Vintage Movie Review - Jaws (1975)

After a late night, and one too many whisky's I just wanted something to watch that would pass the time until I fell alseep, and cruising Netflix I came across Jaws and thought, 'WHY NOT' - I'd not seen the film for a good few years, though at one time it was one of my favourite movies - such a pity the sequals were so poor-, and I thought I'd see how it played now. Would it be as good as I remembered? Would it still work?

I can vividly remember the first time I saw this movie - it was in my local cinema,The Workman's Hall, around 1976 when the hype for this movie was still at its peak. Back in those days big movies took months and months to get to my local cinema in my small Welsh town. You know, I was 11 years old when I went into the cinema to see this - back then age didn't matter and I saw a fair number of the Hammer X certificate movies on my the big screen back in the day; not to mention the Confessions movies. Back then they didn't take any notice of film classification and were happy for you to go in just as long as you paid your money - probably less than a pound for entry back then. 75P seems to stick in my mind.

I had my younger brother with me when I went into see this movie, so he would have been about 9 and I still remember, that when the Duh Duh music started with the first frame, my brother went green and ran out of the cinema - true story that. Before the shark even munched its first victim my brother had legged it. I wasn't going to miss the movie and so I stayed in my seat and ended up with a heck of a telling off from my parents for leaving my younger brother to go home on his own. Now that's an amusing, though totally true, story but think of the anticipation for that movie, the effect on young minds, because all it took was a Duh Duh to set my brother off at Olympic speed. Either it was a particularly scary Duh Duh or my brother was a pussy!

But I digress - watching the film now (a long time since I was 11 years old) does the film still work the same magic? Well, yes basically - it's still a damn good film and of course made Stephen Speilberg a superstar director for the geek generation. The performances are excellent - particularly Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss. And although the shark effects may be ropey by modern standards the suspense works far better because of this.  Sure, these days we could have  a CGI shark that looked absolutely amazing but that would be no substitute for the skilled storytelling in this movie.

Some of the core scenes I know like the back of my hand, but as soon as I found myself sucked into the movie they worked just as well as they did the first time. Robert Shaw's death still brought a tear to me eye, and I still felt like punching the air when they blew up that bad old shark.

Jaws still pack a bite.

Check out that ever so scary Duh Duh below.

Vintage Movie Review: The Wrong Man

1956
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Starring Henry Fonda and Vera Mills

You couldn't imagine this film being made today - or if it was it would likely be a TV movie, rather than a big screen offering.  - then again I suppose if it was a made today for cinema then the Fonda character would likely get hold of an AK47 and go on a CGI gun rampage across the city - As it is Hitchcocks Docudrama is heavy on the melodrama and light on action....and it's all the better for it.

It is based on the true tory of Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero ( Manny) who suffered a case of mistaken identity, when several witnesses claimed that he was the man who held up their store, and as a consequence of this his life falls apart. In January 1953, Balestrero went to borrow money from his wife’s life insurance plan. He was taken into custody after two employees at the insurance office identified him as the man who robbed the office of a total of $271 during two robberies the previous year.

As painstakingly recounted in the film, shot on manyof the actual locations, Balestrero was awaiting his second trial (the first had resulted in a miss-trial  after a juror made a remark presuming his guilt in open court) when the actual culprit was apprehended during an attempted deli robbery.

What made the case especially poignant  is what happened to Balestrero’s wife, Rose (played in “The Wrong Man” by Vera Miles). Blaming herself for Manny’s arrest, she suffered a nervous breakdown. The mother of two young sons, she remained institutionalised until September 1955.

'My life did not start over again when I was cleared,” said Balestrero, who moved his family to Florida after his wife’s release. “I figured if we’re going to really get a fresh start, everything’s got to be different. We left our friends, our relatives, our home, our furniture — everything.' Balestero speaking to the New York Post in a 1956 interview.

Hitchcock's movie sticks to the actual events like glue and Henry Fonda gives an amazing performance as the ordinary man caught up in a nightmare - it is hard to think of any other A- list actor, with the possible exception of James Stewart, who could have pulled off a performance such as this. Vera Mills is also exceptional as the wife who slowly spirals towards madness.

I'd seen this movie before, though I'm not sure how long ago but watching the pristine Blu-Ray print I was immediately sucked into the movie. It certainly a somber movie with a downbeat ending, which is likely the reason that it didn't do great Box Office upon its original release. The print itself is a vibrant high-def rendition, in a 1.77 aspect ratio very close to its theatrical presentation. There’s a show of noticeable grain in certain scenes but for the most part the texture is extremely solid; the visuals are striking, compelling.

Whilst the movie may not be as much fun as many of Hitchcock's other movies, and likely the slowest paced narrative he ever tackled it is still a masterpiece, and resonates with the viewer long after the final frame. And thanks to its docu-drama style we get to see what New York looked like in the 1950's

Excellent stuff.