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Alan - 2005-04-18 20:52:37
That Duckberg religion thing is really creepy. Makes you wonder just how prevalent Christianity references are in pop culture. Might be almost as pervasive as Simpsons references. On Jaws, it's one of my favorite films, mostly on the strength of Dreyfuss and Shaw's performances (You know, I almost reversed those names, but I lacked confidence in how to do a possessive plural of Dreyfuss, and I didn't want to offend any editor types). DrinkatWork has these Jaws referential unfortunate last words. "I�ll find your shark for three thousand. I�ll kill him for ten. And for 20, I�ll try to mate with him."
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Alan - 2005-04-18 20:53:17
That Duckberg religion thing is really creepy. Makes you wonder just how prevalent Christianity references are in pop culture. Might be almost as pervasive as Simpsons references. On Jaws, it's one of my favorite films, mostly on the strength of Dreyfuss and Shaw's performances (You know, I almost reversed those names, but I lacked confidence in how to do a possessive plural of Dreyfuss, and I didn't want to offend any editor types). DrinkatWork has these Jaws referential unfortunate last words. "I�ll find your shark for three thousand. I�ll kill him for ten. And for 20, I�ll try to mate with him."
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Sharps - 2005-04-19 11:22:06
I love JAWS, too, but it's worth noting how Speilberg sanded down the edges of Benchley's novel to deliver a can't-miss crowd-pleaser: in the book the Dreyfuss character sleeps with the chief's wife (speaking of male competition subtexts), and is eaten by the shark when he goes down in that ridiculous cage towards the end. Also, the book is unclear whether the shark dies. The movie is also fairly unconcerned with the questions Carino (and Benchley) raises about just who is infringing on who's rightful territory. That said, the movie is also much more terrifying and compelling than the novel. That's the major complaint against Speilberg and Lucas--you can't deny that they are geniuses, but their relatively uncomplicated blockbusters effectively annihilated a very interesting period of anti-establishment Hollywood filmmaking. One that, arguably, made their careers possible in the first place. If DUEL is on DVD, I recommend you rent that one.
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Paula - 2005-04-19 13:42:39
Sharps:
Agreed. If anyone wants further reading on the topic, this book is a wonderful introduction to how these kinda films got made and what made 'em so dang popular.
Alan: it's "Dreyfuss's", believe it or not.
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2fs - 2005-04-19 23:29:04
In fact, it's "Dreyfuss's" even if it comes first, in your sentence...since you're talking about two separate performances. Unless, unbeknownst to me, the two were conjoined twins at the time. Or maybe not - I don't wanna get into the heavy philosophical issues here.
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Crotchety Bob - 2005-04-20 12:40:38
Jaws struck me (a gruff man of the sea myself, of course) as a load of crap, when I saw it as a teenager, and though the music made me cover my eyes in suspense, I swear the shark growled when it came up over the transom once. But though the shark in the movie didn't need to die, the comparitively small real life shark in 1916 that inspired Benchley's book probably did... because, unlike the Hollywood robot, it seems to have been flat out "wired wrong". When a White shark attacks three people, killing two of them, twelve miles due WEST (yes, west) of Highlands, New Jersey, it's got problems. The details can be found in the 10/07/'04 "Mystery Chimps" entry of Paula's blog, in the comments section, (any way to provide a link, Paula?), and that obviously badly wired shark raises interesting? questions of mental retardation in lower animals. But whereas there are valid reasons to protect OUR retarded killers, that there's the difference between man and beasts. I would not, on the other hand, advocate killing the White shark that bit a sixteen year old South African surfer's leg off above the knee this winter/summer... but it had the good taste/wiring to spit it out, whereupon it (presumably encased in wetsuit neoprene) floated ashore twenty miles away, where someone found it, and it got returned to that boy, who (slightly less tastefully) kept it preserved by his hospital bed, presumably as a conversation piece. (Kids today....)
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Compulso the editador - 2005-04-23 01:54:06
That should be "leg off, above the knee,". Nothing worse than rambling without packing one's punctuation....
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Paula - 2005-04-23 11:14:22
Bob: couldn't they have rehabilitated the shark?
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