Wednesday, 11 August 2010

Soundtrack Retrospective: "This is not the time or the place to perform some kind of a half-assed autopsy on a fish..."

This month’s film is Stephen Spielberg’s ‘Jaws’ (1975). Another of John Williams’ masterpieces. Could anyone imagine it now without that wonderful and subtly menacing main theme?



It isn’t all brooding, menacing strings, though. Some of the rest of the incidental music is delightfully jaunty:



And by contrast, the famous ‘Indianapolis’ scene has barely any music at all:



It's not really a relaxing soundtrack to listen to, but it's one of the most evocative, that's for sure...

Peter Benchley underwent a bit of a crisis of conscience after the movie sparked a boom in shark fishing, endangering the great white shark he made the unwitting star of his film. The story on which he based 'Jaws' - the Matawan, New Jersey shark attacks - is a facinating story in its own right.

Not least because the animal was never positively identified. It may not have been a great white at all...
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7 comments:

  1. subrosa11 August 2010 at 13:41

    I thought that a fantastic film, until the introduction of the plastic whale close up. :)

    Then I was reminded it was only a film and not reality.

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  2. Andy11 August 2010 at 14:02

    Robert Shaw - just the best

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  3. Anonymous11 August 2010 at 14:31

    Oh Julia! you just missed out the UFO caught on film after the speach, I think they do a rendition of 'show me the way to go home' first, one of my favorite songs btw, then, go out on deck and there it is a UFO in the night sky.

    Nuaghty girl, consider yourself told ;)

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  4. Mike11 August 2010 at 16:09

    like alien one of those films that succeeded because the brilliance of the director knew that our imagination is far more disturbing than any special effect

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  5. Anonymous11 August 2010 at 23:21

    I think the Ufo you spot is the shooting star that Speilberg puts in all his films..

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  6. blueknight12 August 2010 at 01:39

    It was a random shooting star. I always look out for it. The music is good, -I didn't notice it before.
    The music on Hellraiser 2 is really good, even if the film may not be to everyones' taste.

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  7. JuliaM12 August 2010 at 05:24

    "I thought that a fantastic film, until the introduction of the plastic whale close up."

    Yes, like Mike said, keeping the beast hidden for most of the film is far more effective. Something today's CGI-happy directors should heed.

    "Oh Julia! you just missed out the UFO caught on film after the speach..."

    Ah, it would be nice to think so, given his later films, wouldn't it? ;)

    As anon and blueknight point out, it's a shooting star. I didn't know he put one in ALL his films, though!

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