JAWS 40TH ANNIVERSARY AND THE V.I.P'S

Watched JAWS with my wife's 14 year old nephew recently. I was spurred to do this by all the 40th anniversary hoopla. Hoopla that is deserved in this case as it is a damned good film.

To pigeonhole JAWS into a genre is a bit tough on the face of it as it is clearly an adventure film. You could even argue it is sort of a horror film I guess what with a giant killer shark that has seeming intelligence, enough to lure its would be killers out into the open ocean and to strike when and where no one expects.

But I would ague the word "thriller" is probably the best classification. Much of JAWS in terms of how it plants visual clues and foreshadows later events feels like it was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. One of my favorite scenes is the shark attack on the boy on the inflatable raft which occurs from Sheriff Brody's perspective over the shoulder of a complaining constituent and among many other bathers - amazing scene! I am not a Stephen Speilberg fan for reasons I've listed here https://rajdronamraju.wordpress.com/2008/06/08/why-i-wont-be-seeing-the-new-indiana-jones-film/ but this is one of the greatest films of all time - To bad he couldn't continue in that direction. In retrospect, it feels like an oddity in his directorial filmography.

                         

Also recently saw THE V.I.P.'s - A big budget soap opera with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor playing around with public perceptions of their relationship, one of the most famous of the twentieth century.

The 1963 film takes place mostly in an airport as a plane's passengers wait around to board a delayed aircraft. In addition to Burton and Taylor, we have Louis Jordan, Orson Welles, Rod Taylor, Maggie Smith, and Dame Margaret Rutherford (who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.). Although Taylor/Burton is the focus, all the supporting actors cleave out portions of the narrative for themselves.

This is a big cheesy spectacle in which Taylor, playing with type as a famous actress, is planning to leave her husband wealthy tycoon Burton for Jordan, her oily gigolo lover (although it's implied they are aren't sleeping together yet which makes no sense to me). Nobody could chew up the scenery better than Liz and Dick ,an argument which WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? proves conclusively.

Throw in Welles's foreign producer (with an amusingly schlocky accent), Smith's pining away mousy secretary, Rutherford's wacky grand dame and you have a very fun movie. Taylor and Burton are the centerpiece - Never has the camera found two better subjects to embrace together, a happy confluence of celebrity and striking facial features and knowing how to act on film.