Speaker 1: Hey, friends, Welcome to Movie Crush. This is Charles W.
Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant coming to you from the studio here in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: Georgia at Pont City Market, where during the day I
Speaker 1: am co host of Stuff You Should Know and at
Speaker 1: night dim the lights, turn on the projector and get
Speaker 1: Movie Crush going. This week in the studio, we have
Speaker 1: Well in his studio and me in my studio. This
Speaker 1: is a remote session, but we have Mr Roman. Mars.
Speaker 1: Roman is the host of Invisible, which is one of
Speaker 1: the not only greatest podcasts of all time, but one
Speaker 1: of the greatest pieces of culture that this country has
Speaker 1: to offer. I'm gonna go ahead and say that Roman
Speaker 1: is a great guy. Uh. He is also the um,
Speaker 1: the mastermind and head chief of Radio Topia, which is
Speaker 1: one of the great great podcast networks out there. They
Speaker 1: host some of my favorite shows on the web. And
Speaker 1: I met Roman. Goodness. I met Roman through email probably
Speaker 1: six or seven years ago. I met Roman before Invisible
Speaker 1: was a thing, when Roman was producer and employee of PRX,
Speaker 1: and he was a fan of Stuff you Should Know
Speaker 1: and got in touch with Josh and myself and said, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: how would you like Stuff you Should know to be
Speaker 1: on public radio, and we said, well, we think that's
Speaker 1: kind of a neat idea. Uh, And we took a
Speaker 1: couple of calls with him and UM talked about it
Speaker 1: quite a bit. And in between the time we talked
Speaker 1: about getting the show going on public radio, Roman went
Speaker 1: along and created Invisible and we never heard from him again.
Speaker 1: Actually that's not quite true, but um, that became his
Speaker 1: primary job, and then he created Radiotopia, and we clearly
Speaker 1: knew that if we wanted to get on public radio
Speaker 1: that we had to go a different route because Roman
Speaker 1: was now a superstar of the medium, uh and rightfully so.
Speaker 1: And we've been so happy for his success over the years.
Speaker 1: He's just one of the great dudes in the world.
Speaker 1: Super nice guy. UM, you really won't meet a better
Speaker 1: person in this uh podcasting industry or entertainment industry than
Speaker 1: Mr Roman Mars. So obviously he has his own studio
Speaker 1: out there in California, like we said, and Uh, I
Speaker 1: got in touch with Roman is one of my first
Speaker 1: guests because he's a pal and we have similar sensibilities.
Speaker 1: And Roman did not take long to pick out Jaws
Speaker 1: is his favorite movie, and I got super excited the instant.
Speaker 1: He said that because this is uh. I know we're
Speaker 1: only a few episodes in, but this is the the
Speaker 1: first time that even though I did love Let the
Speaker 1: Right One In and I liked Tron Uh, Jaws I've
Speaker 1: often called my favorite movie of all time. It sort
Speaker 1: of vacillates between several different films. But in my blog
Speaker 1: post that I did a few years ago where I
Speaker 1: listed my top one movies and the stuff you should
Speaker 1: know blog, I did put Jaws that week as my
Speaker 1: favorite movie of all time. Released in nineteen obviously, directed
Speaker 1: by a very young, UH and up and coming Steven Spielberg,
Speaker 1: this is the movie that really put him on the map. Written.
Speaker 1: I think he had a part in writing the screenplay,
Speaker 1: although officially, UM, I don't see him listed as one
Speaker 1: of the writers I see. Peter Benchley obviously wrote the
Speaker 1: book that was released the year before. It was a
Speaker 1: um sort of a smash hit Summer Beach Reader, which
Speaker 1: is kind of ironic and captured the public's attention in
Speaker 1: in book form first, and then Benchley and a man
Speaker 1: and Carl Gottlieb wrote the screenplay. I have heard over
Speaker 1: the years that Spielberg did right on the screenplay as well, So,
Speaker 1: even though he's not officially listened in the credits as such,
Speaker 1: I think he did have something to do with it.
Speaker 1: This is back when Spielberg was writing more but at
Speaker 1: any rate, it starts the great Roy Scheider, the great
Speaker 1: great Richard Dreyfuss, and the great Robert Shaw. It's sort
Speaker 1: of the three headed protagonist of this film, battling the
Speaker 1: killer shark. I remember being a kid and thinking the
Speaker 1: shark's name was Jaws. A very young child. I think
Speaker 1: I was what would have been four or five years
Speaker 1: old when it came out, and um, but it even
Speaker 1: captured my attention as a kid that young. That's how
Speaker 1: big of a pop culture phenomenon this movie was. Um. Obviously,
Speaker 1: spoilers are going to abound, But if you haven't seen
Speaker 1: Jaws by now, then God have mercy on your soul,
Speaker 1: is all I have to say. It has been called
Speaker 1: a horror film in some circles. In fact, on a
Speaker 1: recent stuff you should know ten horror movies changed the genre.
Speaker 1: We even talk about Jaws a little bit, although I
Speaker 1: have always maintained that Jaws is an adventure film more
Speaker 1: than anything else, even though it does have some pretty
Speaker 1: terrifying elements. Um, at the end of the day. For me,
Speaker 1: it's an adventure film and one of the great great
Speaker 1: movies of all time. So UM, it's gonna be interesting
Speaker 1: to talk to Roman because I've seen this movie so
Speaker 1: many times it is weird, to be honest. Um, I've
Speaker 1: seen this movie more times than people should probably see
Speaker 1: a single movie. But I think I think Roman is
Speaker 1: in the same boat. Uh, So it should be pretty
Speaker 1: interesting to see how to die hard Jaws veterans, uh
Speaker 1: think about this movie and kind of what it means,
Speaker 1: because I know Roman watched it last night and I
Speaker 1: watched it today, So what it means after all these
Speaker 1: repeated viewings should be fairly interesting to see where we
Speaker 1: land on that. So uh, I don't want to keep
Speaker 1: you in suspense any longer. We're gonna get that shark
Speaker 1: out of the water and onto the boat and coming
Speaker 1: up in one, two or three seconds Jaws with Roman Mars.
Speaker 1: I did see on on Facebook that you posted that
Speaker 1: you watch Jaws last night for about the thirtieth time.
Speaker 1: I did. Yeah, I was. I just wanted to um
Speaker 1: to bone up, you know, just make sure I remembered
Speaker 1: all the parts. And it's a it's a funny. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't want to start now, but yeah, it's I
Speaker 1: just wanted to. I can't go in. I'm I'm an overpreparer.
Speaker 1: I'm just a producer at at heart. I can't help it.
Speaker 1: So well, it's funny because I watched it. Um, I
Speaker 1: watched about of it two weeks ago, because you know,
Speaker 1: it's one of those things and probably for you too,
Speaker 1: it's one of those movies if you're flipping it around
Speaker 1: at night and catch it, it's hard to turn that channel.
Speaker 1: So I watched about it and then I still watched
Speaker 1: it today before I came in all the way through
Speaker 1: because I realized I hadn't made notes or anything, and
Speaker 1: as much as I know the movie, I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of like he was like, I should probably
Speaker 1: scribble down some some things, just you know, since I'm
Speaker 1: in the sort of the driver's seat here, I need
Speaker 1: to be a pro. But before we get into Jaws,
Speaker 1: so I kind of wanted to ask you just a
Speaker 1: little bit about the you're kind of general movie fandom
Speaker 1: growing up. Um, where are you from California? No, I
Speaker 1: was born in New Jersey, and early part of my
Speaker 1: life probably the first time I really went to see movies.
Speaker 1: I was living in uh, North Carolina and South Carolina
Speaker 1: in the South, So you moved around then, I did.
Speaker 1: I moved on a lot. I didn't move to California
Speaker 1: until I was in my mid twenties. Okay, and and
Speaker 1: you and I both lived in Athens, Georgia. I think
Speaker 1: we did a little bit at the same time, right,
Speaker 1: I think. So I lived there from ninety four to
Speaker 1: nineties seven. I was in graduate school there, Okay, I
Speaker 1: went eight nine to nine, so we overlapped for about
Speaker 1: a year. Yeah. Yeah, it's a fun place. I haven't
Speaker 1: been back since I left. I miss it, but I
Speaker 1: left under such dire circumstances that yeah, just you know,
Speaker 1: like breakups and weird friendships dissolving and everything and so like,
Speaker 1: I've been scared away for years. But I think enough
Speaker 1: time has passed. Now that's been you know, almost twenty years,
Speaker 1: I think, or over twenty years, I think, um, you know,
Speaker 1: it's uh, I think I'm I'm safe. Yeah, I think.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people have had that experience
Speaker 1: where they see the town in their rear view mirror
Speaker 1: and you're like never coming back. But I loved it,
Speaker 1: I really did I loved um all these aspects of it.
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, in many ways, I could stay
Speaker 1: there forever um, which is a bit of a syndrome
Speaker 1: of people who live in Athens. Absolutely, and uh, but
Speaker 1: I loved you know, the taco stand in the grid
Speaker 1: and yeah, um going to the forty one. I mean,
Speaker 1: I I loved it so much that it was it
Speaker 1: was kind of a problem when I was in graduate
Speaker 1: school because I was one of the graduate students who
Speaker 1: like always went out and saw shows, and my friends
Speaker 1: were you know, we're residents and not and not graduate students,
Speaker 1: and so it always kind of pulled me in a
Speaker 1: lot of different directions. I feel pretty sure if we
Speaker 1: compared show notes from that we were at a lot
Speaker 1: of the same shows, I would not doubt it. It's
Speaker 1: totally I mean I went to I went to I
Speaker 1: mean at that time, I was, you know, convinced a
Speaker 1: that I was going to start my own record label.
Speaker 1: Um be that I that I could not survive in
Speaker 1: a place that didn't have at least two shows a
Speaker 1: week that I wanted to go to. And I was
Speaker 1: just like I was convinced. And one of the reasons
Speaker 1: why I left graduate school was I had all these
Speaker 1: friends because the you know post Stoc fellowships were so
Speaker 1: competitive that they, you know, if they had to go
Speaker 1: to some place some tiny town and do their post talk,
Speaker 1: they just had to because it's like a h people
Speaker 1: applied for it, and if they're lucky enough to get it,
Speaker 1: they just had to take it. And I just couldn't
Speaker 1: stand to have, you know, my life controlled by that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to be someplace where I could you know,
Speaker 1: like go see punk bands. I mean, it was just
Speaker 1: like it was everything to me. And if you would
Speaker 1: have told me I was just lame, middle aged guy
Speaker 1: now who just like it barely can go out, you know,
Speaker 1: like on like a good night, can barely go out
Speaker 1: to see anybody. Would I would? I would. I would
Speaker 1: be very shocked by it. But it was it was,
Speaker 1: it was it meant everything to me. Yeah. I still
Speaker 1: try to go to shows as much as possible, um,
Speaker 1: and it helps when there are the venues that have
Speaker 1: you know, uh decent starting times, you know, but some
Speaker 1: of them there's a couple of the clubs here in
Speaker 1: Atlanta that's still like the band's gonna go on at midnight,
Speaker 1: and I just you know, you know how it is.
Speaker 1: I can't do that. I can't do that. No. I
Speaker 1: I do think that there's a you know, like a
Speaker 1: designed experience where you would if if a if a
Speaker 1: venue really wanted to be very very good for all
Speaker 1: ranges of people and like really start on time, really
Speaker 1: published when everyone starts, do all that stuff. You I
Speaker 1: feel like you would you would attract a really loyal
Speaker 1: clientele totally if you did that. But um, that's just
Speaker 1: not the way that those places work. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I feel lucky if I can get start times exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, so there's like so now I go like
Speaker 1: if I know, if I know someone you know, and
Speaker 1: I feel like it's like, oh yeah, it'll be nice
Speaker 1: to just to see that person and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But I don't do exploratory. You know. Here's a band
Speaker 1: on a label that I like, Yeah, which was you
Speaker 1: could go to the fort on a blurb from the
Speaker 1: flagpole for five bucks on a Thursday night. I totally
Speaker 1: have your mind blown. Yeah, and that I that I
Speaker 1: miss I missed that a lot, me too. You should
Speaker 1: get rid of these kids and move back to Athens.
Speaker 1: We should just follow around funk fans around the country.
Speaker 1: So your your movie going experience though, was largely like
Speaker 1: where when we're your kind of early teen years is
Speaker 1: that North Carolina early teen years would have been Ohio. Actually,
Speaker 1: so I moved to Ohio and in the third grade,
Speaker 1: and so that that would be the time when I, um,
Speaker 1: you know, I could probably go to movies on my
Speaker 1: own with a friend, you know, to be dropped off
Speaker 1: see things. Um. We we had no real policy at
Speaker 1: my house in terms of whether or not I could
Speaker 1: watch all raged movies or whatever. I could watch whatever.
Speaker 1: I worked my my cousin in Memphis, who I spent
Speaker 1: summers with. She owned a video store, and I worked
Speaker 1: in the video store all summer long as a sort
Speaker 1: of unpaid teen you know, like underage employee, And so
Speaker 1: I would watch movies all the time there and take
Speaker 1: movies home and um and so uh but then I would,
Speaker 1: you know, I would go see I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know if my movie tastes like all that different than
Speaker 1: what it was when I was a teen. I just
Speaker 1: had a lot of access to I really fell in
Speaker 1: love with like kind of older seventies movies. Um. At
Speaker 1: that at the period when I was going to the
Speaker 1: video store a lot or work in the video store
Speaker 1: a lot um and so I think of movies. I
Speaker 1: don't think of movies as things in a theater. I
Speaker 1: think of those um VHS boxes and the box art.
Speaker 1: That's that's my if if you were to say, do
Speaker 1: you like movies? That like, that's the picture I have,
Speaker 1: is that rather than a movie theater. Yeah, that's funny, man,
Speaker 1: because my grandparents and my mom are from Memphis, and
Speaker 1: I would spend a lot of summers, not full summers,
Speaker 1: in Memphis with my grandparents. So uh, I think you
Speaker 1: and I were constantly crossing paths. It seems like over
Speaker 1: the years, what part of Ohio they lived in Memphis Town?
Speaker 1: What part of town Memphis? Um, they had a house
Speaker 1: in Germantown, No Ship, Yeah, Like that's literally where I
Speaker 1: lived in Germantown. That's so funny, what if like, well,
Speaker 1: I didn't like, I didn't get out much, like you know,
Speaker 1: when you go the grandparents house, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: staying in. So that's kind of mainly what we did.
Speaker 1: But we my aunt lived in Germantown and my cousin
Speaker 1: lived with her on and off different times, and the
Speaker 1: video store was in Germantown. They didn't move, and they
Speaker 1: moved to mid Midtown in Memphis later on, so I
Speaker 1: got so I got no Midtown, but yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was all Germantown. It was crazy what part of
Speaker 1: Ohio Central Ohio. Um, it was. Newark is kind of
Speaker 1: outside Columbus. So it's a small, you know, industrial town,
Speaker 1: very now very depressed. I don't I don't know what's
Speaker 1: going on there these days. But I would go into
Speaker 1: Columbus to have my sort of culture. But you could
Speaker 1: be dropped off at Indian Mount Mall and uh and
Speaker 1: and watch a movie and that was okay. And there
Speaker 1: was still like a dollar theater kind of nearby my house,
Speaker 1: like a second run theater, which is that's the if
Speaker 1: of all you know, movie things I get nostalgic for.
Speaker 1: It's probably the existence of second run theaters, which don't
Speaker 1: really happen much here in the Bay Area. That's not
Speaker 1: a thing, you know, like cheap theaters. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: they're probably is still one in Atlanta. When I grew up, though, Um,
Speaker 1: I'm the same as you. There was one cent movie
Speaker 1: near North Lake Mall and I think it had two
Speaker 1: screens and we went there, uh because second run I
Speaker 1: don't know how it's done these days, but it's not
Speaker 1: like the second run was that far behind first run totally.
Speaker 1: At Yeah, we had my um where I lived in Chicago,
Speaker 1: uh um more when I was an adult, um there
Speaker 1: was I lived in Logan Square and there was a
Speaker 1: Logan Theater. It was a second run theater. We used
Speaker 1: to call it Logan second Run and uh and it was.
Speaker 1: It was a great place, like it's when when my
Speaker 1: kids were born, when I lived in that apartment, and
Speaker 1: so I could just I just would walk over and
Speaker 1: I'd watch anything for like a couple of bucks just
Speaker 1: to get out of the house, you know, yeah, because
Speaker 1: they're they're more than a dollar now, right, yeah, I
Speaker 1: think they were. Maybe it might have been three or something.
Speaker 1: But it was like in this great neighborhood and you
Speaker 1: they put out popcorn and or that you could get
Speaker 1: popcorn and they always had hot sauce for your popcorn,
Speaker 1: which a real which is a real great Latino neighborhood
Speaker 1: sort of uh perk. And so I would get a
Speaker 1: bag of popcorn and put a bunch of hot sauce
Speaker 1: on it, and then you get in the theater. That's
Speaker 1: a great place. It's funny because the theater, they remember,
Speaker 1: they had a huge stack of pennies and it was
Speaker 1: you know, they didn't round up. They would slide the
Speaker 1: penny and your ticket stub across. And I always thought
Speaker 1: that was kind of a nice touch that wasn't lost
Speaker 1: on me, even as like a twelve year old. That's hilarious.
Speaker 1: That's hilarious. So you remember your first I mean you
Speaker 1: might as well get into Jaws. Do you remember your
Speaker 1: the first time you saw that? I imagine it was
Speaker 1: on VHS. It was, Um, I definitely saw Jaws on
Speaker 1: VHS because I was born in seventy four, so um,
Speaker 1: you know, it probably lasted and came back in the
Speaker 1: theaters while I was you know, cognizant and going to movies,
Speaker 1: and I was taking to movies that were wholly inappropriate
Speaker 1: when I was a kid. My first movie memory is
Speaker 1: going to see Blue Lagoon maybe as a four or
Speaker 1: five year old. Um. And then I saw Star Trek
Speaker 1: the for the motion picture, which is almost more inappropriate
Speaker 1: for a child of that I was. I was so bored.
Speaker 1: I just remember like being kind of into it visually,
Speaker 1: but just being so bored. It's pretty slow movie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I definitely saw Jaws and as a come in
Speaker 1: a combination of like VHS and also UM. By the
Speaker 1: time I was thirteen or so, I had a little
Speaker 1: thirteen inch TV in my bedroom, m and I you know,
Speaker 1: and it was on you know, cable was expanding, and
Speaker 1: it was on TBS probably you know, like every couple
Speaker 1: of weeks or every couple of days or something. And
Speaker 1: it's a it's such a weirdly complex movie. I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't say complex, it's more like it
Speaker 1: has all these scenes in it that you don't remember.
Speaker 1: Like it has it's just this richness of of scenes
Speaker 1: and moments that when you think about Jaws, you think
Speaker 1: about the whole last section where they're on the ocean.
Speaker 1: There's a whole hour where they're not, you know, and
Speaker 1: and so you would catch at different times and you're like, wow,
Speaker 1: I don't remember this at all, you know, And I
Speaker 1: feel like I saw bits and pieces of it like that,
Speaker 1: and you know, learn to fall in love with every
Speaker 1: aspect of it, not just you know, a dude being
Speaker 1: chomped in half and um. And that's when I really
Speaker 1: fell in love with it, probably more on TV than
Speaker 1: anything else. Yeah, same here, I mean I was, um, um,
Speaker 1: about three years older than you, So I was old
Speaker 1: enough to where I remember, and it ran forever in
Speaker 1: the movie theaters. It was back then when you know,
Speaker 1: they would tellt like you know, four hundred days in
Speaker 1: and stuff like that and adds, which is just crazy
Speaker 1: to think about now. Um, But I remember it being
Speaker 1: a pop culture phenomenon. And I remember obviously I wasn't
Speaker 1: allowed to see it because I had a kind of
Speaker 1: different deal growing up Southern Baptist. I was way sheltered,
Speaker 1: and they my parents tried to keep me from indulging
Speaker 1: in anything that was good and cool. Um. But uh,
Speaker 1: I remember being you know, five years old and knowing
Speaker 1: Jaws was a thing, seeing the book mainly on shelves,
Speaker 1: and that huge, ridiculously huge shark on the book in
Speaker 1: the poster, and uh knowing that music, and and obviously
Speaker 1: being a little Baptist boy being very titillated by that
Speaker 1: opening sequence of uh, the you know, shadowy naked lady. Um.
Speaker 1: That's why when you said Blue Lagoon, I still had
Speaker 1: a little like shiver that went up my spine because
Speaker 1: that movie as a as a young boy, was like,
Speaker 1: oh my goodness, It's like the dirtiest thing ever. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's probably very tame looking back. I haven't seen I've
Speaker 1: never revisited it, but my my guess is it's totally tame. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so Jaws. I remember it being a thing. I remember
Speaker 1: it being out in the news, and I remember I
Speaker 1: remember it's scaring me to go on the ocean, even
Speaker 1: though I hadn't even seen the movie. Yeah, I feel
Speaker 1: like I um, I think my fear of it predated
Speaker 1: my real exposure to it as well. I think my
Speaker 1: and it was so pervasive that I was this the
Speaker 1: same you know, when I would my one family member
Speaker 1: who lived in Germantown had a pool, and I'd be
Speaker 1: scared of the pool, which is insane. I had the
Speaker 1: same experience and so just scared of water exactly, which
Speaker 1: is just absurd. And so it was. It was real visceral.
Speaker 1: I mean that that fear of nature in that way
Speaker 1: just is is crazy and you just can't outrun it.
Speaker 1: It's just nuts. And when we were I was talking
Speaker 1: to my boys about watching it and how it's my
Speaker 1: favorite movie and they know it's my favorite movie, and
Speaker 1: they're like, when can we watch it? And I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Never Why don't you just like, you know,
Speaker 1: like I know, it's great, and maybe when you decide
Speaker 1: that you can do it yourself and you can buy
Speaker 1: your own when you have your own Amazon accounts, that
Speaker 1: you can watch it. But I feel like I would
Speaker 1: just be paying for it forever. You know, while they're
Speaker 1: in my house. How old are they let them watch DAWs?
Speaker 1: They're ten, twin boys or ten, that's about the age
Speaker 1: Roman he might know into Jaws. I know it's is
Speaker 1: definitely time and they're into it. But I and I
Speaker 1: love everything about it. I mean the thing about the
Speaker 1: movie and I figured out later on, you know, in
Speaker 1: addition to like it, you know, like it having like
Speaker 1: a real like, it has a real primal response in me.
Speaker 1: I think if it is, I think if it is
Speaker 1: the best horror movie almost ever made. I think it's
Speaker 1: the best adventure movie. I think it is the best
Speaker 1: body comedy. And it's all put together in this way
Speaker 1: that you never get whiplash as to what moment you're
Speaker 1: in at that moment. It's just is so it is
Speaker 1: so well done. It makes you realize why it is fueled,
Speaker 1: you know, forty years of horrible blockbusters that followed you know,
Speaker 1: it's like I think of it as being that good
Speaker 1: that um, your memory of of the of it is
Speaker 1: setting the table for what a big summer movie was,
Speaker 1: is um it really it just I find it just
Speaker 1: transcendent and how how good it is? Well, yeah, there's
Speaker 1: no and in in watching it again today and last week. UM,
Speaker 1: as an adult, the sense of it being an adventure
Speaker 1: movie really comes through a lot more uh than you know,
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, it was way more just
Speaker 1: like terrifying. Um. But even like the soundtrack in the
Speaker 1: score from John Williams, it does have the scary bit
Speaker 1: that everyone remembers, that iconic you know, but dump but dump,
Speaker 1: But most of the score of that movie is this
Speaker 1: very exuberant, uplifting adventure music. It totally you know, it
Speaker 1: happens in these great moments and you just like you
Speaker 1: have a You'll be it'll be really scary and then
Speaker 1: it'll be like di do did do do? Do? Did
Speaker 1: you do? You know, like and they're chasing it and
Speaker 1: it's just like it's amazing. It's like it's like it
Speaker 1: says it does, it's it turns on a time and
Speaker 1: it's really effective. It's I I it is Um, it's
Speaker 1: one of my favorite scores. I would never like listen
Speaker 1: to it on its own or anything, but just as
Speaker 1: a compliment to a movie, it does amazing things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the other thing that kind of hit home to
Speaker 1: me was how how little little I will I will say,
Speaker 1: almost zero fat there is in the movie. It's just
Speaker 1: so tight and uh and I think it still has
Speaker 1: a running time of a couple of hours, but it
Speaker 1: never drags. There's not a single scene And this is
Speaker 1: why I end up watching it so much if I
Speaker 1: if I happen to turn it on, there's not a
Speaker 1: single scene or sequence in that movie that doesn't draw
Speaker 1: me in totally. I think that if you want to, like,
Speaker 1: if you want to study how to, you know, put
Speaker 1: set a scene and present the densest amount of information
Speaker 1: in the most pleasant way of beginning, where Brody is
Speaker 1: going around the island without him really saying anything explicit,
Speaker 1: without it seeming like exposition. There's like these snatches of
Speaker 1: dialogue where everyone's kind of complaining about, you know, the
Speaker 1: the karate class um, you know, chopping through his picket fences.
Speaker 1: And then there's the guy who's trying to, you know,
Speaker 1: get him to do him a favor because of real
Speaker 1: estate or something. And then and there's all this stuff
Speaker 1: that's happening, and they're like, you don't know the whole story.
Speaker 1: It's like little little sections of a story, but you
Speaker 1: get you get a real sense of what's going on,
Speaker 1: and it's it's just brilliant. I I I can't, um,
Speaker 1: I don't know how they did it all. And you
Speaker 1: don't really see that in movies this this way, you
Speaker 1: know that way anymore. I'm I'm I'm pretty I was
Speaker 1: pretty amazed at it when I was looking at it
Speaker 1: the most recent time. It's it's like stunning amount of exposition.
Speaker 1: That's always interesting and uh and it really does the
Speaker 1: job of making you understand what an amity is. I
Speaker 1: kind of I got the same exact feeling watching it today,
Speaker 1: is that it's um, like you said, setting up that world,
Speaker 1: it was done in such a subtle and efficient way.
Speaker 1: I feel like movies these days everything is just so
Speaker 1: ham fisted with the setups and so obvious. Um, even
Speaker 1: just the little part about establishing that Brody and Ellen
Speaker 1: are have moved there from New York to uh, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's Amity Island, but ostensibly, you know, the New England area,
Speaker 1: and these days there would be some stupid long scene
Speaker 1: where they talked about or maybe even god forbid, like
Speaker 1: a flashback that actually shows them in New York or something,
Speaker 1: and they and they did it all with just that
Speaker 1: one little exchange where she talks about the accent and
Speaker 1: you know, poking the car from the yard and that's
Speaker 1: how we have to talk. And she said something about
Speaker 1: you know, you being from New York, and that was it.
Speaker 1: And to to a novice I or someone who's not
Speaker 1: a big Jaws fan, it just may seem like a
Speaker 1: little throw a line, but guys like us, we're just like,
Speaker 1: oh man, it's just so subtle and efficient the way
Speaker 1: that world set up everything. It's like really subtle, really
Speaker 1: efficient everything. It's like nothing is wasted, but it never
Speaker 1: feels rushed. And they're real quiet, beautiful moments that are
Speaker 1: just stunning, Like him at the dinner table with his son.
Speaker 1: That feels like that would be that feels like that
Speaker 1: would be cut from a movie today. Um it there's
Speaker 1: these um the way that the dialogue feels very real, like, um,
Speaker 1: you know there's a you know, after they have a
Speaker 1: horrible day and um and Mrs Kittner slaps Brody on
Speaker 1: the face and he's drinking and and uh and Hooper
Speaker 1: comes in and says, so how is your day? And
Speaker 1: it's the funniest line, Like it's just like it's so great,
Speaker 1: and I, um, I just I feel like there's just
Speaker 1: the subtlety and real understanding of how humans are in
Speaker 1: that movie that I just don't see and it and
Speaker 1: I don't I don't get it. Like sometimes you could
Speaker 1: be doing these things and not do them well and
Speaker 1: I would be annoyed and board in a movie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So it's it's not like you can just put them
Speaker 1: in willy nilly, these moments, but I just think every
Speaker 1: one of them is pitched perfect. Yeah, man, I have
Speaker 1: to address both of those things because those are that
Speaker 1: that sequence from uh, well, the sequence from Kittner's mom
Speaker 1: which is so upsetting because I have a big justice
Speaker 1: thing and the injustice of Brodie being blamed for that,
Speaker 1: standing right next to the mayor whose fault it really was,
Speaker 1: and the mayor just like a coward standing there, and
Speaker 1: of course after what he says, you know, it's not
Speaker 1: your fault, Brodie, but uh and Brodie, Brodie says it's
Speaker 1: his fault. And I actually think he's right, you know,
Speaker 1: like he he owns it. You know, he could have
Speaker 1: stood up and and he knows it, and it sort
Speaker 1: of gives him motivation for the rest of the movie
Speaker 1: about what you know, like I'm the chief of police,
Speaker 1: you know, Like he's like, let's go cut up that shotgun.
Speaker 1: It's like, can you do that? I'm the chief of police,
Speaker 1: you know. You know, like that's a great line. It's
Speaker 1: like he's finding his like he's finding his authority in
Speaker 1: this scenario. And and I feel like, you know, like
Speaker 1: you know, never so dramatically, but I feel like that
Speaker 1: sense of his his responsibility um stayed with me. You know.
Speaker 1: I think that's a you know, that's a great lesson
Speaker 1: and and just life is that it doesn't matter. You
Speaker 1: can play him all sorts of other people, but ultimately
Speaker 1: you just take it sometimes well, because that was Brodie's
Speaker 1: chance to be a whiny baby. It wasn't my fault,
Speaker 1: but he owns uh. And then that scene, of course
Speaker 1: leads right into the the pre dinner scene with the
Speaker 1: son that you were talking about, and like you said,
Speaker 1: it's I mean I timed it today too. It's a
Speaker 1: ninety second scene um that by all accounts of these days,
Speaker 1: like you said, would be on the editing room floor,
Speaker 1: But it is one of my That little ninety seconds
Speaker 1: is one of my favorite scenes in movie history. For real. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was just so sweet. It is really sweet. It
Speaker 1: gives you a sense of who he is and his family,
Speaker 1: and it also gives you a sense of like, now
Speaker 1: I'm a parent, and it has one of the I
Speaker 1: mean even before I was a parent, Like it's really
Speaker 1: hard to understand what kids do to you when you
Speaker 1: have them, and how much they mean to you and
Speaker 1: in these weird ways like where you you you need
Speaker 1: them to booy you up, um really really often in
Speaker 1: the days as hard as they are and you know,
Speaker 1: as difficult as it all is, and like I rely
Speaker 1: on my kids in much the same way that Brody
Speaker 1: does in that scene. And uh and then like give
Speaker 1: me a kissence that's why, because I need it and
Speaker 1: I feel like that almost every day. I know, man,
Speaker 1: I'm right there with you. And it's funny I lift
Speaker 1: so many lines. I'm you know, one of those obnoxious
Speaker 1: people that goes around quoting movie lines for like half
Speaker 1: their like half the things I say are probably from movies. Uh,
Speaker 1: And I realized that I say so many things from Jaws,
Speaker 1: and one of them is give us a kiss. I
Speaker 1: say that to my daughter all the time. And um,
Speaker 1: you know the scene with with Dreyfuss when he comes
Speaker 1: in every time without fail. And my wife Emily gets
Speaker 1: so bored with all this stuff. But every time I
Speaker 1: go somewhere and someone opens up a bottle of wine
Speaker 1: and pours a glass, always say, oh, you might want
Speaker 1: to let that brief for a minute. It's just so dumb,
Speaker 1: and like two percent of the people I ever say
Speaker 1: in front of no what that's from, and the other
Speaker 1: just think of being obnoxious. I guess. But that scene,
Speaker 1: there's so many great lines, and that dinner scene, everything
Speaker 1: from my husband tells me you're in Sharks to the
Speaker 1: end of the scene, I can do anything. I'm chief
Speaker 1: of police. Like those are just iconic movie lines. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's definitely full of those. So good and it
Speaker 1: also feels real, like it doesn't feel um. They're not
Speaker 1: overly clever, they're not delivered in a clever way. It's
Speaker 1: totally um. It just feels natural and as funny as
Speaker 1: it would be in that those moments and as heavy
Speaker 1: as they would be in those moments. Well, and the
Speaker 1: scene that kind of follows that is also one of
Speaker 1: my favorites, um, which is when and and I have
Speaker 1: to point out to by the way, the Mayor Uh
Speaker 1: was played by Murray Hamilton's the Great Murray Hamilton's Mayor
Speaker 1: Van who was Mr Robinson and the graduate was his
Speaker 1: other kind of a huge film role. But um, we're
Speaker 1: talking about how suddly Spielberg set up the world. Uh.
Speaker 1: In the first time we see the Mayor, He's wearing
Speaker 1: that sport coat with the anchors on it, and just
Speaker 1: that little wardrobe choice was just such a nice way,
Speaker 1: like he didn't have to say anything. You just see
Speaker 1: that guy show up in that outfit and you know
Speaker 1: who he is, yeahly but smile and everything. But the
Speaker 1: after the wreckage scene, after Dreyfus, after Hooper does the
Speaker 1: dive and finds the shark tooth and the head Bob's out,
Speaker 1: they have that great scene with in front of the
Speaker 1: billboard with the Mayor and Brody and I knew you
Speaker 1: would appreciate this. I've always thought that Sick Vandalism would
Speaker 1: be a great name for a punk band sick vandalism. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like that's what he's upset about. Still, that's what he's
Speaker 1: upset about. Yeah, that would be a good name. I
Speaker 1: wonder if that has ever been taken. I don't know,
Speaker 1: google it junk. It's it's it's time. Uh So from there,
Speaker 1: obviously in the movie, it moves on to like everyone
Speaker 1: has their turning point, and I think with Brody it
Speaker 1: was definitely like you said, when um Kentner's mom who
Speaker 1: slaps him in the face, that was where he turned.
Speaker 1: But then um Mayor Vaughan had his turning point to
Speaker 1: after that that final you know, Fourth of July when
Speaker 1: he forced Fourth of July to happen. Well, not for
Speaker 1: Fourth of July, but he kept the beaches open. Well,
Speaker 1: let's talk a little bit about these characters. You probably
Speaker 1: know your your Jaws trivia, but um, did you know
Speaker 1: all the various people who originally we're supposed to play
Speaker 1: these dudes? No, I don't. I see, I don't know
Speaker 1: a lot of Jaws trivia. It's not something that I've
Speaker 1: really looked up or anything like that. So yeah, it
Speaker 1: hit me. We'll get a load of this then, Uh,
Speaker 1: Chief Brody originally was supposed to be played by Robert Duval,
Speaker 1: but he only wanted to play Glint. Oh interesting, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think Robert Daval could probably pulled off
Speaker 1: both those. Like I'm glad he didn't, but yeah, but
Speaker 1: definitely he could. He could have done Brodie at that
Speaker 1: at that age, he could have done Brodie. Well, Charlton,
Speaker 1: he was, uh, he was the other pick for Brodie,
Speaker 1: which um Spielberg apparently didn't go with him just because
Speaker 1: he was too big for that role. With him too
Speaker 1: big and like you could you know, it's like Cowstine
Speaker 1: Schwardznaker and something. It's like, Okay, I know you're gonna
Speaker 1: I know you're gonna holk out any minute. So it's
Speaker 1: just you know, so you need someone who's who's like
Speaker 1: who you can see his strength, but it's hidden, you know.
Speaker 1: So well Schider brought such a humanity to that role
Speaker 1: he did and you yeah. And and one of my other,
Speaker 1: um you know, kind of favorite seven of these movies
Speaker 1: is Marathon Man and he plays a real tough guy
Speaker 1: in that one. And you realize that he doesn't look
Speaker 1: all that different, but it's just how he carries himself
Speaker 1: and you realize, oh yeah, he's really he's doing this perfectly,
Speaker 1: playing in every man in Jaws, who is capable of
Speaker 1: stuff when he when he needs to. Well, yeah, and
Speaker 1: it was just so clever how they set up his flaws. Um,
Speaker 1: he wasn't some tough cop like he he was scared
Speaker 1: of he I guess couldn't swim or was it the
Speaker 1: very least scared of the water. Uh, totally, which is
Speaker 1: a great little achilles heel to throw in there. Totally.
Speaker 1: That's so good. So Robert Shaw of course played quintuh.
Speaker 1: And it kind of occurred to me today that we
Speaker 1: never know what Quint's first name was, So I've always
Speaker 1: sort of thought that was interesting. Want to wonder what
Speaker 1: I would puts his first name? Yeah, huh, I don't
Speaker 1: know what. I've never really never really considered it. He's
Speaker 1: just Quinn. Yeah, he's a Quint. But Lee Marvin was
Speaker 1: originally going to play Quint, and Sterling Hayden was the
Speaker 1: other choice. Who is Sterling Hayden? Did you you saw
Speaker 1: Dr Strangelove? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah he was General Ripper
Speaker 1: and Dr Strange Okay, yeah yeah uh and then dry
Speaker 1: Us and apparently dry Fuss and Shaw were cast like
Speaker 1: a week before they started filming, which is crazy, but
Speaker 1: Dryfus came in. John Boyight was Spielberg's first choice, and
Speaker 1: then he didn't work out. And then he thought about
Speaker 1: Timothy Bottoms or Jeff Bridges. And you know, now it's
Speaker 1: like with any film once you these people have these
Speaker 1: iconic characters, you can't imagine anyone else. But I think
Speaker 1: a young Jeff Bridges I could see. As Matt Hooper
Speaker 1: I could too, except for you know, Jeff Bridges is
Speaker 1: you know, is big, and he can carry himself kind
Speaker 1: of big, and you know, like he's and he's handsome
Speaker 1: in a different way. And and like there's something about
Speaker 1: the dynamic of Hooper and Quint that where there's like
Speaker 1: alpha male band male sort of dynamic that is really
Speaker 1: important to that movie to me. Um and where they
Speaker 1: where they begin to where they trade you know, expertise
Speaker 1: and in different ways and um and try to win
Speaker 1: up each other. And then they come together in the
Speaker 1: you know, in the scene with their comparing scars, and yeah,
Speaker 1: that they you know, it's so so I totally I
Speaker 1: could see I mean each of those actors. I mean
Speaker 1: totally it could have worked, but it just it's so perfect.
Speaker 1: The way it is, you know. Um, but maybe it's
Speaker 1: because it's my first exposure. Like I didn't really know
Speaker 1: any of these actors, you know, because of my age,
Speaker 1: you know, through I mean I knew them through um
Speaker 1: through this movie, and so um, they're completely blank to me.
Speaker 1: Like maybe if I had seen Taken a Poem one
Speaker 1: to three or um or I mean, I guess i'd
Speaker 1: probably seen close encounters, but you know, like I didn't,
Speaker 1: I didn't have another version of dry Fist or you know,
Speaker 1: Robert Shaw. Yeah, so that this was the version that
Speaker 1: I had. Well, and Hooper, as played by dry Fust
Speaker 1: was just such a goof. Um. He wasn't afraid to
Speaker 1: make dumb jokes or to be silly, and like you said,
Speaker 1: definitely not the alpha male like his like in the
Speaker 1: introduction of those two characters, like Quince has is probably
Speaker 1: the most obnoxious character introduction of all time, scratching his
Speaker 1: fingers across the chalko boyd. And then you compare that
Speaker 1: to Hooper, who I don't know if you remember, but
Speaker 1: he he steps up from the boat and he's like
Speaker 1: looking that other guy in the chest. He's so small
Speaker 1: it just goes hello and then goes hello yourself. And
Speaker 1: he's just kind of goofy right off the bat. You know,
Speaker 1: he's not trying to be cool. He's not trying to
Speaker 1: one up anybody. He's you know, he's a shark nerd. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And you can tell he knows stuff because the way
Speaker 1: he uses vocabulary in the when he tells people, um,
Speaker 1: you know, to do different things, because Brodie sort of
Speaker 1: instructs him to, like, um, you know, so he knows
Speaker 1: like when he when he says, you know, those guys
Speaker 1: in the fantail blah blah blah, like he knows the
Speaker 1: name of the boat like exactly, you know, like they're
Speaker 1: never gonna get out of harbor alive. And he's like,
Speaker 1: this is what I'm talking about. Go out there, talk
Speaker 1: to these people. You know. Like it's so, you know,
Speaker 1: he knows a lot, but he's not like lording it
Speaker 1: over people in any certain way. He just like the
Speaker 1: way that they use vocabulary. It is like so precise
Speaker 1: that he's just you know, he's smart, but he doesn't
Speaker 1: you know, but he isn't like the most dominant person
Speaker 1: in the in the room until he it's to that
Speaker 1: autopsy or you know, he's looking at it and he says,
Speaker 1: don't smoke in here, thank you very much, and it's like,
Speaker 1: this is this moment. It's like, oh man, this guy's
Speaker 1: this guy's could be in charge. You know. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was a great scene and another great example of restraint
Speaker 1: on the part of Spielberg to not, you know, these
Speaker 1: days he would the first thing you would see in
Speaker 1: that scene would be a close up shot of a
Speaker 1: mangled body of a of a woman. And uh, I
Speaker 1: thought that you didn't see anything at all. But there
Speaker 1: is one kind of quick shot of the severed arm.
Speaker 1: But aside from that, the terror is listening to Dryfus
Speaker 1: very clinically describe the wounds on the body. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: think the scariest part of the remains of the body
Speaker 1: or when it was found and it's covered in crabs
Speaker 1: and that that part really freaked me out. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: crabs going through and needing it. Oh god, that is
Speaker 1: that is grim. That is grim. Souh. A minute ago,
Speaker 1: you talked about the scene, the very famous galley scene. Um,
Speaker 1: and this is after they've had their first encounter with
Speaker 1: the shark um and then they're they're drinking together and
Speaker 1: this is when they really bond and kind of come together. Uh,
Speaker 1: and you have the the scar comparing scene, which is
Speaker 1: one of the great great exchanges in movies. Um, and Quinn,
Speaker 1: you get a real sense here, like he really takes
Speaker 1: in Hooper as his little ass, as his Gilligan to
Speaker 1: his skipper at that point. You know, it's really good,
Speaker 1: it's kind of sweet. It is, it's it is, and
Speaker 1: it reminds me of people who I knew like that,
Speaker 1: Like my relatives are very quaint, like in nature, you know,
Speaker 1: they're very skeptical of people. They're very prone to stereotyping people. Um,
Speaker 1: they're horrible in many many respects. The most women aren't
Speaker 1: that now. But like there's a way that um, like
Speaker 1: any type of personal interaction that was meaningful, you could
Speaker 1: tell that it meant something to them and they could
Speaker 1: put aside all the other stuff if as long as
Speaker 1: they could, you know, pick guitars with you and it
Speaker 1: would be you know what I mean. Like there was
Speaker 1: something about the and and so that felt really nice
Speaker 1: and real. And his story of the Indianapolis is like
Speaker 1: I have a hard time like I love radio so much,
Speaker 1: and um, I love the storytelling and radio it is
Speaker 1: still like my ideal form. And I think of Quinn's
Speaker 1: story as the first radio story I ever really loved.
Speaker 1: It's like it is told just perfectly, like really, like
Speaker 1: you could almost see it, like the story Corps music
Speaker 1: starts and then you know, like on morning edition, and
Speaker 1: then Quent just starts and you can remember some teenager
Speaker 1: and going, oh my god, I can't believe you know,
Speaker 1: on the other side, and it's just like it is. Um,
Speaker 1: it is a perfectly told natural I think. I just
Speaker 1: think it's the radio story. I would cut it out
Speaker 1: and put on the radio and heartbeat. It's like perfect.
Speaker 1: And it's funny because there's all this stuff, all this
Speaker 1: great activity. You've already had the adventure music playing, you know,
Speaker 1: in the barrels and shooting it and everything. But that
Speaker 1: moment is so riveting. I love it. That's my favorite
Speaker 1: moment in the movie, I mean one of mine for sure.
Speaker 1: And um, the back story there for that scene was
Speaker 1: that that was not in the book, and uh Spielberg
Speaker 1: brought in the great screenwriter and filmmaker John Millius to
Speaker 1: write that monologue, and then apparently Robert Shaw himself too,
Speaker 1: who was a playwright, went in and and did some
Speaker 1: rewriting on it and kind of worked with Millius on it,
Speaker 1: and you know, just in up being like one of
Speaker 1: the most iconic monologues in movie history for sure. All Right,
Speaker 1: it is so good and it's so naturally moves into
Speaker 1: you know, uh, you know, from one scene to the
Speaker 1: scar comparing scene to the other, and um, and the
Speaker 1: fact that I've I've thought about this a lot. It's
Speaker 1: like because it gets called out because they're comparing scars
Speaker 1: and Brody says, what's that on your arm? And it's
Speaker 1: a it's the removal of the tattoo of the Indianapolis.
Speaker 1: And and I think about that all the time, like
Speaker 1: why would he remove it, you know, and like what
Speaker 1: was going on in his head that he would remove it, um,
Speaker 1: instead of keep it there. And with every part of
Speaker 1: his character that you get in other ways, um, that
Speaker 1: seems like this extreme moment in his life that you
Speaker 1: have no knowledge of, but you just have this little
Speaker 1: tiny peek into And I love that part of it too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure, I never really thought about that. That is
Speaker 1: super interesting that he would and that and that's like
Speaker 1: old sailors don't have tattoos removed, you know, Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: So like the level of trauma or whatever he was
Speaker 1: trying to get away from or whatever it was, like
Speaker 1: it was clearly something that haunted him in a way,
Speaker 1: like it was not an adventure story to him, what
Speaker 1: happened and or maybe, you know, maybe it's just something else,
Speaker 1: Like you don't really know. It's an incomplete narrative. But
Speaker 1: I've tried to fill that in my head lots of times,
Speaker 1: and I'd never come up with like what I think
Speaker 1: is the answer. But it mainly has to do with
Speaker 1: him trying to get away from it and him willingness.
Speaker 1: His willingness to talk about it at that moment um,
Speaker 1: I think points to how close he's gotten in this
Speaker 1: short amount of time, but also that he senses the
Speaker 1: peril that they're in and wants them to be really
Speaker 1: aware of what's you know, what's about to happen, and
Speaker 1: what's about to happen, Like happens almost immediately afterwards, like
Speaker 1: they start, you know, the shark starts knocking into the boat.
Speaker 1: Um in the next scene. So yeah, it's funny and
Speaker 1: I never really thought about it, but it's almost like
Speaker 1: Quint knows, this is the last time I'm going to
Speaker 1: tell this story, you know. Um. That scene also has
Speaker 1: another line that I obnoxiously quote that no one ever
Speaker 1: ever gets. But a lot of times when someone will
Speaker 1: toast a drink, I'll say, let's drink to our legs,
Speaker 1: and everyone's always like, what what the hell are you
Speaker 1: talking about? I would get to I would get it,
Speaker 1: all right, Well, I'll toast you that wise you Um,
Speaker 1: all right, well, I guess let's move on to the
Speaker 1: ending of the movie. Um, you know, I didn't want
Speaker 1: to go through this all piece by piece, but I
Speaker 1: think we've done a good job of kind of covering
Speaker 1: the main sections. But you have to talk about the
Speaker 1: end because um, there's plenty of foreshadowing that that tank
Speaker 1: is gonna play a part. But again, it is so
Speaker 1: well crafted and subtly done. It never ever feels like
Speaker 1: you're being hit over the head like you feel these days,
Speaker 1: Like when you see the gun and act one it's
Speaker 1: gonna go off in act three. You see that bank
Speaker 1: in Act one. In the little picture, remember when hes
Speaker 1: flipping through the book, there's a photograph of a shark
Speaker 1: with a tank in his mouth. And then midway, uh
Speaker 1: you here, dry Us has a line about when the
Speaker 1: tanks get loose, like you know those things can blow up,
Speaker 1: but you still don't feel like I never put the
Speaker 1: two together. When I was first seeing that movie for
Speaker 1: the first time, you know not at all that that's
Speaker 1: really well done. I I mean, it's just perfect for
Speaker 1: shattering and and and you don't exactly know well, I mean,
Speaker 1: you think it's probably One of the things I'd like
Speaker 1: is the moment when Quint realizes that they're in real
Speaker 1: trouble and he's like, Okay, so Hooper, what is this
Speaker 1: stuff you're gonna do? And you know, lets him try it.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't you know, work obviously, but but um
Speaker 1: and you think that maybe that's the payoff of it all.
Speaker 1: You know, that's why they're reminding you of the high
Speaker 1: tech gear. Um right, yeah, totally. It totally is used
Speaker 1: somewhat differently. I think I have also, in addition to
Speaker 1: um sharks inside of pools, I have my I have
Speaker 1: a huge fear of compressed air. I am terrified of
Speaker 1: compressed air. I used to when I lived in Athens
Speaker 1: and in grad school, when I was I was leaving,
Speaker 1: I used I used to work in the warehouses sears
Speaker 1: at the mall, and uh, I'd have to move around
Speaker 1: these big red compressed air containers for you know, people
Speaker 1: buy them to you know, put there, you'll put air
Speaker 1: in their John De attractors or something. And I hated
Speaker 1: it because I just feel like they're gonna blow up
Speaker 1: any minute, you know, which are totally not true. They're
Speaker 1: totally fine. But I, um, I think I might be
Speaker 1: because of Jawns that I have a fear compressed air too.
Speaker 1: I hate filling my air on my tires because you
Speaker 1: think I totally think that hate it, hate it, hate it.
Speaker 1: That's very funny. That's very brave of you to admit this. Roman. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a it's a real problem. But I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't love I don't love love the ending, you know, like, um,
Speaker 1: it's so over the top as compared to the rest
Speaker 1: of it, but it's so like it earns it, it
Speaker 1: earned anything, like if a spaceship came down, it would
Speaker 1: earn it to me. It's so so um, So I'm
Speaker 1: okay with it. Um it's funny, like this time I
Speaker 1: really paid attention to um. The fact that a brody
Speaker 1: is muttering to himself his plan, you know, when when
Speaker 1: he's about to the shot or put the thing, like
Speaker 1: he knows what he's doing, even though it looks it's
Speaker 1: it's like filmed, like it could have been a little
Speaker 1: bit more accidental or just um, you know, just improvisational,
Speaker 1: but he's you know, he's really you know, he he
Speaker 1: has an idea and it's it's interesting. It's interesting to
Speaker 1: watch it, um pay off and have it work. Yeah. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I mean the true who uh terror of that movie
Speaker 1: is like the last eight minutes, you know, and and
Speaker 1: it is over the top and very famously, you know,
Speaker 1: the shark didn't work well. The mechanical shark Bruce didn't
Speaker 1: work well, so Spielberg had to kind of redo the story.
Speaker 1: But initially, you know, it was it was going to
Speaker 1: be way more of a horror movie, like a Saturday
Speaker 1: afternoon kind of be movie style horror movie. And um,
Speaker 1: and Spielberg admits, and everyone you know is sort of
Speaker 1: agreed over the years that it was a godsend, uh
Speaker 1: that he was forced to be a little more creative
Speaker 1: and teasing the shark out. But I think deep down,
Speaker 1: like he was like, all right, but I've got to
Speaker 1: like that the quint death has to be the money shot,
Speaker 1: and it's just so over the top and terrifying and
Speaker 1: gory and awful. Um, it's just kind of perfect almost,
Speaker 1: it is. I totally that one. That part is he's
Speaker 1: is kind of fine to me, Like it just gives
Speaker 1: you the idea of this is a monster, um in
Speaker 1: in in a new way rather than just like a
Speaker 1: it's not it's not a thing of nature at this
Speaker 1: point anymore. It's it's a real monster. And uh. And
Speaker 1: so that that part I like because the the you know,
Speaker 1: things going down, it's kind of happens a little bit
Speaker 1: in slow motion and um and quinns fighting to the end.
Speaker 1: He has a machette like white below the shark's eyeball
Speaker 1: um and uh. And it is really really great. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think my favorite part of the ending is the
Speaker 1: there's like a wide shot of the of the boat
Speaker 1: tipped over and Brody is in the crow's nest and
Speaker 1: at this angle, and it's just beautiful. It's just like
Speaker 1: it is a gorgeous shot and um and and you
Speaker 1: know he has just a little bit of time before
Speaker 1: he's just submerged, like that is not a good place
Speaker 1: to be terrifying shot. I just think it's um that there.
Speaker 1: I think the shots in the ocean are are just gorgeous.
Speaker 1: But that's that's my favorite, is that side. It's like
Speaker 1: with the it's a a I don't know, maybe like
Speaker 1: a thirty degree angle off of off of being completely submerged.
Speaker 1: This is gorgeous. And then of course they shark dies explodes,
Speaker 1: and then um, from underwater you see the shark coming
Speaker 1: apart and falling away, and that that beautiful like tinkling
Speaker 1: score from John Williams comes in and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: like this little bit of a pang for the shark
Speaker 1: comes up somehow for me at least, where you kind
Speaker 1: of feel bad for this thing. I just feel like, I,
Speaker 1: you know, his his reaction is so again exuberant, you know, like,
Speaker 1: and he's in this real struggle with this creature and
Speaker 1: uh and it was very unlikely to work and so um,
Speaker 1: so yeah, I I I guess I I do get
Speaker 1: it a little bit, but I think I'm more I'm
Speaker 1: very much more on brody side, and so yeah with
Speaker 1: it that The one thing I do think all the
Speaker 1: time is like, well, there's gonna be a bunch of
Speaker 1: more sharks that are gonna show up because this thing
Speaker 1: bleeding in the water and they need to get out
Speaker 1: of there really fast. And always that part always makes
Speaker 1: me nervous. It's never um, it's not hinted at at all,
Speaker 1: or you know, or or you don't expect it to happen.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that that I always think about that. Well,
Speaker 1: and when they're kicking back to shore with the seagulls
Speaker 1: is like hundreds and hundreds of seagulls. I always remember
Speaker 1: the first time as I watched it being like kick faster, boys,
Speaker 1: kick faster. Yeah, and Hooper shows up and you kind
Speaker 1: of you it's so harrowing up to that point that
Speaker 1: you do kind of forget about him, Yeah, legitimately, so
Speaker 1: it doesn't feel like a weird you know, just like
Speaker 1: a trick at the end that he comes back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And you know, the only problem I have with this
Speaker 1: entire movie is if it were me, I would not
Speaker 1: have shown Hooper getting away and hiding behind the rocks
Speaker 1: when he got out of the shark gage. I would
Speaker 1: have left it a little more like he thought he
Speaker 1: was dead and then surprise he's not. But that maybe
Speaker 1: have been too hokey, you know. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you played either way. I do.
Speaker 1: I think I think I needed it. I think I
Speaker 1: needed it so that it didn't it didn't feel like
Speaker 1: a weird you know, carry it, you know, right the
Speaker 1: grave at the end of Carrey type of thing like
Speaker 1: I do. I think I appreciate that the that the
Speaker 1: guidance there, Yes, personally alright. So these last two segments.
Speaker 1: One is called what Ebert said, this movie is a
Speaker 1: complete disappointment. Roger Ebert my favorite film critic of all time.
Speaker 1: I like to go back and just read a quick
Speaker 1: little piece from his reviews. Uh. You'll be pleased to
Speaker 1: know that Ebert gave Jaws four stars Max ratings and
Speaker 1: ostensibly it bumbs up right. Uh, And here's this quote.
Speaker 1: The screenplay by Spielberg, Benchley, and Carl Gottlieb, with contribution
Speaker 1: by Howard Sackler and a crucial speech by Shaw, does
Speaker 1: not twist itself into parables. The characters all have straightforward motivations,
Speaker 1: A little dialogue goes a long way. Individual lines stand
Speaker 1: out for hard edged terseness. The cinematography by Bill Butler
Speaker 1: is it pains to tell the story in the midst
Speaker 1: of middle class America. If Spielberg's favorite location would become
Speaker 1: the suburbs, Jaws with suburbanites on vacation. M hm, wow,
Speaker 1: that's good. Yeah, that's good. Uh. And then if you
Speaker 1: have a couple more minutes, we like to finish out
Speaker 1: movie Crush with five questions for Roman. Uh. And these
Speaker 1: can just be quick answers. Uh. And this is just
Speaker 1: a little bit about your film going history. Uh. First
Speaker 1: movie you remember seeing in the theater? Yeah, Blue Lagoon,
Speaker 1: that's a great one. That's I'm gonna forget that. Uh.
Speaker 1: First are rated movie you saw, whether in the theater
Speaker 1: or at home? That would be looking to right, I
Speaker 1: guess it probably was. I mean the only one that
Speaker 1: that I The other one I remember really early on
Speaker 1: VHS was The Shining I saw really young and it
Speaker 1: it really threw me off. Yeah, lord Roman, Um, who
Speaker 1: are your parents? For God's sakes, they you know they
Speaker 1: were They were working hard, had a single mom, so
Speaker 1: she worked with little other ways and all right, So
Speaker 1: it was it was just that was on my to
Speaker 1: my own devices. Uh, that has this goodness bad sides.
Speaker 1: I guess, um, will you question three? Will you walk
Speaker 1: out of a bad movie? Uh? And if so, what
Speaker 1: was the last one. I've only walked out once? I
Speaker 1: walked out a movie called Malice, which is, um, it's
Speaker 1: Alec Baldwin, Like, yeah, Alec Baldwin. And I just found it.
Speaker 1: I was like it was I was in college at
Speaker 1: Oberlin and I just I just like, I was like
Speaker 1: every I hate everything, I hate every moment of these people,
Speaker 1: and I just I had to get out of there.
Speaker 1: I just felt gross. So I left. H O Berlin. Man,
Speaker 1: I I know, like you're like the fourth person I
Speaker 1: know from Oberlin. It's a good place, all right. So
Speaker 1: number four, do you have a movie you can think
Speaker 1: of that is a guilty pleasure movie for you? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't. I feel like I work
Speaker 1: so much. I have so few pleasures that that I
Speaker 1: can't about them. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I think if
Speaker 1: you were to say, like, is there a movie I like,
Speaker 1: that's probably uncharacteristic. Uncharacteristic for a person who's like a
Speaker 1: forty two year old man to like, um, like, I
Speaker 1: really appreciate the movie Bring It On. It's really well made.
Speaker 1: I mean I think that I saw that a couple
Speaker 1: of times and I was like, that's a well made movie.
Speaker 1: And then Pitch Perfect, which is exactly the same movie,
Speaker 1: and you could you could watch them so by side,
Speaker 1: and I think the story beats happen exactly the same.
Speaker 1: Um there, I mean they're they're exactly the same, just
Speaker 1: like the details are changed and um. And so I
Speaker 1: appreciate those two movies. Yeah, you know, Like my weird
Speaker 1: thing with movies is sometimes I don't watch my favorite
Speaker 1: movies very often. I tend to watch movies I kind
Speaker 1: of like, um more often like they're unchallenging that I
Speaker 1: put on. So like my one for this for a
Speaker 1: long time was Gross point blank, which is not a movie.
Speaker 1: It's not a movie I think is all that good.
Speaker 1: And I think that part of my mind is trying
Speaker 1: to resolve the things I like about it and how
Speaker 1: I would improve it or something like there's something about
Speaker 1: there's a puzzle to it. So I sometimes watch movies
Speaker 1: that are not my favorite movies over and over again,
Speaker 1: which it seems like a ridiculous waste of time. I
Speaker 1: like that. That's interesting. Uh. And the final question here,
Speaker 1: um sort of a movie going one oh one with
Speaker 1: Roman Marsh do you what's your what's your movie ritual?
Speaker 1: I know you don't get out much, but when you
Speaker 1: do go out to a movie, is there do you
Speaker 1: have a preferred seat. Do you get the same thing
Speaker 1: at the concession stand every time? Do you have any
Speaker 1: rituals I do. I tend to go early. Um, when
Speaker 1: I'm by myself, I'll i'll I'll go early, and I'll
Speaker 1: bring something to read. And I like to go to
Speaker 1: movies by myself or with my my two kids. And
Speaker 1: so I am not like I like, I love, I
Speaker 1: do things by myself all the time. I like, I
Speaker 1: liked being you know, some movies are one of those
Speaker 1: things I actually kind of like to do alone because
Speaker 1: I'm not one of those people that likes to like
Speaker 1: during the credits, like turn to someone and say, so,
Speaker 1: what do you think? You know, I'm not that guy,
Speaker 1: That's what I think. So I like to just kind
Speaker 1: of live in it. So that would be my ritual.
Speaker 1: And I'm kind of like a center. I'm a center,
Speaker 1: a little more forward than you know, to the front.
Speaker 1: And most people tend to like like i'd like the
Speaker 1: first row of the second you know, you know, tear
Speaker 1: of um. And because I also like to get you know,
Speaker 1: be able to get out like I don't know and um,
Speaker 1: and you know, i'd like to go early and I
Speaker 1: can't be late and all that sort of stuff, like
Speaker 1: I don't like to rush, So those would be my
Speaker 1: general rituals. And and then the tendency to go alone
Speaker 1: like a movie is like not something to me that
Speaker 1: I'd like the collective energy of of a room for
Speaker 1: something like horror movie like get Out or or a comedy.
Speaker 1: But I don't need like personal friends to be with me.
Speaker 1: You love to be surrounded by strangers and share and
Speaker 1: experience with people you don't know exactly. I love it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, well thanks man, my pleasure. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: It's been a good one. Oh. Thanks, that's so so nice.
Speaker 1: I like talking to you about this stuff. So yeah,
Speaker 1: and you're thinking, of course everyone check out Ncent Invisible
Speaker 1: and um, what's it called what Trump can teach us
Speaker 1: about con law? Yep, that's too, and just the whole
Speaker 1: Radio Topia network. You're pick a show and that's going
Speaker 1: to be great. I guarantee it. Yeah, me too, I
Speaker 1: guarantee you. All right, Thanks Roman, thank you, chalk I appreciation. Wow,
Speaker 1: So that was just wonderful. Uh, what a great chat
Speaker 1: with Roman Mars about Jaws. Um, I think it was
Speaker 1: pretty clear that both of us are just super fans
Speaker 1: of that movie. Um, so that was a lot of
Speaker 1: fun for me. Um. I felt like, jeez, we probably
Speaker 1: could have We probably could have sit down for three
Speaker 1: hours and broken that movie apart piece by piece and
Speaker 1: and really walked out on it. So, UM, I hope
Speaker 1: we didn't do that too much? Are you non Jaws fanatics?
Speaker 1: But um, that was a lot of fun for me.
Speaker 1: And it seemed like Roman had a good time. Uh.
Speaker 1: And in his case, it seemed like, UM, we'll chalk
Speaker 1: this one up to general artistry. It seems like his
Speaker 1: appreciation for Jaws very much was about just how well
Speaker 1: crafted the movie was, in the direct and editing and
Speaker 1: the music and the pacing acting. Uh. He seemed to
Speaker 1: really really be interested in just what a what a
Speaker 1: fine example of filmmaking that Jaws was. So it wasn't
Speaker 1: really nostalgia or um have anything personal for him. He's
Speaker 1: not an ichthyologist as far as I know. Um, it
Speaker 1: was interesting to hear about his fear of compressed air.
Speaker 1: Never heard that one. I don't know if there's a
Speaker 1: real phobia. Maybe we could call it roma phobia or something.
Speaker 1: We could make it up. But um, good dude, great talk.
Speaker 1: And I hope we illuminated a little bit for you
Speaker 1: Jaws fans out there, a little bit more about the movie.
Speaker 1: I just had a lot of fun with that one.
Speaker 1: So we'll see you next time, and until then, would
Speaker 1: kill you to share some eminem's. You guys, have a
Speaker 1: good week. Movie Crushes, produced, edited, engineered, and scored by
Speaker 1: Noel Brown from our podcast studio at Pond City Market, Atlanta, Georgia.