50 Years Ago Today, It Came to the Theaters, (and scared the crap out of some).

KSav said:
I've read the book, @Medusa, and I agree with @moviequeen1 that the movie was better. It's one of the handful of instances in which I think the movie is better than the book, although I genuinely enjoyed the book.
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This is making me want to read (or now I'd listen) to the book again.

Edit: typo
 

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I love the movie. I read the book, once, long ago.

Love it or hate it, one can't deny, it's a film that has woven itself into the fabric of the American psyche.

50 years later, there's not a person that sets foot in the ocean that doesn't hear the word 'shark' somewhere in the back of their mind.
 
I saw it in the theater. When the little boy was on his blow-up raft, I had to get up and go to the lobby for a few minutes.

Like @MarkinPhx I appreciated the good characterizations and the atmosphere. I loved Richard Dreyfus mashing his paper cup against his forehead to mock the other guy's toxic masculinity.

It's a cultural necessity! If you haven't seen it you wouldn't get the scene in "Caddy Shack" when Bill Murray is cleaning the pool and you wouldn't know why people keep saying, "We're going to need a bigger boat."
 

I remember seeing this on opening night. Stood in a long line with a girlfriend.
It never stopped me from swimming in the ocean, surfing, etc. The shark looked fake in its closeup at the end - kind of ruined it. I had caught sharks before while ocean fishing and thought - this definitely doesn’t look like a real shark. It seemed plasticy.
I am wary of jellyfish though. Got a nasty sting once while surfing.
 
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EmptyCup said:
I remember seeing this on opening night. Stood in a long line with a girlfriend.
It never stopped me from swimming in the ocean, surfing, etc. The shark looked fake in its closeup at the end - kind of ruined it. I had caught sharks before while ocean fishing and thought - this definitely doesn’t look like a real shark. It seemed plasticy.
I was afraid of jellyfish though. Got a nasty sting once while surfing.
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Yeah, they shoulda used a real shark. ;)
 
Pepper said:
I read the book before seeing the movie. I remember the movie, not the book. Terrified of ocean water since. And Jellyfish, UGH.
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I love jellyfish and have several little hanging things, wall stickers, etc. I have a little jellyfish bloom, really. They are beautiful and lovely to watch, through glass.

I'm totally scared of encountering them in the ocean and really, there's good reason to be. They are there and they sting. 😶‍🌫️
 
I would say it’s well worth watching for someone who’s never seen it.

I watched it for the first time when I was 13, but I don’t remember being scared by it -- to me it was just a movie. I didn’t even realise that some people had been genuinely frightened or even traumatised by it until I met my American girlfriend in 2000. She told me it made her afraid to go near the water -- she lived a couple of hundred yards from Lake St. Clair!

Personally, at the ripe old age of 13, I thought the shark looked a bit ridiculous.
 
I saw it in the theater when it first came out.

It was the first movie I ever saw that genuinely terrified me. I shrieked a few times and I wasn’t alone. The theater crowd were a noisy bunch that night! 🦈
 
Ronni said:
I saw it in the theater when it first came out.

It was the first movie I ever saw that genuinely terrified me. I shrieked a few times and I wasn’t alone. The theater crowd were a noisy bunch that night! 🦈
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Having watched it again last night, I'm happy to say that's it's still fun on the rewatch.

Edited to add: Richard Dreyfuss really was great in that movie.
 
Medusa said:
Having watched it again last night, I'm happy to say that's it's still fun on the rewatch.

Edited to add: Richard Dreyfuss really was great in that movie.
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Oh I’ve watched it again a few times on tv. It was never as terrifying as that very first time, huge screen, booming soundtrack (the music was fantastic!!) a sort of contagion of fear and horror throughout the audience which fed the terror!

And yeah I agree, Dreyfus was amazing. Really the casting was inspired, such a clever dynamic between the main characters
 
I don't know if I saw the 4th Jaws movie, but I saw the first 3. Jaws 3D, was a rather dumb movie. When it was shown on TV, the title was changed to Jaws 3.
 
Medusa said:
I love jellyfish and have several little hanging things, wall stickers, etc. I have a little jellyfish bloom, really. They are beautiful and lovely to watch, through glass.

I'm totally scared of encountering them in the ocean and really, there's good reason to be. They are there and they sting. 😶‍🌫️
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Oh yeah, I know what you mean, that other worldly beauty and grace, and yeah, they sting! I've seen it happen to others a few times......they were in genuine pain.
 
Pepper said:
Oh yeah, I know what you mean, that other worldly beauty and grace, and yeah, they sting! I've seen it happen to others a few times......they were in genuine pain.
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When my husband was in his 20's he did a lot of surfing. On one outing, he was coming out of the ocean and a huge jellyfish wrapped around his entire torso. He said he had to pull it off with both hands. It stung really bad and made him sick for a few days. :eek:

Where my older son lives in South Florida, they get Portuguese Man O' War jellyfish,* which wash up on the shores. Thankfully, their arrival is only seasonal and can be warned against. But can you imagine stepping on one of those while walking along the beach with your coffee? Yikes.

* "The Portuguese man o’ war, ... is often called a jellyfish, but is actually a species of siphonophore, a group of animals that are closely related to jellyfish. A siphonophore is unusual in that it is comprised of a colony of specialized, genetically identical individuals called zooids — clones — with various forms and functions, all working together as one. ...propelled by winds and ocean currents alone, and sometimes float in legions of 1,000 or more!" What is a Portuguese Man o’ War?

And they sting. :oops:

portuguese man o war.jpg

Edit: Grammar
 

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