Who made it, the shark?
March 1, 2012 1:21 PM   Subscribe

 
"Who made it, th' shaaahk?"
posted by not_on_display at 1:26 PM on March 1, 2012 [7 favorites]


Barry Lyndon, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Jaws, Dog Day Afternoon, Nashville.

What a tremendous year.
posted by cazoo at 1:29 PM on March 1, 2012 [14 favorites]


And what's Spielberg doing hanging out with Joe Spinell? That's probably the strangest thing about that video.
posted by cazoo at 1:31 PM on March 1, 2012 [3 favorites]


"Jaws" is totally outclassed. Still, five classics.
posted by ColdChef at 1:31 PM on March 1, 2012 [2 favorites]


MetaFilter: Can everybody in this room have coffee with the exception of myself who would like a cup of tea?
posted by obscurator at 1:32 PM on March 1, 2012 [5 favorites]


Perhaps the shark wearing a Knicks hat would have brought it more nominations?
posted by obscurator at 1:36 PM on March 1, 2012


Home movies! That was great.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 1:37 PM on March 1, 2012


Perhaps having the shark wear a Yankees hat would have garnered more nominations..
posted by obscurator at 1:38 PM on March 1, 2012


oops double postage
posted by obscurator at 1:38 PM on March 1, 2012


I got beaten out by Fellini!

lol
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:42 PM on March 1, 2012


"Jaws" is totally outclassed.

I would humbly suggest that Jaws is a better film than Barry Lyndon. More involving in terms of pace and plot and character, with better central performances. And Kubrick's ghost probably agrees with me.
posted by tigrefacile at 1:43 PM on March 1, 2012 [4 favorites]


Barry Lyndon, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Jaws, Dog Day Afternoon, Nashville.

Four of those films I've watched once... one of those films I've probably watched about a dozen times
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:47 PM on March 1, 2012 [5 favorites]


Quite a year... Compare it with this year and... ehhh... I don't want to think about this years again.
posted by Artw at 1:47 PM on March 1, 2012


I may even have seen Jaws more times than Aliens. It's difficult to call.
posted by Artw at 1:48 PM on March 1, 2012


I would humbly suggest that Jaws is a better film than Barry Lyndon. More involving in terms of pace and plot and character, with better central performances. And Kubrick's ghost probably agrees with me.
posted by tigrefacile at 1:43 PM on March 1 [+] [!]


What an embarrassment of riches that we should argue which of these two masterpieces is greater. Thank you, 70s cinema.
posted by basicchannel at 1:50 PM on March 1, 2012 [15 favorites]


Amen to that, basically.
posted by tigrefacile at 1:51 PM on March 1, 2012




Four of those films I've watched once... one of those films I've probably watched about a dozen times

I completely believe you, but you could say any of them is the one you've watched a dozen times and I wouldn't bat an eye.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:54 PM on March 1, 2012


Frank Zito!! Mind blower.
posted by stinkycheese at 2:02 PM on March 1, 2012


Bastard was 29 years old. What am I doing with my life.
posted by ElmerFishpaw at 2:13 PM on March 1, 2012 [16 favorites]


I honestly hope he remembers as much of this as possible and preserved it as "Remember when.." in his head. He's made so many iconic movies over the years, but I hope/wish he's never forgotten the low-budget, improv, go-as-you-please, do-what-needs-to-be-done roots.
posted by pyrex at 2:18 PM on March 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


Barry Lyndon, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Jaws, Dog Day Afternoon, Nashville.

Wow, Kubrick, Milos Forman, Spielberg, Sidney Lumet and Altman all at the top of their games. Amazing.
posted by octothorpe at 2:24 PM on March 1, 2012


Barry Lyndon is a movie i have seen four times. Speilberg has made no better movie than Jaws.
posted by PinkMoose at 2:28 PM on March 1, 2012


I would humbly suggest that Jaws is a better film than Barry Lyndon.

Redmond: I cannot find it.

Nora: I'll give you a hint.

Redmond: I feel the ribbon.

Nora: Why are you trembling?

Redmond: At the pleasure of finding the ribbon.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:31 PM on March 1, 2012 [5 favorites]


I must admit to loving all of these movies. Though Dog Day Afternoon is always tough to take.

I think what I still find stunning about Jaws is the pacing and editing, which make it terrifying, every time. And ArtW is right, the only other movie I can think of with that kind of consistent horror punch is Alien.
posted by bearwife at 2:32 PM on March 1, 2012


He said Aliens.
posted by stinkycheese at 2:36 PM on March 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


One of the things that gets me, watching this a second time and taking a while to consider is that he may project an image of uncertainty, but after spending a second or two looking at him - is the uncertainty of the shark. Much like its creator it prods, smells, investigates, and attempts to find weaknesses. It finds _some_ chinks in the armor, yet its ultimate goal is beyond reach.
posted by pyrex at 2:39 PM on March 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


Don't get me wrong, I love Alien, but Aliens is the one that will compel me to stop and watch it all the way through if I happen upon it while changing channels.
posted by Artw at 2:44 PM on March 1, 2012


Speilberg has made no better movie than Jaws.

I think that's highly arguable when you're talking about the guy who also directed ET, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Schindler's List. Not to say that Jaws wasn't one hell of a movie, of course.
posted by deadmessenger at 2:44 PM on March 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


Four of those films I've watched once... one of those films I've probably watched about a dozen times

Me too. It's the one with a huge Indian in it. Nurse Ratchet is way scarier than any shark.

Speilberg has made no better movie than Jaws.

Hook.
posted by cmoj at 2:44 PM on March 1, 2012


Doing a GIS for Joe Spinell is like asking the Internet to disturb you, apparently.
posted by stinkycheese at 2:46 PM on March 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


"Everybody loves a winner. But nobody loves a winner."
posted by Guy Smiley at 2:49 PM on March 1, 2012 [2 favorites]


Hook.

Oh stop being such a silly-face, poppet.
posted by Jofus at 2:55 PM on March 1, 2012 [2 favorites]


It's Jaws or Raiders.
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:00 PM on March 1, 2012


Man, Close Encounters is getting no love.
posted by Artw at 3:01 PM on March 1, 2012 [3 favorites]


Nothing with Robin Williams can ever be a truly great film.
posted by shakespeherian at 3:02 PM on March 1, 2012


Don't get me wrong, I love Alien, but Aliens is the one that will compel me to stop and watch it all the way through if I happen upon it while changing channels.

I am the same, I have seen the different releases, multiple formats and with both Norwegian and Egyptian subtitles. I can't say no, easily seen Aliens more than any other film. I was coming in here to say that wouldn't make it best film, but it probably was better than Platoon, and if it had come out a year later it should have cleaned up - 1987 was a bad year.
posted by biffa at 3:12 PM on March 1, 2012


Four of those films I've watched once... one of those films I've probably watched about a dozen times

Haven Hamilton: What a surprise. Julie Christie.
Connie White: Who's Julie Christie?
Haven Hamilton: Who's Julie Christie? She's a star. She's won an Academy Award.
Connie White: Oh!
Haven Hamilton: No, I'm not kiddin'. For one of those pictures. I don't know which one. She's done so many.
Connie White: Isn't he a gem? He's got the worst sense of humor.
Haven Hamilton: No, she's lovely.
Connie White: Oh, come on. She can't even comb her hair.
posted by mykescipark at 3:13 PM on March 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


You can mix chocolate and peanut butter by watching AI.
posted by KokuRyu at 3:23 PM on March 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


Speilberg has made no better movie than Jaws.

I love Jaws, but I respectfully disagree. The trouble is there are several Spielbergs, the popular director and the auteur. Both have made films that top Jaws, although I'd say Jaws combines the best of both. His early films as auteur demonstrated a sense of character that seemed to promise he might be a filmmaker with the twitchy, prickly sensibilities of a Scorsese -- both Duel and Sugarland Express are juggernauts of pacing, but they are very much character pieces, and exceptional, and I think we saw that again in Catch Me If You Can, which is a spectacular piece (and one of Christopher Walken's best recent performances.)

In the meanwhile, as a popular director, I would easily put Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park as equals to Jaws, and Hook as its better.

No, I'm just fucking with you about Hook.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 3:23 PM on March 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


I actually really like The Color Purple and would rate it above a lot of his other "serious" films.
posted by Artw at 3:26 PM on March 1, 2012 [2 favorites]


Jurassic Park looks pretty dated, and there are all sorts of extraneous plot elements. Jaws is just tightly constructed and purposeful.
posted by KokuRyu at 3:27 PM on March 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


I don't know if Jaws is the best movie Speilberg has ever made, but it's certainly my favorite. I've seen it way, way too many times.

Raiders is close, but for me it's Jaws.

I just love everything about it. It doesn't sag - there are no parts that don't work - it's just so crisp and fantastic from start to finish and I adore it. And the funny thing is that it I love it so very much, even though it has had such an awful impact on me. I mean, I saw it at just the right time in my life. I was - I don't know - 10? 11? And I had an active imagination, sure - and I had this blue carpet in my room and I would have these fantasies that it was going to turn into water and a shark was going to come and eat me. I would get scared when I would go to the beach - to a fresh water lake, to a swimming pool, to the fucking shower... and you know it's illogical and that a shark is not going to eat you in a public swimming pool - but still, some part of your brain is going off like a 5 alarm fire and all you feel is FEAR.

I saw it for the first time 20 years ago I still have reoccurring dreams where I'm eaten alive by a shark.

Sharks, man.
posted by kbanas at 3:30 PM on March 1, 2012 [3 favorites]


"Slow ahead? I can go slow ahead. Why don't you come down here and chum some of this shit."

I know "You're gonna need a bigger boat" is the famous line, but I always like what he said before.
posted by kbanas at 3:33 PM on March 1, 2012


Jurassic Park looks pretty dated, and there are all sorts of extraneous plot elements.

That's only an issue if you think every single thing in a movie must be at service to the plot, which is a popular viewpoint in Hollywood nowadays, and, in my opinion, a dull one.

And not true of Jaw either. There is no point to the fact that a martial arts school has opened and it is causing kids to kung fu stuff around town, except that it helps create the sense of a community, and it's funny. Extraneous stuff often goes a long way toward creating the sense that there is a larger world the film is contained in.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 3:33 PM on March 1, 2012 [2 favorites]


Previously
posted by Artw at 3:38 PM on March 1, 2012


Hook

I'm totally serious. If only for Dustin Hoffman, it's gotta be in the top fifty movies of all time.

Nothing with Robin Williams can ever be a truly great film.

I don't understand why or when it became cool to automatically discount Robin Williams, but please. One Hour Photo, Fisher King, Toys, Good Morning Vietnam, The Dead Poet's Society, Mrs. Doubtfire, Good Will Hunting, Jumanji, Aladdin, The Birdcage, Death to Smoochy... what am I missing?

I do see that One Hour Photo, the first that came to my mind, gets middling reviews on IMDB. And I would place Roadie in the top ten, so I can accept that I might have unusual criteria for what constitutes a good movie.
posted by cmoj at 3:47 PM on March 1, 2012 [2 favorites]


Catch Me If You Can, which is a spectacular piece

If it wasn't bed time I would try to compose something which riffs on Samuel L Jackson's bacon speech in Pulp Fiction to explain why I haven't seen this film. But it is, so I will summarise: its because DiCaprio is shite.

One Hour Photo, Fisher King, Toys, Good Morning Vietnam, The Dead Poet's Society, Mrs. Doubtfire, Good Will Hunting, Jumanji, Aladdin, The Birdcage, Death to Smoochy... what am I missing?

Decent taste in movies? Mrs frikkin Doubtfire??
posted by biffa at 3:52 PM on March 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


"Nashville? Wow."

I'm an Altman fan, but I can totally see that being my reaction too, that year.
posted by beaucoupkevin at 3:59 PM on March 1, 2012


"Who made it, th' shaaahk?"

I agree with them very, very much about the Best Picture Oscar going to the producers. It shouldn't.
posted by Sys Rq at 4:01 PM on March 1, 2012


SPOILERS for Insomnia:
I like the bit where Williams gets shotgunned to death and sinks slowly into the water.
posted by Artw at 4:03 PM on March 1, 2012


I like the bit where Williams gets shotgunned to death and sinks slowly into the water.

I wish there'd done that in more of his films... would have revved up Dead Poets somewhat... in fact it would probably improve every single film he's been in. (Expect Patch Adams, of course, because you can't improve on perfection)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:29 PM on March 1, 2012


/wonders if there is an ironic hell where sinners are subjected to What Dreams May Come for all eternity.
posted by Artw at 4:31 PM on March 1, 2012


Nashville is one of my all time favorite movies ever. So many plotlines. So many wonderful scenes with great little bits of acting. Like a rich tapestry that I could stare at for hours. (Three to be exact.)
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 4:41 PM on March 1, 2012 [2 favorites]


I saw Empire of the Sun well after it came out, and it became my favourite Spielberg film immediately.
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 5:26 PM on March 1, 2012 [3 favorites]


I just love everything about it. It doesn't sag - there are no parts that don't work - it's just so crisp and fantastic from start to finish and I adore it.

I myself don't ascribe to that Platonic Ideal stuff, but if I did, Jaws is THE example of the most perfect movie script EVER. Every single scene, every brief digression, every snippet of dialogue inexorably moves the narrative forward in a complete and perfect way.

Spielberg agonized about the sunlight not matching from scene to scene, but it was proven that the audience didn't really notice, and sometimes out on the ocean the sunlight is always constantly changing anyway.

I still have reoccurring dreams where I'm eaten alive by a shark.
The excellent documentary Sharkwater will make you feel sorry for those nice sharks.

I would humbly suggest that Jaws is a better film than Barry Lyndon. More involving in terms of pace and plot and character, with better central performances. And Kubrick's ghost probably agrees with me.

Barry Lyndon was the work of a genius, but deeply flawed. All of the technical stuff is perfect (the low-light photography, the swell battle scene, the exquisite soundtrack) but the tragic mis-casting of low-key cypher Ryan O'Neal as the overtly bombastic, expansive and too-much-larger-than-life protagonist of Thackeray's crazy novel was a fatal error. My brother once said that Kubrick should have cast Jack Nicholson in that role (I guess he was busy on One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest). Also, the script left out that fascinating scene in the novel where the faro gambling sharps are swindled by the math students.


The Best Foreign language film Oscar that year was for Kurosawa's Dersu Uzala, which is not everyone's favourite Kurosawa movie, but it does have a pretty deep ending.
posted by ovvl at 5:42 PM on March 1, 2012 [2 favorites]


Nothing with Robin Williams can ever be a truly great film.

Oh, dear friend, you obviously have not experienced the timeless classic that is RV.
posted by jimmythefish at 7:07 PM on March 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


I don't understand why or when it became cool to automatically discount Robin Williams, but please. One Hour Photo, Fisher King, Toys, Good Morning Vietnam, The Dead Poet's Society, Mrs. Doubtfire, Good Will Hunting, Jumanji, Aladdin, The Birdcage, Death to Smoochy... what am I missing?

I'm not saying he isn't in good movies. I love Fisher King for example. But he's not, in my opinion, a very good actor. Also Dead Poet's Society is a movie about a really terrible teacher and it makes me angry.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:33 PM on March 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


what am I missing?

The Final Cut is worth watching if only for the damn cool concept (not the ending though. Don't expect a good ending.)
posted by Taft at 10:18 PM on March 1, 2012


Wow. As much as the movies themselves have changed since then, this trailer for Barry Lyndon seems like something from another universe.
posted by straight at 1:16 AM on March 2, 2012


Wow. As much as the movies themselves have changed since then, this trailer for Barry Lyndon seems like something from another universe.

You couldn't make that trailer today. When Barry Lyndon came out, movies got very limited releases and their first runs happened in prestige markets, so the critics were able to review the movies long before the wide release. Of course, critics had more power back then too.

Ironically, Jaws was probably the movie that fully introduced the release pattern we see today: wide national release, with massive TV advertising support.
posted by daveje at 2:36 AM on March 2, 2012


shakespeherian: Dead Poet's Society is a movie about a really terrible teacher and it makes me angry.

:hugs shakespeherian tightly:

I hate that movie SO MUCH. I fucking hate it. HATE. Not just Williams' character, who is a rotten teacher, but what the movie *thinks* it's saying, and what it's *actually* saying, are so very, very different, and the way it goes about delivering its message(s) is terrible, and wrong, and done so *badly* and it-it- the f - it -flam - flames- flames, on the side of my face....
posted by tzikeh at 2:41 AM on March 2, 2012 [4 favorites]


... what am I missing?

That would be World's Greatest Dad, wouldn't it? I haven't seen it, but people seem to like it.
posted by asok at 3:10 AM on March 2, 2012


I love this little snippet of Spielberg fucking around with the whole pompousness of awards. Anyone who's received an award for having been judged as good at something would never deny that it's a thrill, I'm sure. Regardless, he knew he did well, he did do well and it's a really lovely insight into that particular experience at that time and place. Yay for youtube!

PS I love Dead Poets Society and Robin Williams in many other roles.
posted by h00py at 3:41 AM on March 2, 2012


o captain my captain!
posted by kbanas at 4:46 AM on March 2, 2012 [2 favorites]


the tragic mis-casting of low-key cypher Ryan O'Neal as the overtly bombastic, expansive and too-much-larger-than-life protagonist of Thackeray's crazy novel was a fatal error.

I've never read the book but I just rewatched the movie last year and O'Neal's performance works for me and I'm sure that Kubrick had him play that way on purpose. He's supposed to be this pawn of fate who just gets pushed along by events, I don't see how a bigger performance would have worked.
posted by octothorpe at 6:45 AM on March 2, 2012


what the movie *thinks* it's saying, and what it's *actually* saying, are so very, very different

YES. Like, if Williams's character was a good teacher then at the end of the movie the students would love poetry, not just him.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:52 AM on March 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


Dead Poet's Society

I guess what makes it a great movie for me is the effect it had on a while group of us nerds when we were exposed to it by a genuinely excellent literature teacher at the right time. It romanticized poetry the way it's supposed to be and made it cool and, in the back of our minds, rebellious to like poetry. Which it is, now in a sort of intellectual rebellion way rather than a beat generation way. And which it should be.
posted by cmoj at 9:55 AM on March 2, 2012


I always felt a bit weird about that movie, like it was flirting with romanticizing suicide as the highest expression of love. Ideas like that are pretty dangerous when you're presenting them to young people.
posted by stinkycheese at 10:06 AM on March 2, 2012


Jurassic Park and Jaws are essentially the same movie. Both of them top notch, but it would be a cold day in hell when Spielberg makes a movie better than Raiders.
posted by P.o.B. at 5:58 AM on March 3, 2012


I love how Spielberg documented suburbia in ET. The only other movie that does it as well is Paris, Texas.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:13 PM on March 3, 2012


the tragic mis-casting of low-key cypher Ryan O'Neal as the overtly bombastic, expansive and too-much-larger-than-life protagonist of Thackeray's crazy novel was a fatal error.

I've never read the book but I just rewatched the movie last year and O'Neal's performance works for me and I'm sure that Kubrick had him play that way on purpose. He's supposed to be this pawn of fate who just gets pushed along by events, I don't see how a bigger performance would have worked.


In the book version the protagonist is not a pawn, but a rather loud pushy guy who proclaims: "Dare, and The World Yields!" He heroically fights his way up from a dubious background to advance into the aristocracy, where he suffers from the hubris which made his success possible, and finally turns into a pawn. The Kubrick genius was probably trying for something more subtle, so he toned down Barry's obnoxious side, but he also lost much of the enthusiasm and vigor which made Barry an interesting character. (Maybe Hollywood should hire Jack Black for the next remake?)



But I've dissed Ryan O'Neal enough, so I'll say that I liked him in 'The Driver', 'Tough Guys Don't Dance', and his excellent low-key foil to an unhinged Barbara Streisand in 'What's Up Doc?'.
posted by ovvl at 3:21 PM on March 4, 2012


He's pretty great in Paper Moon, too. And anyway I like him a lot in Barry Lyndon. Kubrick films are typically quite different things to the books they're based on, with maybe the exception of A Clockwork Orange and, in certain ways, Eyes Wide Shut.
posted by shakespeherian at 3:31 PM on March 4, 2012


Seconding The Driver as a great flick. O'Neal's audition in particular is an awesome scene.
posted by stinkycheese at 7:47 PM on March 4, 2012


Hollywood should hire Jack Black

There are no conditions for which this statement is true.
posted by biffa at 1:42 AM on March 5, 2012


I don't think that I've seen The Driver since it came out. I remember it being awesome to my fourteen year old taste but wonder how it's held up.
posted by octothorpe at 6:39 AM on March 5, 2012


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