Would you consider Jaws a little too slow?

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My point has already been stated. For someone eager to plumb the depths of a 600 page allegorical novel about whaling to explain the nuances of a Steven Spielberg shark film, here is your opportunity to go back a post or two to figure out what it is.


And yes, I know exactly where this discussion is going. Probably something to do with the girth of Quint's dick and how this relates to his hero's journey. I think that's from Billy Budd though.
That might be where you hope it leads to, but no.

Honestly, I don't know what happened to just agreeing to disagree, but I'm just going to take us back to that.



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It might be, but thats no concern for me. I enjoyed many "slow" movies I've watched. Anyway, I prefer Jaws II, and nostalgia plays a big deal on that, since I live in Brasil and the second one was screened way more on local TV than the first one.



Yeah, THE iconic summer blockbuster. As a lifelong summer beach goer, it's also my number 2 beach horror being a little bit short of seeing a 100 foot tsunami looming on the horizon. Number 3 is sunburn and number 4 is the moment when everybody runs out of french fries. Hurricanes are easy because you have a several day warning.

Jaws hit all the right notes on this. Since there's no escaping the tsunami, there's no need for a movie. Sharks, however, are a sensible, primal fear and a big shark that can swallow you is more scary than a little one that just removes a foot.

Jaws also hit the right note in the random nature of the fear, like somebody is going to be eaten, it might be you or the people two umbrellas down the beach, or some teens in a late night tryst, as well as the worst parental nightmare, where it's a nice day on the beach, parents want to chill for a while and then all of a sudden, everybody screams, exits the water and one kid is missing. You have some time to know how that's going to turn out.

Jaws is slow, but so were most movies back then. I've never been quite clear on why we need movies to have non-stop action, like the one where 500 hundred sharks attack the beach in a coordinated action and you see 90 minutes of carnage. In Jaws, you have the time to appreciate what's happening, see the desperate woman looking for her kid and you know that this little drama won't have a happy ending. We also see some believable characters and know that the shark hunt is going to take a while.

I think it has stood the test of the decades.



If the truth be told, I love the opening scene of this film with the naked girl with red hair in the water by herself...I think that scene is absolutely brilliant. The rest of the film bores me to death.



There's a heap of "No" answers in this thread. Here is one more. No, it is not.