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Published on Friday, May 8, 2009 - 4:37am |
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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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