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We got a report in from the premiere of Jaws documentary THE SHARK IS STILL WORKING!

Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. After being in the works for years, THE SHARK IS STILL WORKING finally premiered. I heard from many readers that were attending before the event, but so far only one review has come in. I'm interested in others if you were there.

Anyway, this sounds like it holds up from my first viewing of a longer, rough cut... in other words, a Jaws nerd's dream. Here's "happydude" with his thoughts on how it plays out!

Hola friend(s).

I'm a long time reader first time reporter and full-time Jaws nerd. Maybe not crazy enough to don fake mutton-chops and a mustache (outside of the bedroom anyway) but crazy enough to alienate those who love me.

I attended the Official World Premiere of The Shark is Still Working last nite here in Los Angeles and thought you might be interested in impressions from someone who's been following this production closely from the beginning.

First off, this is considered by many in the know to be the be-all, end-all bible of the making of Jaws full of new revelations even for those who eat, breath, and sleep this movie. Bottom line? It is. With some reservations.

The finished product was a lot shorter than previous reports though it still clocked in at around 2 1/2 hours- longer than the actual film itself. Apparently to get the run-time down a lot of unlicensed footage was removed. I'm assuming this was mostly actual footage from the production that went unused in the film since there was plenty of footage from the actual movie. This was my biggest disappointment since when I first heard about this movie I began dreaming of seeing outtakes of the many attempts at getting the Indianapolis speech down- long-time Jaws fans will know the lore behind this. There was some deleted material but, and I may be wrong, no 'official' deleted material that wasn't also included on the 30th and 25th anniversary dvd's.

What the film had a-plenty, was home movies and deleted material from other sources- one of the holy grails of which is the Alex- Kinter-meets-his-demise material. And a scene that actually revealed the 'karate-ing of the picket fences.' The behind the scenes footage was also pretty great: see Spielberg's mock (but kinda not)-despair in Hollywood as the Academy Award nominations are announced and he's shafted for Best Director.

There were plenty of stories that I hadn't heard before. Dreyfuss talks a lot and candidly about his relationship with Robert Shaw. Roy Scheider had a couple of great anecdotes about Shaw's antagonism of Dreyfuss. These are things you need to hear from the horse's mouth, so I won't spoil them here.

In fact all of the talking heads material and interviews were a lot more candid than we've heard before. Much of Spielberg's interviews were new takes on familiar stories as were Scheider's. Dreyfuss was Dreyfuss and always a hoot, but I'm sure most of the folks who will be seeing this don't ever need to hear him mimic a p.a. claiming 'The shark is not working' again.

Now: the not-so-great (and there's very little): I could have done without most of the Jawsfest material. It's great to see the Amity locations today, but I didn't necessarily need to see fellow nerds on-stage with Deputy Hendricks at a live event quoting all of his dialogue back to him. Although as I write that I admit it does sound pretty terrific.

This is the definitive behind-the-scenes on Jaws, even more in depth than the Bouzereau doc from laser-disc days and fans will want to seek it out. Though how they'll be able to see it is still, from what I understand, up in the air. If Universal does the right thing, this will be a bonus feature on the next release, though I'd certainly recommend it as a stand-alone if that's the route these folks have to take.

If you use this, call me happydude.


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Reader Talkback

Hi There
by Kevin Mayle
May 8th, 2009
04:42:25 AM
Hello Again
by Kevin Mayle
May 8th, 2009
04:43:41 AM
Goodbye
by Kevin Mayle
May 8th, 2009
04:44:06 AM
Yeah,
by Cagliostro
May 8th, 2009
04:46:16 AM
Hope this will be a tribute
by blakindigo
May 8th, 2009
04:49:14 AM
Dying to see this
by Brody77
May 8th, 2009
05:03:30 AM
Where going to need
by Trannyformers_Apologist
May 8th, 2009
05:07:03 AM
WE'RE Going to need a bigger boat--
by DrunkyMcLush
May 8th, 2009
05:15:11 AM
Really want to see this.
by Boba Fat
May 8th, 2009
05:16:03 AM
They went for Fellini!
by zapano
May 8th, 2009
05:47:32 AM
"You're gonna need a bigger boat."
by Mr Spork
May 8th, 2009
06:31:46 AM
Mr Spork beat me to it. Quote it right.
by Brody77
May 8th, 2009
07:24:33 AM
He's in the cah....
by Amazing Maurice
May 8th, 2009
07:25:01 AM
I def want to see this
by Arteska
May 8th, 2009
08:17:10 AM
doesn't
by Arteska
May 8th, 2009
08:18:11 AM
GetEveryone
by yodaismyhomie
May 8th, 2009
08:41:47 AM
So......
by HorrorFan81
May 8th, 2009
09:25:04 AM
BEST MOVIE EVER!
by cupp555
May 8th, 2009
09:30:04 AM
Went to the screening
by jersey_d
May 8th, 2009
09:53:40 AM
Just tell me
by Abominable Snowcone
May 8th, 2009
10:49:24 AM
JAWS
by vcathell
May 8th, 2009
10:49:30 AM
THEY SHOW SPIELBERG'S CABIN!!
by Sir Perior
May 8th, 2009
10:53:46 AM
Happy Dude-Greetings friend! Do you want to be as happy as me?
by D.Vader
May 8th, 2009
11:04:27 AM
I'd like confirmation....
by Geomancer21
May 8th, 2009
11:17:43 AM
Gotlieb, Alves, Chapman and Kramer were there...
by JuanSanchez
May 8th, 2009
12:12:00 PM
I was there as well...
by DarthCorleone
May 8th, 2009
02:08:55 PM
Thanks from TSISW
by JGelet
May 8th, 2009
02:13:50 PM
Thanks for your feedback on TSISW!
by ErikHollander
May 8th, 2009
02:30:24 PM
JGelet...
by DarthCorleone
May 8th, 2009
02:37:20 PM
And thanks...
by DarthCorleone
May 8th, 2009
02:39:11 PM
DarthCorleone
by JGelet
May 8th, 2009
02:56:39 PM
Thank You
by jmichaelroddy
May 8th, 2009
03:30:32 PM
Jaws, StarWars, Raiders, Back to the Future, etc
by romanocc
May 8th, 2009
03:41:02 PM
Also read The Jaws Log book
by ChittyChittyGangBang
May 8th, 2009
04:38:37 PM
I love
by There_will_be_Dickblood
May 8th, 2009
05:04:57 PM
Attended the 1 am screening
by Flames gotta Eat
May 8th, 2009
05:29:13 PM
I WANT TO SEE THIS!
by jawsfan
May 8th, 2009
05:41:15 PM
When is this being released wide?
by Turd Furgeson
May 8th, 2009
06:42:44 PM
I have the anniversary edition box set on laserdisc
by cornponious
May 8th, 2009
10:52:53 PM
I'm going to see if the.....
by DrMorbius
May 9th, 2009
12:56:55 AM
ABOUT FRIGGIN TIME. NCLUDE EVERYTHING ON BLU RAY
by Proman1984
May 9th, 2009
03:01:55 PM
And yes do include the review, DrMorbius
by Proman1984
May 9th, 2009
03:12:04 PM
Is there any mileage looking at TV as distribution?
by J.B.M.A.
May 9th, 2009
09:29:02 PM
UMMMM!!!
by DrMorbius
May 10th, 2009
12:26:16 AM
More of Alex Kinter's demise?
by Drath
May 10th, 2009
06:34:36 PM
Alex Kinter's demise! Woohoo!
by RidgeShark
May 11th, 2009
06:47:18 PM

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