it through Jaws!

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 09-01-2014, 09:29 PM:

It has been 732 days since the last post.

Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 09-01-2014, 09:29 PM:

Saw JAWS tonight at the Alamo Drafthouse.
Presentation was 4K according to their site: http://drafthouse.com/movies/jaws1/denver
I couldn't see any jagged stair-steps in the credits, so maybe it really was 4K. The dark areas sure were muddy though.

Great movie. My 10 year old daughter and her friend both had fun seeing it for the first time.

Hey Universal, let's see a wide release for the 40th anniversary next year!

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 09-01-2014, 11:47 PM:

True, since "JAWS", released in 1975, was the first feature to begin the "Summer Blockbuster" trend that continues today.

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 09-02-2014, 01:49 AM:

The Original JAWS is the one they should have made in 3D instead of that 3rd version Joke w/ Dennis Quaid. When I saw it at the FOX Theater in 75;The audience jumped and yelled when Ben Gardner's head came out of the hole in the Boat's Bow; and when Brodie is tossing Chum off the stern of the boat and "BRUCE" leaps out of the Water. Remember Brodie's famous line,"Your gonna need a bigger boat" [thumbsup]

If an audience jumped back in their seats on those 2 scenes in 2D version;they would probably have to have a Nurse on Duty for a 3D VERSION. [Roll Eyes]

2015 will be the 40th anniversary of JAW'S,I'm hoping UNIVERSAL will do a special Re-release in the same 3D Format as AVATAR. I want to jump out of my seat again 40 years later... [Eek!]

Bruce's leap of Faith! This scene scared the hell out of movie audiences in 75...3D would be even more SCARY!

Posted by Terry Lynn-Stevens (Member # 7349) on 09-06-2014, 02:29 AM:

quote:
2015 will be the 40th anniversary of JAW'S,I'm hoping UNIVERSAL will do a special Re-release in the same 3D Format as AVATAR. I want to jump out of my seat again 40 years later... [Eek!]

I really hope they do not make a 3-D version of Jaws. They should leave great films alone.