Did you do Barbenheimer with 10 milligrams of... Actually, this was a 10 for 10.This was a 10 CHC and 10 CBD.Pink lemonade.
If they did an Oppenheimer My Little Pony mashup, you could call it Kloppenheimer.
No, I mean, I guess... That's really good.That's really... Jeremy.Jeremy?Jeremy.I will draw that.No.
I'm sorry, I'd hate to be the one to educate you all on this, but clop is a term.
For pornographic pony art.
That's why it's perfect.She will draw it.I will draw that shit.Actually, I might not do that, but I did draw.I would do anything for love.Guys, it's been a couple weeks. Like, I've gone mad with power.
Good evening and welcome to Progressively Horrified, the show where we hold horror to standards it absolutely never agreed to.
Good evening and welcome to Progressively Horrified, the podcast where we hold horror to progressive standards it never agreed to.Tonight,
We're talking about, it's maybe the second movie by this director who before this had done only TV and small shorts and stuff like that.
But he really focuses on this tragedy that befalls this small New England town and this police officer who has to grapple with all of the various issues surrounding.That's right, it's Jaws.Fucking Jaws.
I got a lot of potential in that director.
Yeah, I think I think he might go places.This Steve, Stefan Spielberg.Spielberg kids got the razz with azz.So I'm your host, Jeremy Whitley.And with me tonight, I have a huge panel of cinephiles and Cenobites.
First here to challenge the sexy werewolf, sexy vampire binary, my ghost, Ben Conn.Ben, how are you tonight?
Man, the 1970s, the auteur era, when mainstream films were asking tough questions and exploring complex subjects, America decided they got really tired of that really fast and embraced an aggressively apolitical movie about just trying to kill the fuck out of a shark.
I don't know about aggressively apolitical, because it might be the most anti-capitalist movie that exists, but
Well, it's either that or an aggressively fascist film where the law must be empowered to take unilateral action to defeat the outsider.The outsider in this case is just a shark.
And the cinnamon roll scene invites our co-host, Emily Martin.How are you tonight, Emily? Great, fantastic.Yeah.And we have several guests with us.You know them all, they're friends of the show.
First, I could go, I was gonna say comics writer and friend of the podcast, which applies to two of our guests.First, let's start with Lan, Lan Pitts.Lan, great to have you back.
Hey, thanks for having me.
Yeah, but also applicable to that introduction, Susan Beneville.
Thank you much, nice to be here reliving my youth.Bless.
All right, and friend of the podcast and English educator, Emanuel Lipscomb.Emanuel, welcome back.
Thanks.I haven't seen the rest of the films in the series, but I can't say if it jumps the shark.It definitely blows the hell up, though.
Well, I haven't seen the rest of the stories, but I have seen the house that Michael Caine lives in that they paid for.The real one?
No, I'm just making fun of when he gave that incredible interview line where he's like, fuck Jaws 4, but I fucking love the money I got for it.
I'm sorry.I'm not familiar with Jaws 4.Do you mean Jaws colon The Revenge?
That's the one. Y'all, I'm just looking at this movie's Wikipedia section.A treasure.Truly a treasure.The theme section with the subsections of influences, scholarly criticism, and audience emotional response.
Yeah, I mean, just to hit the high notes here, it is directed by Steven Spielberg.And literally, this is like his second film.He'd done shorts, he'd done TV, but this is, I think, his second full-length film.
It is written by Carl Gottlieb, based on a book by Peter Benchley, and it stars Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss.They just can't stop saying how young he is. even though he just really feels already 40s, 50, this movie.
Everybody's like, young man.
It's just, he's full of, he's full of beans.Look at him go.Just a little guy.It's his birthday.
If y'all, to any of our younger audiences, I, everybody's aware of Jaws, but I'm not sure people, I'm not sure if you really understand just how big a hit Jaws was.On a $9 million budget, Jaws made $476 million.Bananas.
In 1970s money, and was the second highest grossing film of the decade. The only movie of the entire 1970s that outgrossed Jaws was Star Wars.Just to give you an idea of just how fucking big of a hit this movie was.
They had to blow up a space station the size of a moon.
That is a good question.What is that in today's money?It's more.We know that.
I believe it mathematically comes out to a fuckload.Yeah.
Are you measuring in gold pressed latinum?
That's the wrong franchise.It made enough money that they could have afforded a good shark.
Yeah.He's doing his best.This shark is great. This shark deserves an Oscar.This shark deserves this year's Oscar.I'm sorry.
There's a few times when that shark lingers, and I'm like, yeah, I get why you didn't want to show too much of this.
They don't show it until a full hour in.They're like, we know we've had a year.
When it's just kind of flopping on the deck, it's like, OK, I see why you had to make some choices here, Spielberg.
I mean, it's one of those things like painted on.It looks ridiculous, but also sharks look ridiculous.So, yeah.What do you think?
The other favorite thing about this movie is it's clearly before the era that we all learned about sharks, because at one point he says something like, people don't even know how long sharks live.Two, three thousand years.
I'm like, sir, do you think one shark
Is it just millennia?There's only been four sharks in the world.
Oh man, that's a fucking YA fantasy novel right there, Finding the Immortal Sharks.
I mean, Greenland sharks aren't too far from that, right?They're like, what, 500 years?
Yeah, they live 8 million years.
Yeah, exactly.Lobsters could live that long, but eventually they get lazy and yeah, eventually they get too cowardly to just keep shedding and getting bigger.
Yeah, there should be a thousand year old lobster the size of Australia if they weren't cowards about it.
Listen, lobsters, those lobsters were feeling a real Luke Skywalker issue.
I don't know what the fuck I'm doing.Let's talk about Jaws.
Yeah, let's talk about Jaws.I don't know what the fuck we're doing either.We've taken a break.
I bet you say that to all the pretty boys.
Yeah.For anybody who doesn't know, I've been in Germany the last week, so we had some time off in between.
So this is like, we're coming into this hot trying to remember how podcasting works while also jumping straight into the Halloween month episodes.
Jaws, cinematic classic, beloved, weirdly feels like in some ways a prequel to Jurassic Park once you realize that Steven Spielberg did both of those things and this is like, what if Jurassic Park with one thing and no budget?
Yeah, what if there's one velociraptor?And no CGI.
Literally, there's been a few sequels.But I feel like every Ocean Attack movie is a sequel to Jaws.Every Piranha movie, every Deep Blue Sea.Every Sharknado.Whatever the fuck Night Swim is doing.
Isn't Alien supposed to be like Jaws in space?It's just like the similar kind of like, we don't know where the creature is, but it's out there and it's lurking. Pretty much, pretty much.
When did Jaws come out?I didn't look at any, I didn't look at, I don't, I don't.Okay, so before Alien.
Yes, no, Alien, no, Alien would have come out right at a time when, like, fucking studios would have heard Jaws in space and been like, yeah Ridley Scott, here's some cocaine and money, so make me a movie.
So nobody really took notes on what it was we wanted to talk about about Jaws because it's Jaws and we're all insane.
So far we got two political opinions, one that it's a deeply anti-capitalistic movie and the other that it's a deeply fascist movie.
The fascism is, I mean, yeah.
I'm going to go ahead and say it.I don't think the police chief should have the power to unilaterally shut down public spaces whenever they want, even if he was entirely justified in this particular case.
Yeah, like a second opinion is cool.
What was that, Suzanne?He's like the weakest authority figure ever. I mean, it's the whole movie about a police chief who does nothing.That's true.
It's about the complete impotence of the this is why I think it's not fascist, because it's a it's about the impotence of the the authority figure that is constantly every time he tries to exercise his authority, he completely caves.Oh, yeah.
He gets by that used car salesman of a mayor like numerous times.Yeah.
The only the only way he gets. The blueprint for Joe Quimby, honestly.Yeah, the only way he gets the mayor to sign anything is to have his kid almost die.Like his own kid.He's like, don't you feel sorry for me?Please let me close the beach.
Up until those last minutes against the shark, he is easily the most ineffectual and useless of the three on that boat.Oh, yeah.
I want to see that movie.
Yeah, yeah.Quint is like, I trust you to throw fish guts in the water, and that is it.
He trusted the little academic boy to steer the ship.He trusted the little soft-handed city boy.
Oh, because they bonded over scars and shit.
Before that, before that, he was on the show.
Bonded is one thing they did.And then Brody is like, do I want to reveal my backstory of having gotten shot in New York? No, no, I don't want to talk about my backstory and never does for the rest of the movie.It's like we never learned.
I mean, it's very much implied that he was shot in the line of duty and is now and moved his family to a place where no fucking murders happen.
Yeah, this is like the opposite of Hot Fuzz, where he goes to a little town and it's worse.
Did we learn, did I miss it?Did we learn why he's afraid of the water?I might have missed that.
He almost drowned as a kid.Okay.
Which also was my origin story for years.I did not know how to swim because I almost drowned as a kid.
Yeah, I mean, baptism is easily,
I almost drowned as a kid because I tried to fit in a pool toy that was way too small for me.I pulled myself out, it was fine.It would have been a dumb and fitting way for me to go though, I'll tell you that.
No, you deserve better.Do I?!Then tell us about the movie, what happened in it.
Oh, man.All right.Super speedy recap, y'all, because it's Fourth of July in Amity Island, which is every Cape Cod, Long Island, Nassau County waterfront.Nassau has a county? It's a county.It's in the tri-state.
This movie is aggressively tri-state area.
Right, right, right, right.
I'm watching this movie being like, yeah, yeah.Where is it?Summer, New York.Yeah, I feel this.Even though it was filmed entirely, I believe, in Cape Cod.Martha's Vineyard.
I'm from Southern Connecticut.I'm not going to bother remembering to differentiate those two fucking Massachusetts places. That godless, that godless hellhole of a state.Oh, if you don't understand why I'm being mean to Massachusetts, I don't know.
Talk to more people in New York.It's what we do for fun here.
Yeah.Anyway, it's 4th of July, big tourist trap, but uh oh, sharks.
He munches on, Jaws munches on some teenager coeds that are swimming, he has some fun-sized humans, aka children, and Brody's like, you know, it's like, hey, I think there's a shark here.
We should not be, you know, beach and ocean while shark happening.And the mayor's like, fuck you.
The mayor of my Murray Hamilton, just a smarmiest bastard.Oh, so good.
I love the mayor in this.
If you love movies and haven't seen the Johns for some reason, he's also Mr. Robinson in The Graduate.And, you know, he's an anatomy of a murder like he's.
He's every guy ever in the 1970s.
The thing is, though, he's clearly speaking for his constituents because we go to that meeting.Nobody wants to shut down the beach.All of those businesses are like, we are we like we are fine.
We will let a few kids get eaten by sharks if it means we can keep our fucking hotels and restaurants open this summer.
And then we get, and this is after the kid dies, and then I'm like, we should probably have, we should probably acknowledge that there's a shark now.
And the mom puts out a $3,000 bounty for the shark to kill their kid. and every Yahoo in the tri-state area shows up to kill it.But Quint, that's not enough money for him, because he is the saltiest of sea captains.
Yeah, he is a pepper of salt.Crucially, that woman, the mother of the eaten kid who slaps Brody, not a professional actress, just a woman who lived in Martha's Vineyard, and she fucking kills it. Is that true?
Or is it already making a joke?Okay.
No, no.A lot of the minor roles in this movie were just filled by Martha's Vineyard residents.
She had the most prominent role, but a lot of the deputies and assistants running around were just Martha's Vineyard residents.
Did I see Steven Spielberg in the background, like, with a fishing pole and fun suspenders?Probably.Okay, because there's a scene where there's a very Steven Spielberg-looking dude.
Quint the Sea Captain is played by Robert Shaw, who is also fucking incredible, doing the character on which every old man that tells you not to go that way in a movie will be based on after this.
Yeah, but this time he has lines. Yeah, he has stories.He's going to tell you about shark sites or like adult sites.
I definitely put on subtitles, though, when he started having prominent scenes in the movie.
Yeah, no, it's it's necessary, especially on Max HBO Max, a.k.a.I can't hear anything.Fix your shit, HBO Max or excuse me, Max.I love that scene.
I love that first scene with Quinn, especially because the first thing out of his mouth is, you know who I am and you know what I do.I'm like, I've never seen you before.This is your first time in the movie.
I will tell you two things I specifically don't know about you.
As soon as he shows up, I do. I do know who he is and what he does.Yeah, well, but that's because her fingers down that fucking chalkboard.
The Foley work is terrible there.It's anyone who's ever heard a chalkboard.It's nothing like that.
It's an island's chalkboard.
Yeah.The rest of the movie, I'm like, I hope we get a fucking close up of his nails.I need to see what the fuck is going on with his fingers that they can make that sound.Holy shit.
Just fish scales on his tips of his fingers.Just fucking sharks.
I want to hear.Lan, how do you feel about.
I can't wait until we just get to the question.It's just feminist. No, like, I feel like this is going to be a very interesting episode because no, why would it be?I'm pretty sure it opens with a woman getting eaten and then there's no women later.
And, um... Well, according to Wikipedia, a little fun fact to feed into our his-jaws feminist, stunned woman-turned-actress Susie Blackline was cast as Chrissy, parentheses, the first victim, as she knew for her vital, vital skills of knowing how to swim and being willing to perform nude.
Right, no.Now, countering that, is this a good movie?Oh, yes, it is.Oh, yeah, it's a good movie.It is a great time.It's a July 4 classic.I realize I don't have my camera on.I've just been in and out.
Oh, you're not.No, but I have my Jaws tank on.
That's like something a shark would say.
Yes, that is something a shark would say.I would love to interview a shark about this movie, though. No, I don't know.
So how does JAWS handle queer issues?
It is.We know for sure that Jaws isn't a gay shark.
If Jaws is a gay shark, then they bury their gays.And that's not great.Right.
However, I know.Let's now let's take this idea.Bury let's see, though, because what was what's the name of the the Meg?Is that it?Yeah.Yeah.Yeah.The Meg.Now that's a feminist movie because the Megalodon is female.Yeah.It's a woman's name.
Yeah, sometimes actually, right?
I mean, it's a but yeah, it's it that's the point of the things like, oh, it's Meg.And then it's this Megalodon.
Yeah, it's Meg Ryan.So yeah, she plays Meg.
She is not in the sequel.They had to recast it.
Do they like do a Drew Barrymore or?
No.I'm just imagining a scene in the Meg too where Jason Satham delivers America Ferrera's speech from the Barbie movie word for word.Perfect.Yeah.I'd sign up for that.
While standing atop a giant shark, of course.
So that's why I'm really curious on how this episode's going to go.Because again, we do get lost in conversation over the next like two or so hours or whatever, talking about theories and structure and everything like that.
And about the movie itself, obviously. Well, it's sort of like Battle of the Cowl, if anyone remembers that DC event from 10 plus years ago.
I used to, too, because that was one of the first comics that came out when I started reading.
Who's going to be Batman?Instead of it should be four panels, it was this whole thing.It should have been four panels.Who's going to be Batman?Dick walks in a room.They look at each other.Well, you're Batman.Well, that's cool.
So this episode should be very much like that.
Oh, OK.I'm picking up what you're laying down.Yeah.
Yeah.So I'm kind of I'm kind of curious about how that's why I signed on.Well, I think I'll talk about it.I think we can definitely talk about how rad this movie is and how the shark, which they named Bruce.Yeah.Incredible.
Get breaking down and how Spielberg.
didn't get a best director nomination despite you know being the best movie of the year dolly zoom shot alone should have earned him an oscar nom oh yeah didn't he invent that shit that that was really excellent frames of all three characters on the boat just doing this like
Ego superego thing like it's so good like oh yeah I love this I love this shot right before you know when it's like the shark kind of attacks and his son like almost attacks his son and he looks out to sea and it's just like between the dot like the ocean between like these parts of the dock
Yeah.It's a beautifully shot movie, beautifully shot movie.There's no gay characters that we know about.No really progressive issues outside of we have to kill this thing.But is it anti-capitalist?
I believe so, because as the mayor refuses to shut things down, he continues like it.We lived through that during fucking covid.Are we going to shut everything down?Absolutely not. People will die.Oh, well.
Yeah.We've got to make that money.
I do think there is, you know, while I while I called it aggressively apolitical, you know, by the context of shit like, I guess, fucking deer hunter and dog day afternoon of the era. I do think there's stuff in here.
I think where this move, I think mostly, again, capitalism, commerce, the willingness to put commerce over public safety.I think class is an element.We very much see a class clash between Quinta and Richard Dreyfuss. Hooper.
I will say in the case of Hooper, it is very pro-science.The hot young scientist shows up and is like, we're getting to the bottom of this shit.Of course, the hot young scientist is Richard Dreyfuss.
Richard Dreyfuss has said that after a while he felt like Hooper was becoming Spielberg's alter ego in the film.
And I definitely get that Hooper as the young, in quotes, you know, kind of technocratic coming into this world, you know, seemingly untested, but feeling like he has a lot to prove.
Like, I feel like it's easy to see a lot of young Spielberg in Hooper.
Yeah, well, I mean, he's the new kid.
Yeah, the new kid who, I guess, again, feeling like Hooper's interesting, that he feels like he has to compare literal war wounds with his crazy oceanographer wounds.He makes being an oceanographer seem really cool, I'm not going to lie.
But I feel like that's him trying to connect with Quint because Quint doesn't respect his money or his knowledge or his experience, but he does get the wounds.That's a thing.That's a place they can find common ground.You know boats.
Anybody knows boats.You have city hands. Wounds, now that's a thing we can talk about.
We all bleed.Well, definitely, yeah, I feel like there's interesting stuff going on with Hooper and wealth.That he apparently does come from this place of privilege, but uses it for- But it's not a criticism of it.It's not a criticism of it.
Yeah, it's just that they're different.
Again, I feel like it's very, it feels like it's coming from somebody who probably came from a place of privilege, trying to make sense of that.
Yeah, and there's not a lot of like judgment.
Again, I'm from Connecticut.I get it.
Yeah.I mean, as as a child of professors, you know, I get that the academic thing versus this feeling of need to like, you know, I get, you know, Hooper.
It feels like Hooper comes from this place of.
Being from a privileged background where he would never have needed to prove himself, but that almost creates this overcompensating drive to try to prove himself or show that he has already proven himself.
I do think things between Hooper and Quint get a little homoerotic.Yeah.
Oh, yeah.Oh, 100%.Yeah.What, where they're fucking just like rubbing their legs on each other? Yeah, what, what do you mean when they're just opening, when Hooper's just opening his shirt and rubbing his chest around Quint?
Yeah, yeah, and you know, like, yeah, I don't know, I mean, in terms of actual representation, you know, that's something that we're gonna be like, this is a, this tomato might be ripe if I let it sit a while.
No. Yeah, I mean, like, I think the closest we come to a not white person is somebody who might, there might be someone sunburned in the background.There are some black extras.
A few different times.And there are some men who had lines who was very, very tan.I don't know if that qualifies.
I mean, to what you're saying, I'm not positive, but to the degree to which women characters are important in this movie, I'm pretty sure Brody's wife was another, eh, let's just get someone who lives in Martha's vineyard.
I did like their dynamic though.Like she had more involvement.Like she wasn't always just scared for him.She was supportive of him.
You know, which brings up an interesting point because has anybody else read the book?I'm not.When you talk about like, whether or not this film is feminist, what's amazing about this film is that they stripped it of it.
boatload of sexism, because in the book, she's horrible.She's an awful bitch.She's nagging him all the time.They have that sort of typical 70s marriage on the rocks kind of a thing.She's constantly undermining him.
I think she's drinking a lot and she ends up screwing Hooper.Oh, all of that stuff.
Yeah.We were just joking when we were watching it about him being their third, but it would be like a consensual thing.
So I understand why Robert told a lot of that out.
I understand why Robert Shaw was passed on the movie because he hated the book.
Yeah.Yeah.Yeah.But that's a that was like you say, that was a very 70s thing of like, you know, these these honeymooner couples that are like, you know, just they just don't understand each other.
But, you know, they've got to be married because that's what people are. You know, that's what I enjoyed.
I found it to be a refreshingly healthy marriage.Exactly.
Absolutely.And, you know, is that feminist?I know.
I mean, all the characters tell me her name beyond Brody's wife.All of you in this movie are, you know, five points for you.
But God, one thing that I do feel like was a missed opportunity is before we even get this shark, when we're just going about Brody's normal day, man, we get a call about this roving gang of nine-year-olds destroying fences with karate.
They're karate in the picket fences.
They're karate in the picket fences.Like, why is the movie not about that?Why is it not about this fucking karate, child karate gang fighting in the dark?
That's a different movie.
I got in so much trouble at after school when I was like in the third grade because the after school I went through is lined by these huge picket fences that had never been stained or painted and they were riggedy and I would kick the shit out of them.
This is the least surprising thing anybody has ever said on this show.They had the most satisfying crack and I remember having to explain to my father like, why were you kicking fences? You were helping.
You were helping.You were helping test the integrity of those fences.
I'm a grown-ass adult.I'm 40 years old and there was a small part of me that was like, they're on to me.
Get me the best child actors the 1970s has to offer.Put them in a boat and make them fight a shark with karate.I think they made that one later.
That's the Three Ninjas Jaws mashup.
Yeah.Yes.But with, I don't know, who was a kid actor in the 70s?Was Tom Cruise around yet? I don't, I don't think he was working.He was not around.Whatever year The Outsiders was, that's when Tom Cruise became a thing.That was the 80s, huh?
Although I always think that that movie's from like the 60s, but I just keep getting like, I see the hair.
Well, that's where you get the 30 year cycle where you have the 80s being real big on 50s nostalgia.
Yeah.Yeah.Like, thanks, guys.
Well, 50s nostalgia.Super 80s.Yeah.I mean, well, the movie took place in the 50s and then.Yeah.Wait, because S.E.Hinton wrote the book.Yes.Oh, yeah.Gangs in the 50s.So that's why everything looks like that.But yeah.
Yeah.Yeah.And but they did a good job. of making it look old.Because sometimes 80s movies are like flatliners and they're like, look at all this paper.There's a lot of paper flying everywhere.
If you ever watch the Chucky TV series, which I highly recommend because it's great, the way they communicate right away that the main kid is gay is he just has a poster of the outsiders in his bedroom.
You know, there's a common language, the language of symbols.
And one of the reasons that we are all here is because we all understand the language of symbols, whether they are wounds, shared experience, film, and, you know, a picture can speak a thousand words, so can a scar.Okay.Yeah.
It begs the age-old question, you know, is he a, you know, fan of the outsiders?
Does he have a friend named Dorothy?So anyway.
OK, so we never quite finished the recap of this.
I'm going to go ahead and take it.The recap is after that they go, the three of them get and they're like, let's kill this shark. They try and fail to kill the shark for a while with harpoons and barrels.They eventually run out of ideas.
They send Hooper in a cage.Cage gets fucked and Hooper's like, I'm gonna hide.That seems like my best plan.
I'm gonna go underwater and hide.
I thought he was going to get his gun, but then like to go get the toxin thing, but then no, he just went and hid behind the rock.It was wonderful.
Like it was a parked car and there was a shootout.Like he's just like crouching behind the rock on the sea floor.
Quint has that look in his face where he's like, the only way I didn't want to die was by shark.Right before he dies by shark.
And then, uh... The Ahab can't survive.Like, he's a literal Captain Ahab.
Yeah, yeah, no, he's... He can't make it out of this alive.What is he gonna do after that?He's gonna have survivor's guilt.He needs to go buy a shark.
He already has so much survivor's guilt.
Oh, that's a good thing, right?
God, the fact that they... The sound effect when we really get the death crunch on Quint.Ooh, that's some sound editing right there.
Yeah, at least HBO Max got that one right.God.
Does anybody else think Quint would taste terrible?Like, even if you're a shark, like... I don't know.Very chewy.That is like a burnt leather kind of thing.He's describing drinking, like, apricot brandy and caviar.I'm just like, sir, like, I don't...
that's a that could be a good jerky though like a little fruity a little salty that man's diet is like 80 whiskey and cigars i was so i was so upset when he mentioned hiroshima though like when he was talking about the indianapolis i was really upset i was like i can't get away quinn's whole backstory with the indianapolis
That is a true story.All of that really happened.That's fucked.Just my recent personal experience.I think my trigger problems have come back around, actually.Oppenheimer has broken me again.
It really does make me a little angry just for how long writers before us got to use World War II veteran as a really handy backstory. Yeah.Yeah.
Like you could fit a lot of explanation for badassness or having like a really dark, depressing backstory like.Uh-huh.
And you couldn't say like with a lot of these movies, you couldn't be like a World War II vet.You know, you had to be specific about it if you really wanted to have someone be like, well, it's kind of problematic, like.Right.
You know, guys, I feel like I feel like I need to point Between the two of you, Emily just said like, oh man, I've got a lot of trauma around Hiroshima.It really triggers me.
And then Ben was like, you know what sucks is that we weren't alive during World War II.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, not during World War II.
I'm talking like the 60s, like the 60s and 70s, when it's like we could have just had super spies fucking everywhere and being like, where'd they learn to be a super spy?World War II.Ben, do you wish you were a boomer?
I mean I could own so many houses, my savings account would be so big.
We're just mad because we can't have houses.
Plus you could have all the right opinions about everything.
Oh yeah.Oh my goodness.So they're on a boat and it's going fast.
The shark basically dismantles the boat single-fingeredly and then But it's down to fucking Brody and a gun and a shark.
And he shoots the last remaining compressed air can, which they've really put a bow on earlier in this that you have compressed air.Oh, yeah.Check out his oxygen tank.Be careful with it.It'll explode.Yeah.
And what is the original purpose of that tank? Why did they bring it on the boat?I think it's for Scuba.
When he goes down into the cage.
Also, if you told me before watching this movie that two guys named Brody and Hooper would take out a killer shark, I'd be like, what are we doing here?
Is this, did Neil Cicerega do this?
Um... Yeah, so they blow up the shark and that is fucking it.
Oh, that shark explosion, oh my god.And they swim to shore.How satisfying is that shark explosion though, y'all?That's fun.It's chunky.
It's pretty good.Yeah, it's very chunky.It's, yeah.Yeah, it's, you know. Thank you for your service, Bruce.You were difficult, but well remembered.
I wonder if they blew up the actual shark model or if they had like a fish meat explosion ready to go.Fish meat explosion is my band.
You owe Jeremy a coke now.Yeah.
The two wildest things about this movie, I feel like looking back from this perspective, is one, that it's rated PG, and two... Because this is before Indiana Jones came out and they're like, we need something between PG and R.
no when it started i was like oh maybe i could show this in my film class and then a girl gets completely naked and gets in the ocean i'm like just kidding nope it's in silhouette it's only as pornographic as a truck my county doesn't care about silhouetted boobs like you can't show them you watched it with my 14 year old goddaughter who sent through the entire thing wait is this is this supposed to be a thriller like is this supposed to be a scary movie
What is this is people's lives are really people didn't go in the ocean after this movie.
I that's the thing.Right.
This kid became endangered because of this movie.
Well, that's that's the thing about this movie is that so many people watched it when they were like so many so many of our parents, you know, like or whoever watched it.And we're like, I will go in a pool.
And I'm like, there's no shark like you can see. You never know, though, but that's that's the movie.
Now I watch the movie Death Swim.And now I'm like, how do I know that this pool isn't also whatever fucking thing happened in Death Swim?Because I'm not actually fucking watching Death Swim.I have no idea what night swim.
OK, as you say, night swim.
I thought that that's what it seems like.
Maybe you shouldn't get in the pool.
Well, that would have been way cooler.
Oh, If Death Swim is about those microbes that go up your nose and like rot your brain from the inside, like seriously, I'm terrified about those.
I think about them way too much.
Yeah.No, like if they have that movie, if that's Death Swim, I'd be scared.
But like if it's a giant shark that's the size of your pool and you're looking at your pool, but like that's the thing, though, and that's the power of this film is that people it's not the shark that they're afraid of.It's just the danger.
And that's that's why you don't show shit in horror movies, is that it's about the danger.It's about the thing coming up your butt and it's going to chop off your leg.I don't think credit to John Williams.
I mean, that score depends how big they are.So not like that.JAWS theme is just synonymous with tension.Yeah.
Yeah.It's an all star piece of music.I mean, Star Wars didn't exist.This would probably be the best piece of John Williams music.
This is the playing the piano and it's on fire meme. They're like, all right, John, we just need a simple shark theme.What do you got?And then he's like, I got two notes.
Duh-duh.OK.Whoa, whoa, no.It's not just duh-duh.Duh-duh.You do it again.Duh-duh.
If you do it wrong, it's the Pink Panther theme.Duh-duh.So you got to.
So yeah, I was just thinking that.
Well, that has more notes in it.
I imagine John Williams let out a long exhale of cigarette and just with a satisfied smile leaned back and said, Johnny boy, you did it again. Speaking of smoking, can we talk about the mayor just smoking in the hospital?
It would be a different time.That is the most 70s part of the movie.
You went to the hospital to smoke.
The doctors are like, hold on.OK, five cc's of oxygen, or whatever.I don't know if the oxygen comes in cc's.Five cc's of oxygen.
For one, that's like no oxygen at all.
That's a cubic centimeter.That's a cubic centimeter of oxygen.
This guy needs a gas. You can put it in a tank and blow up jaws with it.Yeah, there you go.That's what was in the tank.Five cc's of oxygen.
I think, yeah, that would legit blow you up.But like, I mean, in terms of actual analysis, like I do, like I feel like the movie's there, but I'm not sure how much is there beneath. what's very clearly apparent.
The themes of putting commerce before lives is bad.
The second thing that's wild about this movie is that it's over two hours.
Yes.Oh, when I saw that runtime, I was like, how?How does Vi so fast?
It's a patient movie, right?Oh, it's a great movie, yeah.When I was watching it, I was comparing it to We Watched Halloween, right?And I complained about how bored I was.
It takes so long to get moving and I'm waiting for Michael Myers or whatever to show up.But everything here feels like it's contributing to the tension.It's like, oh, there's been a killing.There's been another one.It's getting closer.
We need to get guys together for a boat, right?There's 40 idiots on the water.None of them know what they're doing.It's that and the... It could have just been a dumb movie where it's like, yeah, three guys in a boat fight a shark.
But like, they give Brody his backstory.And Hooper has this complexity where like, he's rich, but he studies sharks for the vibes.And then you've got Quinn who's got whatever Quinn's going on.
Like, there's like, there's so much, I guess, dimensionality given to these characters.They didn't have to.And I think that's how you get that two hour runtime.It's like that.It's it feels like it's clearly like a labor of love.
I've seen I've seen this movie a few times and I completely forgotten about the like,
night scene where like just Brody and Hooper are out like looking for the shark and trying to track it down and they find like the you know the guys abandoned both that the shark is just fucked up and left out there with one eyed man inside.
Yeah I think the best part of that scene is earlier when they're having dinner and Brody just bores himself like half a bottle of wine in one glass.
Wow.That's a cop in a small town vibe.The thing that's interesting about it, going back to what you just said, Emmanuel, is it's basically the movie was being written as it was being filmed.
And so much of it was being written in conversation with the director, with Carl Gottlieb, and with the actors, right?
So that's, I think, why they get so much great stuff to do, is because they're there at the table the night before talking about, hey, and then I'm going to do this, and then why don't you do this?
And of course, there's all the tension between Robert Shaw
And Richard, yeah, that makes sense, because I refuse to believe someone was actually capable of writing down Robert Shaw's dialogue in this movie.
Right.It was Robert Shaw.I mean, he was a playwright.Yeah.And he came up with a lot of his own.That big monologue about the Indianapolis that was Robert Shaw.
I mean, that's the most that's probably the best scene of the movie.
Yeah.Drama was writing in the movie.
Well, it's in the chemistry of these actors is really good.And it was actually like, Oh, great chemistry.Watch them.Brody was just the right amount of haunted.You know, he was an everyman.He wasn't like distant.He was just kind of like, tired.
And it was, it's very, very relatable.But he still has enough like, you know, he is perfectly on the cusp of that call to action.
And- It makes the ship sinking because he is literally like, as soon as he sees Jaws, he's like, all right, so we're gonna head back now, right?
No, one of my favorite details about Brody and also Quint is there's, when they first go out in the water, Brody's the only one wearing a life jacket.And like the other two are like, no, we're fine, it's no big deal. Then we get Quinn's backstory.
He's like, no, I want to go fast.No life jackets for me.And the ship is sinking.He goes and eyes them pointedly and brings them out to Brody and to Hooper.And he himself is just like, he's put on his captain's jacket.He's put his hat back on.
He's ready to die.It's such a good detail.And also just Brody, like you said, he's haunted, but he is not. broken like he's affectionate to his wife.He's affectionate to his son.He tries to do a good job as like the small town cop like he is.
He is still functional despite having this very clear phobia tied to trauma.Right.Yeah.I was having this the first time I've watched the movie like in its entirety and not just oh you blow up a shark.And so
I was surprised by how much I loved it and just how much there was going on from scene to scene and how the interesting thing the camera was doing and just framing and music.
Incredible cinematography and camera work.
Loved it so much.There's so many frameable shots of them on the boat that are so good.
I was waiting for the reveal that it had been a shark who had shot him in New York, and then it would have come full circle where he would have gotten over his trauma by shooting a shark back.
And that's how we connected to West Side Story.It was the gang, the sharks.
It's the Sharon Spielberg universe.And that's why Brody doesn't dance.
What is swimming, but water dancing?Well, that's synchronized swimming.
It is.I mean, in terms of actual themes, I do feel like Hooper is an interesting viewpoint through which the movie does or does not explore animal rights.Because at no point is somebody like, we need to humanely move this shark into other territory.
Yeah, that's right.Nobody, nobody gives a shit.There's like sharks dying here and there.Although I will say that they don't like just put a bunch of dynamite in the water.
Well, no, the one guy tries and he's like, no, stop.Please don't drop dynamite where children are swimming.
Which is the first and last time that an action movie that is trying to kill a shark will probably do that.
I do love the scene where the kids that are playing the prank come up and they're just like surrounded by four boats with just AK-47s all pointed at them.
That was awesome. Yeah, like, don't fuck around.That was another, this is another.
That water got a little warmer after that, if you know what I mean.
In that same scene, they're like, oh, Michael's fine, he's in the pond.But I guess the pond is connected to the ocean by an estuary.To me, it's not a pond, then.A pond is like a closed body of water.
It was like, how did the saltwater shark get in the freshwater pond?Like, what do we do?It was like, oh, we just went under a bridge.
It's like the channel, you know?It's like across the pond, you know?
I don't know. the exact definition of a pond, but I'm gonna say it includes, doesn't, sharks can't get to it.
Yeah.In my mind, it's bigger than a puddle, smaller than a lake.
Yeah, I know how to define it, but I know that if a shark can get to it, it's not a pond.Ponds are where, like, frogs and turtles live.
I mean, the fun thing about this, I think, is that and I think they figure the kid will be safe there because in order to get to there, the shark has to pass up hundreds of other people.Right.It's like, fuck all those guys.
I'm going to go eat the sheriff's kid.Well, yeah, I don't think I can get over there.Fuck these guys.
I can smell the sheriff on these kids.And I'm mad.
Hooper approaches the sharks. certainly with more reverence and scientific respect.
You know, Quint has this more like, they're demon fish from hell kind of like, from hell's heart, I'd stab at the respect, whereas Hooper, you know, it's treating them like creatures worthy of observation and study, but still comes at it almost immediately from a place of like, all right, so here's how we use this knowledge to kill this motherfucker.
I also love the scene with Hooper and Brody at the dock when Hooper first arrives where like they they killed the shark and they've got him standing up there and it was like I mean probably it's the shark like knowing full well at this point like no that's not the fucking shark but he's he's a scientist he's an outsider he knows like these guys aren't gonna listen to him but he's like almost certainly you've done a great job you guys are brilliant great whatever we should just like cut it open though just to make sure
that that's the shark because if there is another shark out there you'd want to know about that, right? To which the answer is resounding, no, we don't want to know about that.
That all felt very realistic.That checked out.Because his justification isn't the, it's obviously the shark that's like, I'm not going to cut a shark out and have this kid's body fallen from everybody.Like, he just took this triumphant picture.
Like, I'm not going to do that to anyone.Which it's like, OK, I hear you, but that doesn't mean never cut the shark open.That means just don't do it while the press is here.
Yeah, maybe like move it to a, like,
a place and then put it in the shark locker the locker for sharks yeah i mean and it leads to this great shot with like hooper brody and bon the mayor where like brody just keeps moving around the group like trying to
you know, trying to keep Vaughn in the conversation, trying to like navigate between the two of them.Hooper, who's just like, oh, fuck it, this is, this is not over.We got to find this other shirt.
And Vaughn, who's like ready to be done with all of this.
And like the way that Spielberg just kind of keeps the camera locked on the three of them going back and forth and like moving in this conversation is like masterfully done for what is just basically a conversation where nothing is accomplished.
Vaughn, god this mayor feels like the kind of like politician authority figure that we would see a parade of throughout the 80s.Like you do not get like the EPA guy from Ghostbusters without this mayor in Jaws.
it's interesting i mean yeah the the the epa guy versus this mayor and how those lines have crossed over just once again state you know just just the use of like we are going like we are using authority figures and figures of authority and state power and they are going to be
bumbling and odious, and they exist to get in the way of our hero's individualistic brilliance or capabilities.
I think that's the whole anti-small-town condescension that ran through the 70s.If you look at Rory Hamilton's IMDb, it is basically filled with just dozens of characters like that.
Yeah, you're right.You're right.It's not.You're right.It's too fundamental an archetype to ascribe it to Jaws.
But it was so beautifully done here.
Yeah. I think it's, going back to, you know, Landon's asking about the progressive stuff, the bona fides, whatever, in this movie, there aren't really any queer characters.
As Landon was saying, there's very little that you could even misrepresent as feminism.I mean, everybody in this movie who is female is somebody's mom or somebody's wife.Like, that's how they relate to the plot.
Ellen Brody is probably the most, like, significant female character. And, you know, she's very supportive, but, like, that's still very much her role is to be supportive.
You know, it's definitely a step up from, as Susan was saying, it's sort of the shrew she's written as in the book.But still, like, she's just sort of there to be a backstop.
And really just, like, when it comes to the last act of this movie, all the women basically just stay back on shore.And it's just, you know, the guys versus shark.
Yeah, I mean, it's really the first outpacing wise.You got the first hour at the town and the beach and then the entire second hour is purely boat with like just the three guys.Yeah, it's very much kind of got like a two act play structure.
Yeah, and then there's very little as far as like racial diversity, social justice kind of stuff in there, because, you know, as we said, there are some, there are a handful of black characters sort of in the background, none really that have speaking roles that I can think of, though, honestly, Martha's Vineyard in the 70s, it's probably pretty accurate to the makeup of who's there.
A lot of black people with their speaking roles. Hey, this isn't related to progressive politics, but I have a question.Did when they were doing the toast, did Quinn say here's to sleeping with four legged women?
Women whose legs bow outwards.
Yeah, because they've been riding so much. I thought he said four-legged women, and I'm like, is that a name for sharks?Do we call sharks four-legged?I've never heard that term for sharks.Okay, that makes sense.That bothered me.
I'm like, why do these women have four legs and why are you sleeping with them, Quint?Is this Minotaurs?Are you fucking Minotaurs?
And Minotaurs usually just happen too.
he'd be much more of a centaur person i think yeah i mean no legs there's the the mermaids the tritons that are the mermaids that have two fish fish fins instead of one and that would mean fucking a triton and that's i mean and if that includes king triton then why the fuck not like
Okay, I do feel like we talked about class stuff already pretty significantly.Does factoring get talked about?
I mean, other than Quint, most of the people living on the island are pretty upper-middle class, but then you also have our scientist who is super upper-class, super just has money to burn.
I mean, it does, look, it's not something that's explored in the movie and their concerns are generally presented as putting greed above safety.
But, you know, there is, you know, a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, another side of the story that does explore the precarity of residents and small business owners that are highly dependent on unpredictable and ever-changing tourism seasons.
and the precarity of the hospitality and tourism industry.But that's not what this movie is about.It's about sharks.
We, I think the one thing that we haven't, I mean, we've talked about the characters.Yes.The characters that we have, we've discussed the backgrounds, which I think discusses a little bit of PTSD.
And, you know, Quentin Brody definitely had PTSD.
Right, you know, and there's this brings up a very general question for me.And, you know, this is this goes from before jaws to to eternity.And I think, you know, where do we decide that a cool backstory is representation?
And where is it a narrative device?And what is that?What is the difference?You know, because in this case, we do have some limitations. set on the characters which defines their arc.
Brody doesn't swim because of the drowning and he's upset and really uncomfortable around water.We don't talk about what that really looks like other than he doesn't go in the water. and maybe he's overly cautious about the water.
Maybe that's why he is so effective.
There's that great exchange.It's weird for someone afraid to live on an island and he says, it's only an island if you look at it from the water.
Yeah.Yeah.I mean, it's dry land to him, but I'm saying like, you know, is I don't think it's explicit in the film, but that, you know, knowing how, how much more complex these issues are for people in terms of trauma.
his character may have well the part of the issues that we're criticizing him for being ineffective as a sheriff not pushing very hard you know maybe he doesn't feel qualified to tell people how to stay in out of the water or not because he's
You know, that's I think he also yeah, he seems determined when we first find out about the first shark attack.He is like make up some science.We're going to close the beaches.
And yeah, you know, as soon as the mayor pulls up on the on the boat to tell him, like, I bet you're not closing any beaches. Do you know who I am?Do you know what would happen to you if you're trying to go to the beaches?
I think that's the first point where he stops to think maybe he shouldn't.
But I also think there's, you're onto something with sort of the, I think we're used to trauma as a backstory, as much as we talk about horror movies, especially horror movies of the last few decades.
But I think, especially at this point in time, in the 70s, having not one but two action heroes in the story who have serious traumatic backstories that don't just make them cool, but make them hesitant to, in Brody's case especially, jump in and
do the action hero stuff and really be right in the middle of things.It's still a pretty new idea, I think.
I mean, in terms of PTSD in film, certainly not the first or only one to do so, but just for reference in terms of pop culture, we are seven years away at this point from Rambo First Blood, a movie that is all about PTSD.Yeah.
But this movie does make me realize, and this is by no means at all unique to Jaws, just how many movies involve characters learning to get over their trauma while facing an experience that is definitely going to traumatize them way worse after the credits roll.
Yeah, and I think that's definitely something to talk about in terms of how trauma is seen, like how how PTSD symptoms are seen as like a character trait rather than like a symptom of a disease or, you know, or a condition, I should say.
Yeah, because I'm not a psychologist.I might be wrong if any listeners want to come in and correct me, but.
I think if you have a fear of water and swimming, the general prescribed treatment isn't usually, well, you should almost get murdered by a giant shark.
You swim your way from the middle of the ocean.
I think of Saloon or whatever that we watched where the protagonist has the fear of water.That's three guys making their way across.Yes.The child soldiers.
Oh, that movie was so fucking cool.
But he has the fear of water, too.And I'm like, oh, that's interesting.Like, I don't think there'd be any reason to connect these movies otherwise.But yeah.
Well, that guy had a magic spell cast on him to resist.
We don't know that that wasn't the case with Brody.That wizard might have tried to drown him.
What I appreciate about Brody being so ineffectual is that we don't have to add him to our incredibly short list of progressively horrified good cops.
Which I believe consists of the guy from the first Child's Play and Ernie Hudson.
We haven't talked about Twin Peaks though, so what's his He's an FBI agent.Oh yeah.The big guy.
Is Patrick Warburton in Twin Peaks?I don't know.That'd be pretty great though.
I mean, he could be.He's way pre-Patrick Warburton.Yeah.Twin Peaks, The Return, however.
No, I'm talking about Agent Cooper.
the yeah that's kama glockland yeah no the guy who said agent cooper like he was cute okay hold on a second so moving away from twin peaks and back to jaws would we recommend jaws yes jaws rule it's so good deputy andy brennan
I would never not recommend Jaws.
It's still like a thrilling, tension-filled, well-shot, like, great time.
But it's not just that.It's well-composed.She talked throughout the whole movie, which is, you know, because we watch it at home, right?Which is that proactive way of distributing your stress.
And I'm like, yeah, that's why you're yabbing throughout the entire thing.And she did jump when the boat rolls over and the guy's face comes out.And I see, I'm like, see, see, there it is.
Lynn, I think you brought up Halloween and that's a great comparison because Halloween at an hour and a half is so much longer than Jaws is two hours.
It's interminable.And like, I could, I sat down and watched Jaws, like was riveted the whole time, loved it.
Yeah.Jaws with Halloween's pacing would be Brody sitting on a beach for like an hour, 45.And then in the last 15 minutes going like, oh, shit, a shark's here.
Yeah.Well, like we see the first person of the shark, but we don't know what it is yet.We just assume that something's happening in the water is like whatever it is.
And Army of Dark or not the one before that evil dad that's like going through the woods, the camera.
I think it's, I think it's interesting to think like both, both Halloween and JAWS, you know, they're a few years apart.Obviously JAWS came first, but they are substantially like, you know, that follow cam of the POV of the
creature or the shape as it is at Halloween.You don't always know what's going on, but it is then denoted by sound.In Michael's case, it's the breathing, but in the case of the shark, it's the music.
You get the music when it switches over to shark POV, so you know what's happening.
That's what sharks sound like underwater when they breathe.
Maybe it's just the spiel birdness of it, but we've definitely done some 70s movies where I watch them like, yep, this was definitely made a while ago and feels it.I feel like you could...
release Spielberg now as a new movie and it obviously wouldn't be Jaws, but it would still do really well, I feel.I feel like this holds up by the standards of any era of filmmaking.
Yeah, I think it's definitely a gold standard in terms of just the craft of a... What, Jeremy?
I was gonna say, I think Spielberg is really good at latching on to an idea or a series of words or things like that, that just really capture the imagination.I feel like this movie very much did for
Great White Sharks, what Jurassic Park did for Velociraptors.People already knew about T-Rex.T-Rex is a thing that we knew about.He just made them scary and that they were real in the story.
But Velociraptors were not a thing that people talked about previous to Jurassic Park.In the same way that I think the word alien and the movie Alien are connected.It wasn't really something that people talked about.But Great White Sharks are like,
a thing that kids know about now in a way that they really weren't before, you know, Jaws came out in 75.Like, it's they are the scary shark.
I'm not just a baby shark.
So I guess, in terms of this movie's effect on like, So it's interesting you bring up Jurassic Park and the Velociraptors, because raptors, crucially, aren't currently existing, so you can just spread misinformation about them, no problem.
It's not like we can make the raptors more extinct. But by God, we'll give it a better shot.Where this movie's effect on sharks is part of its legacy.
Sharks are, you know, because again, the the unspoken theme of this movie is animal rights or lack thereof.
Yeah, well, it's an unintentional effect.
So from what I can tell, by one measure, this massively increased the number of scientific studies on sharks.Turns out a lot of people wanted to be Hooper and go in and study sharks.That's cool.
That's one of the interesting things about, I think, the movie, too, the shark as the antagonist is that It's just doing the thing it's evolved for millions of years to do.It's a perfect killing machine.
Which is why it's wild that Shark or Jaws 4, it'd be stupid if these movies were called Shark, but Jaws 4 is the revenge.I feel like you need some kind of intellect or personhood to get revenge.
It's just you going after other great whites for my boy, Quint.
Like, isn't that the one where they take Jaws as baby?And so Jaws, Mama Jaws gets mad and wants baby Jaws back.
No, that's that's baby.That's about the dinosaurs.That movie, Baby, about the dinosaur, though, that movie's fucked up.
shark here is a little bit more intelligent than most sharks.I mean, the amount of time that this shark spends screwing with their brains.
Oh yeah, like going under the boat and imaging the boat.
We really don't get an origin for this shark.It's not where it's like, oh, we were polluting.We were like, polluting or dumping cocaine in its natural waters and it got real big.It's just like, oh, maybe sharks get big sometimes.
I don't know what the fuck to tell you.
You want to be a shark?Clever girls could run.
Well, this is why they needed to up the game for deep blue sea.Yeah.
What's really wild to me, I feel like, is that Gottlieb, who is the screenwriter on this, Harold Gottlieb, the two biggest things that he's written are this and The Jerk, which could not be more different, more unrelated.
Well, they both start with J. And four letters in Jerk and John's.There you go.I think I would also Definitely recommend this one, as we were saying.
It's not... It's Jaws!You gotta watch this movie.
This is like a foundational Lego, I feel like, in the building of movies.If Jaws didn't exist, there's a domino effect of other things that would not exist.
The craft, and the scale, and the storytelling, the quality of storytelling, and the character work.And the effects, you know, are fine.
And that dolly zoom on Rorschach.That fucking dolly zoom!
Yeah. Yeah.I mean, it did really elevate the sort of creature monster movie.Um, and I think, you know, cinematography did that getting three fine actors in the main roles did that and, you know, really excellent direction did that.
And I think that it sort of set the scene for a lot of movies to follow.
Right.Well, and that's the other thing, right.It's like, it could have been so much dumber and so much cheaper and it wasn't, and I'm sure it's. The things that followed it were, right?
Yeah, we've got those dumber versions.
There's probably 500 movies on Tubi that are trying to be Jaws, but this one is like, clearly there's some thought and some craft and some insight into what they're doing.Yeah, I love it.
Emily, earlier you used the phrase, Jaws to eternity, and I'm like, yeah, we should make Jaws to eternity. Yeah, that's a great.Yeah, fucking hell.Yeah, everything, everywhere, all at Jaws.Yeah.
Well, I mean, who knows how long sharks live?
Look, it's time for them.It's time to bring Jaws back and hop on the multiverse trend.Yeah.
It's the time shark.How can you jump the time shark?
On that note, we need to do some recommendations.So if people loved Jaws or they're looking for something to follow this up, what do we recommend?Emanuel, did you have Something you want to throw in there?
Yeah, I've got a couple of things.If you haven't seen Alien, watch Alien because in a lot of ways it is Jaws in space and it's so fucking good.
If you haven't played the video game Dredge, that's a movie that's the quintessential we need a bigger boat like you.It's kind of got Lovecraftian vibes but it's the you are going out on this tiny boat fishing for things that often fuck your boat up.
And then the last thing I'll recommend is a book that I'm reading.I need to look up the author real quick.But it's Shark Heart.Have any of y'all read this?
Oh, man.Okay, so Shark Heart, colon, a love story by Emily Habeck.And it is a magical realism story.There's a couple, Louis, the husband, and his wife, Wren.And Louis starts having some weird medical stuff, where like,
His skin is getting really weird.He's always thirsty.And it's like, oh, he goes to the doctor like, yeah, you know, we've been seeing this a lot.You're turning into a great shark.
It's not terminal, but like you will make the full transition in the next two to three years.So make your peace with that.We're going to do what we can to help you with that.And so it is.
this kind of abstract nonsensical story that details this couple's life as the husband slowly turns into a great white and it's fascinating because they do a lot of the body horror of like he's in agony like he's a high school drama teacher and he's in agony because at a certain point in his life
all of his bones are gone and he's just cartilage and then like his face more it's so good and it would end a lesser book would end when he becomes the shark and that's like the midway point and it's it's you should read it it's a good one and it's got some fascinating incredible is the second half jonathan livingston seagull but with sharks
I, maybe, I don't.Why is that the talking animal book I go to?There's so much Redwall, but no, I go for Jonathan Livingston's Seagull.
Just when you say Shark Heart, I feel like it's a Care Bear kind of character.
It makes me think of Finding Nemo, but I could see Care Bear.
Yeah.Well, the shark in, the big bright white shark in Finding Nemo, I believe was named Bruce.
And I thought that that was- Well, I'm just thinking Shark Heart.
Yeah, it is.It's the sound quality of it.
Yeah, that is a very, it's a very sharp name.
Susan, what have you got to recommend?
You know, I was thinking about it and I would actually recommend for people like me who enjoy enacting and creating their own stories on this kind of thing. um, an RPG that is sort of horror based.There's kind of a fun one called Monster of the Week.
It's a PBTA and it's awesome.
And then there's like, if you want to get like really, you know, build on the suspense, um, and really sort of cinematic, there's a game called The Heart, which just, you know, the building, the tension and the suspense and just the, the, the dread as you go down and down and down.
Yeah.I highly recommend people just go create their own stories.Much scarier.
Fantastic.Lan, what have you got?I'm trying to figure out what I've watched recently because I've had to stay on top of my screeners for work.But what should I watch?I don't know.I really dug Long Legs.
I think it's... I mean, I'm really excited to own that, like, actually have a copy because I... I had a really well I wouldn't say good time with the movies, but because I was very tense.
I feel like it would have been a better movie had it shaved off like the last 10 minutes or so, but the build up to that. is so good and I felt like it was choking just because it was that tense.
But if we're talking about Jaws, like as Emmanuel said, like Alien, like it's, I think that's how it was billed was Jaws in space.I think that was its elevator pitch.Yeah.Yeah.Yeah.I think it was the elevator pitch.
You can't go wrong with Alien, much less Aliens.I'm hyped for Romulus, although, you know, Covenant let me down and Well, you know, it's cyclical nature of the Alien franchise.So let's do something weird.Let's do probably Housew.
That's always a good one.And I think it's hard to top that.
Yeah, you're right.You're right.Like, there's nothing.I think it's hard to top that.Pick a top Housew.
Yeah.Incredible film.Absolutely.Emily, what have you got to recommend?
Well, it's a good question.I mean, with Jaws, there's so many things that try to be Jaws and aren't Jaws.One of the things that I always think about that is not at nowhere near good as Jaws, but happens underwater and has weird shit, is Sphere.
which I think, I haven't seen that movie in a million years.I remember liking it.It's not, it's not great.It's a Michael Crichton device and it's, you know, it's, it's okay.It's all right.
You know, it's, it's got Dustin Hoffman and Samuel L. Jackson and Anne Heche and one of, and Anne, I figured, I can't, I'm so sorry.
And then I also just rediscovered the TV show Primal on, I think it's on Max, of Samurai Jack fame, Gandy Tartakovsky has a new series that's basically like if Frank Frazetta was animated by Chuck Jones.And that is it. That is the pitch.
There's not a lot of dialogue.Man, dinosaur.Yes, a man and a dinosaur.They team up and fight demons.And it's pretty cool, except for just once it gets like maybe 30 seconds from the end of the series, just shut it off.
And that's all I'll say about that.You can at me.You can DM me if you want to know.I don't want to spoil it.But Gendy, sometimes I just want to take that fucking pencil out of your hand and be like,
Ben, what have you got to recommend?
So if you watch Jaws and were like, but I do want to see them get a bigger boat, then I have a movie with a bigger boat. Go see Master and Commander The Far Side of the World starring Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany.It's got boats.They're big.
I hear battlefields are in the oceans now.Is that correct?
They are.Battlefields are back.
I saw that movie like 20 years ago and maybe the only thing I remember from that movie is Paul Bettany doing surgery on himself in that film using a mirror is just like that has stuck with me over the years.
It's like him sewing himself back up using a mirror.
I feel like there's something there between like Master and Commander and Battleship as movies based on games that also occur in the ocean.
I don't think Parker Brothers does the game Master Commander, though.
No, that was a series of adventure novels based on the Napoleonic Wars.
Oh, I was talking about a different game.
You're talking about the Rihanna movie.
Talking about a role-playing game.
I'm like, Rihanna was in that?I'm like, who did Rihanna play in that?
I will say that Monster of the Week is cool.I've run a Monster of the Week game before, it's pretty fun.I really, really, really enjoy Monster of the Week.
It's a fake core system and it's basically like, you know, it's basically supernatural but good.You can make your supernatural yours and good.
Yeah, yeah.All right.So for myself, as we were talking about, I've been in Germany this past week.I have all sorts of weird things I could recommend.I watched a lot of movies on the way home.I did watch Night Swim.It was terrible.
Abigail was pretty bad.So bad.Beekeeper is there.It is an hour and a half of Jason Statham punching smarmy guys.So it's fun, but there's nothing deeper than that, isn't it?
No, he keeps the bees.He cares for the bees. And I also watched the first Dune, which I had not watched yet.That is half of a movie, but it is a long, it is a long half of a movie.
You watched the first part of Dune on an airplane.
That's yeah.Take that Denny vanilla.
But what I also did while traveling is I have been listening to the audio book of Harrow the Knight, which is the second book in the Locked In series, written almost entirely in the second person.It's nuts.
I don't know who would do that to themselves.I have not finished it yet, so I can't say like what the, how happy or unhappy I am with the, you know,
Where it goes, I really enjoyed getting in the night and this is like This is it's such a risky thing to do as a writer.
I was so like Listening to this and like oh What if you took everything that people loved about the first one and we're kind of like no not that this time but we're gonna like we're going to continue the story.
And I was like, Oh man, I, it makes me angry that, that like she went this direction, but also it's so good.And, uh, if you listen to the audio books and Moira Quirk does the audio books and she's incredible.
So I also appreciate her ability to do a bunch of voices.Like. people who do audiobooks and can do a bunch of different like character voices for the story.I love you.But yeah, check out Hero of the Night, especially the audiobook.
I mean, read Gideon the Knight first, obviously, if you haven't. But uh, yeah, it's, it is an incredible feat of writing.I'm not even halfway through it at this point.And I'm just like, man, it makes me makes me angry how good you are at this stuff.
So yeah, check that out for sure.It's much better writing than any of those movies that I watched.I'd say at some point we should talk about nights from on here because it's just, it's unbelievably ridiculous.
If you guys haven't done and dumb and bad. Yeah, I want I want it.Give it to me.I know.
OK, I feel like I feel like for months I was like, what's the explanation behind the pool being evil?
And I do need to share that it is the pool gets water from an aquifer underground, which has an ancient something that kills people, but also grants wishes.They don't go much deeper into it than that. Yes, give me the murder genie pool.
But it does, this horrible black water does infect our hero, the main character, and then turn them into an evil water zombie for a little bit.But yeah, Wyatt Russell got possessed by some water, so whatever.
I recommend Pirates of Darkwater.Yeah.That show fucking rules.
No, he's a tot.Okay.That does it for us.Want to let people, uh, tell us where, uh, where we can find them and more about their stuff.Is there listening to this?Emmanuel, where can people find you online?I'm on Twitter.
You listen to, uh, Susan, where can people find, uh, you and more of your, your work online?
Predominantly I'm on sub stack these days at swirling words with personal essays and my ongoing serial red crag.
And Lan, what about you?Twitter, pretty much just shit talking, wrestling, and slowly but surely promoting the book I get to announce in December.And Instagram where you can see photos of cats and toys.And Ben.
Yeah, find me at benconcomics.com.I guess just Google Ben Con Comics plus social media of your choice.You should be able to find me.Pre-order Mr. Muffins out from Oni Press in January.Awesome.Emily.
Megamoth.net, mega underscore moth on Instagram, megamoth Twitter, Tumblr, Blue Sky, Patreon, the works.
And stay tuned for my new blog that is going to be reviewing Killian Murphy performances called MurphyQuest by his punch ability, creature rating, cut served, and baby girl levels.
Fantastic.As for me, you can find me at JeremyWhitley.com.You can find me without too much difficulty on all those various social media things.And you can go re-navigating with you right now because it's October and that's out.So, fantastic.
That does it for us today.Happy October, everybody.Thank you all very much for joining us here today and talking about The Shark Movie. In a world full of shark movies, this is the shark movie.
This is indeed the shark.I was actually at the ocean today.So I do a research.
Yeah, I did a research.Got a bigger boat.
Okay, we need one of those.Oh, thank you all again.And until next time, stay horrified.
Sign in
