Jaws

[Pete]

I cacked myself at the leg and training shoe scene, too!

That is one of the two scenes cut from pre-'watershed' screenings, IIRC. The other is the 'blood-spurting-from-Robert-Shaw's-mouth' bit. But the human head at the porthole bit - far and above the scariest for me, if you discount the suggestive music - remains in place...

 

[gbb]

I remember seeing Jaws when it first came out....just about the WHOLE audience launched their heads back in unison when the head rolled out. My girlfriend at the time (wife now...bless her) had her hand on my leg at that moment.... LET GO fer chrissakes she grabbed that tight i dont know which scared me more

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

Positively the worst bit is where the child in shock and unconscious is dragged up the beach. They must have used some sort of trench to drag him up in such a way to give the impression that the shark had taken his legs off at the hip. It hadn't and he was ok, but it was a ghastly moment.

 

[Dave5N]

Positively the worst bit is where the child in shock and unconscious is dragged up the beach. They must have used some sort of trench to drag him up in such a way to give the impression that the shark had taken his legs off at the hip. It hadn't and he was ok, but it was a ghastly moment.

Yeah, I hate that bit. A little unnecessary.

 

[cisamcgu]

http://www.marktheshark.com/new/images/meet_marktheshark/Mark the Shark SURFING MAUI.jpg

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

http://www.marktheshark.com/new/images/meet_marktheshark/Mark the Shark SURFING MAUI.jpg

That's a dolphin, not a shark. Still, it'd give you a bit of a heart attack if you were the surfer.

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

Amazing how they could pull off such stuff with nothing more than the odd animated plastic dummy

It was also intermingled with live shark footage taken by Ron and Valerie Taylor who have taken some amazing shark film in their numerous years.

Agree with others though, the best/scariest bit is the face of Ben Gunn (IIRC) appearing underwater at the hole in the boat.... scared the bejeebers out of me when I first saw it.

 

[cisamcgu]

That's a dolphin, not a shark. Still, it'd give you a bit of a heart attack if you were the surfer.

Awww.. you destroy my belief in the internet, 'cos someone told me it was a shark, and I believed them

but ... just for completeness

http://www.surfshooter.com/DolphinInfo.html

 

[Pete]

Agree with others though, the best/scariest bit is the face of Ben Gunn (IIRC) appearing underwater at the hole in the boat.... scared the bejeebers out of me when I first saw it.

Ben Gardner (just looked it up!). I think they have to keep that footage in the film, even with kids watching, because it's an essential plot element. Hooper (Dreyfuss) in his face-off with the mayor, has to argue that there really is a Great White out there. The mayor says, how does he know? Hooper says he had the tooth in his hands, but he can't show it him because he dropped it. The mayor asks, why did he drop it? So, you see, you can't cut the dead-face-at-the-hole scene without losing some of the plot.

 

[red_tom]

I remember seeing Speilberg interviewed about the head in the boat bit. It wasn't originally in the test screenings. When the shark rears out of the water when Roy Schneider is chumming it got a huge reaction from the audience. When they put the head bit in, the reaction to the chumming bit was a lot more subdued. I suppose there's only a finite amount of pant filling which has to be shared around...

 

[Pete]

I suppose there's only a finite amount of pant filling which has to be shared around...

There are some things I really don't want to know about. Got that? I really don't want to know any more about this...

 

[Dave Davenport]

I remember getting laughed at by my mates at the pictures when it came out cos I jumped about a foot in the air when a barrel popped up suddenly!

 

[domtyler]

That's a dolphin, not a shark. Still, it'd give you a bit of a heart attack if you were the surfer.

Funny looking dolphin, wouldn't want to go swimming with that one. Especially with a dorsal fin that shape.

 

[Foghat]

All you Jaws fans ought to read 'Close to Shore', a very interesting account of the early 20th Century true events off the New Jersey/Massachussetts coast that led to Peter Benchley's novel.

While I'm on the subject of events that inspired interesting nautical films/books, I also highly recommend the book 'In the Heart of the Sea', which recounts the real events that inspired Herman Melville to write 'Moby Dick'.

 

[longers]

While I'm on the subject of events that inspired interesting nautical films/books, I also highly recommend the book 'In the Heart of the Sea', which recounts the real events that inspired Herman Melville to write 'Moby Dick'.

Seconded.