Farmer, fisherman, aquatic biologist, greatest jump scare of all time
July 20, 2023 9:17 PM Subscribe
According to his 2002 obituary, Craig Kingsbury was "...a farmer, fisherman, aquatic biologist, ox cart man, butcher, farrier, woodcarver, builder, breeder of exotic poultry, landscaper, longshoreman, able-bodied seaman, teamster, logger, stonemason, husband, father, storyteller and naturalist."
He was also hired as an advisor to actor Robert Shaw - who played Quint - during the filming of Jaws, and ended up contributing to one of that film's most notorious moments (SLYT) in his cameo as fisherman Ben Gardner.
Jaws is, for better or worse, an almost perfect movie. My pal Edie Blake was there to photo it.
posted by vrakatar at 10:24 PM on July 20, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by vrakatar at 10:24 PM on July 20, 2023 [6 favorites]
I had somehow never managed to see Jaws until a few years ago, when it was screening at my local repertory cinema (the Prince Charles, for any other Londoners). I have never jumped so high out of my seat as I did during this scene.
A while after that I was in Edinburgh for the fringe and went to see The Shark Is Broken, a play about the production of the film written by and starring Robert Shaw’s son Ian. He looked so like his father, and you could have heard a pin drop in the theatre when he did the Indianapolis monologue. It was like seeing a ghost.
One of my favourite films, despite or perhaps because of coming to it so late.
posted by greycap at 10:40 PM on July 20, 2023 [8 favorites]
A while after that I was in Edinburgh for the fringe and went to see The Shark Is Broken, a play about the production of the film written by and starring Robert Shaw’s son Ian. He looked so like his father, and you could have heard a pin drop in the theatre when he did the Indianapolis monologue. It was like seeing a ghost.
One of my favourite films, despite or perhaps because of coming to it so late.
posted by greycap at 10:40 PM on July 20, 2023 [8 favorites]
Wish I had not watched that.
posted by LarryC at 11:00 PM on July 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by LarryC at 11:00 PM on July 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
Competence, is it? A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for sharks.
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:32 PM on July 20, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:32 PM on July 20, 2023 [5 favorites]
Hooper: "I pulled a tooth the size of a shot glass out of the wrecked hull of a boat out there, and it was the tooth of a Great White."
I rewatched Jaws for the first time in years recently. I don't think there is a single false note in the entire movie - plotting, characters, dialogue, cinematography. It is one of the most thoroughly competent movies ever made. It's all the more impressive when you read about the chaos of the production and that Spielberg was not even thirty when he made it.
The one character who really impressed me this time around was Mayor Vaughn, played by Murray Hamilton. He's obviously the human antagonist and it would have been very easy to turn him into a cigar-chomping caricature of the Short Sighted Politician Who Puts Profits Before People, but even he has a couple of brilliant moments. The first comes when he upbraids Hooper and Brody for wanting to cut open the tiger shark in front of everyone ("I am not going to stand here and watch that little Kintner boy spill out all over the dock") and the second when he tells Brody, "my kids were on that beach too." He's obviously devastated by his responsibility for the deaths but the movie doesn't slam you over the head with it, or take the obvious route and have him or his family menanced or eaten by the shark. It's just rare to see that type of role played that well.
posted by fortitude25 at 6:44 AM on July 21, 2023 [8 favorites]
I rewatched Jaws for the first time in years recently. I don't think there is a single false note in the entire movie - plotting, characters, dialogue, cinematography. It is one of the most thoroughly competent movies ever made. It's all the more impressive when you read about the chaos of the production and that Spielberg was not even thirty when he made it.
The one character who really impressed me this time around was Mayor Vaughn, played by Murray Hamilton. He's obviously the human antagonist and it would have been very easy to turn him into a cigar-chomping caricature of the Short Sighted Politician Who Puts Profits Before People, but even he has a couple of brilliant moments. The first comes when he upbraids Hooper and Brody for wanting to cut open the tiger shark in front of everyone ("I am not going to stand here and watch that little Kintner boy spill out all over the dock") and the second when he tells Brody, "my kids were on that beach too." He's obviously devastated by his responsibility for the deaths but the movie doesn't slam you over the head with it, or take the obvious route and have him or his family menanced or eaten by the shark. It's just rare to see that type of role played that well.
posted by fortitude25 at 6:44 AM on July 21, 2023 [8 favorites]
I just saw Jaws a week ago for the first time, without much of an idea how it went beyond the obvious, and I can confirm that the jump scare works. I made a genuinely embarrassing high pitched squeaky noise.
posted by LizardBreath at 7:43 AM on July 21, 2023
posted by LizardBreath at 7:43 AM on July 21, 2023
.
In college, I went to a screening of Jaws projected next to the big swimming pool at the gym, which was filled with inner tubes for the occasion. People could float as they watched and, of course, get pranked by their friends from underneath. Many screams!
posted by Countess Elena at 11:03 AM on July 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
In college, I went to a screening of Jaws projected next to the big swimming pool at the gym, which was filled with inner tubes for the occasion. People could float as they watched and, of course, get pranked by their friends from underneath. Many screams!
posted by Countess Elena at 11:03 AM on July 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
I saw Jaws up north (Michigan) in a theater with a balcony. I was trying to open a package of candy during that scene to share with a friend. Right as the scare happened the package ripped open and pieces of candy rained down over the audience below the balcony. The screaming was epic! I hunched down in my seat for a while so nobody would know who was responsible for that incident.
posted by Gadgetenvy at 11:04 AM on July 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Gadgetenvy at 11:04 AM on July 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
The one character who really impressed me this time around was Mayor Vaughn, played by Murray Hamilton.
Notably still the mayor in Jaws II, and cited by Boris Johnson as his political inspiration in 2006:
posted by The Bellman at 1:11 PM on July 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
Notably still the mayor in Jaws II, and cited by Boris Johnson as his political inspiration in 2006:
Mr Johnson had praised Mayor Vaughn's "laissez faire" approach to public safety on several occasions.So. Yeah.
The mayor's order leads to the gruesome death of a young boy. However, the MP for Henley said Mr Vaughn is a role model to which all politicians should aspire.
"The real hero of Jaws is the mayor," Mr Johnson said last year in a speech at Lloyd's of London.
"A gigantic fish is eating all your constituents and he decides to keep the beaches open. OK, in that instance he was actually wrong. But in principle, we need more politicians like the mayor - we are often the only obstacle against all the nonsense which is really a massive conspiracy against the taxpayer."
posted by The Bellman at 1:11 PM on July 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
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