8mm Forum: Jaws-10mins./super8/colour snd.

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Posted by Andrew Wilson (Member # 538) on October 14, 2006, 01:08 PM:

Here's my view of this classic thriller from 1975.
Behind the original title we see the beach party from which one young girl decides to go for a swim.However she is not alone, for the arrival of you-know-who;heralded by the pulsating music of John Williams which is brillanty effective..
Next day,on the crowded beach of Amity bay,a child's legs dangle into the water from a lilo;SNAP-blood gushes into the airand a mother screams in disbelief.
Police Chief Brody(ROY SCHEIDER)and marine expert Hooper(Richard Dreyfuss)are joined by that loud mouthed fisherman Quint(Robert Shaw),to form a unlikely trio which set forth in a small boat,all quiet unaware of the horror that awaits them.
The editor of this one reeler has even found time for a little humour as bully Quint symbolically mangles a beer can with his bare hand..in retaliation,Hooper mutilates his plastic beer cup!.
As Brody scoops foul smelling bait over the side,we catch our first glimpse of the killer shark,as its huge head leaps from the water-a "shock" scene in the feature which works here just as well in this one reeler.excellent.
The chase is now onas harpoons flash thru the water-but to no avail.Hooper,armed with a drugged gun,is lowered in a cage-only to be attacked by the giant and disappears.
"JAWS" now has the upper hand and literlly attacks the boat smashing it to pieces.Quint loses his footing and slides along the deck to be chewed up before our eyes!.Now only Brody remains
for the final confrontation...
This one reeler is edited to perfection.It contains all the gory highlights in a 10minute running time.Track this one reeler down,the colour,sound and definition are still superb.A brillant
digest of a brillant movie,it still scares the crap out me.It's still my fav-rave movie.Outstanding in every department.Andy.

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on October 14, 2006, 03:58 PM:

Andy,

Thanks for your review of possibly the best cutdown ever. Whenever I talk about this hobby and explain what digests were, there's invariably a question about how can you capture the essence (and plot) of a film in less than a twelfth of it's original running time. U-8's "Jaws" is always my answer.

Doug

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on October 14, 2006, 04:51 PM:

Hi Andy,
Yes this is probably the best 10 minute cut down ever! A couple of things worth noting:
The opening sequence with the girl on the beach going for a swim- looks to me like she's actually skinny dipping, with some quite revealing couple of frames on the S8 print (a single frame capability on the projector is handy for checking this out! [Big Grin]

)

Hoopers beer cup is actually styrofoam- and as Andy points out, this is a really humorous scene.

Print quality is great, but sadly mine is starting show the dreaded Eastman fade.

Posted by James N. Savage 3 (Member # 83) on October 14, 2006, 05:22 PM:

I have always held this 200 foot digest in very high regard as well. It runs OVER 10 minutes, comes in a full color labeled plastic box (normal U-8 packaging), and came with a nice miniature one-sheet poster as well. Talk about a deal!!!

By the way-
It was released at the same time as the U-8 "Buck Rogers in the 20th Century" 200 foot digest, which was very good as well. I think that one also came with a poster.

Two great releases that I'm sure boosted film collecting a bit at that time.

Nick.

Posted by Andrew Wilson (Member # 538) on October 14, 2006, 05:32 PM:

Oh yes Paul.The girl in the opening scene was naked.well said James,about Buck Rogers too.a beauty of an edit job there.
Yes Doug,Universal did a great job on this one reeler.Thanks for your views on this gentlemen.Andy.
P.S Iwonder if VERNA FIELDS had anything to do with this one reeler?.

[ June 16, 2007, 10:26 AM: Message edited by: Andrew Wilson ]

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