We also watched Jaws (1975).
The final will take place of April 24th at 7:00pm in our usual meeting space. Please bring a Pink/Raspberry scantron for the final.
I have made all the lecture notes available below for the week leading up to the Final Exam. Please use these lectures as back-up for your personal notes that you have hopefully been taking this year.
Jaws
ReplyDeleteDirector: Steven Spielberg
1975
*summer blockbuster/greatest film of all time
The film captures the busy summer of the beach town called Amity Island when Martin Brody, the town’s new sheriff, finds out he may have bigger problems than just crowd control and rowdy kids messing with the neighbors. A large shark has been found to be on the attack and Brody must team up with a young oceanographer and a shadowy fisherman to catch the beast at large. After a tumultuous hunt, the shark is killed but not without first taking a few more lives. Sheriff Brody is on a journey of sorts to face his fear of the open water and to become the man and sturdy town leader he wants to be at the start.
I am reviewing this film not just because it was assigned, but because of the significance it holds in film history as well as the obstacles it had to overcome to get made; the societal issues it contemplates and the genius that is Spielberg. This film exhibits certain trends young Steven was experimenting with then that have bloomed into Spielberg style staples like the unique camera angles, the use of eyes/glasses especially to reflect text the character is reading and the grace with which his films flow are all represented in this film. The attention to foreground and background when the sheriff is at table with his son and oceanographer is at the door is a great example of how Spielberg plays with gaze and diegetic sound from one character while the camera is focused on another and both are I the same frame is really working here. When they are cutting the tiger shark open and we see the oceanographer from the sheriff’s perspective (plays a lot with perspective and line of sight/up angles when all three men are on camera)
I honestly don’t think I’m at a level of film expertise to say anything too critical about the film. It can be argued that maybe seeing the shark in the first attack could have made the film stronger, but with the knowledge gained from this course I can agree with the general consensus that it helped heighten the suspense of the narrative and is a really great example of how to make things work when shooting a film and disaster strikes. I also think the way Spielberg shot the film was very intelligent, very close to the characters and he doesn’t leave really any “hang time” for the audience to detach which is an aspect that I think makes the film such a success; he doesn’t waste a frame. As far as sound editing goes, this film is super famous for two musical notes, so when discussing soundscape and music, its working superbly.