Only some of you will turn out sharks, just some. The rest are chum.
Finally, like a week or more after I finished reading it, here is my review of Jaws. I may be using the term 'review' lightly, but here at least are my thoughts on Jaws, my book club assignment for January. Spoilers under the cut for both the book and the movie.
( In my usual semi-scattered form )
( In my usual semi-scattered form )
I am a HUGE fan of Jaws the movie. I own it on DVD, and yet I still watch it on TV whenever it's on. I can quote it from memory (and not just "you're gonna need a bigger boat"). I've read all the trivia about it. I love Jaws <3. hee, same here! XD. Also, how perfect is the theme tune?
The focus being on the inner workings of a small town and how everyone in it is affected by this shark works in a book (especially with Benchley's use of an omniscient narrator that changes POV often) but wouldn't work quite as well in a movie. Plus, it's far more exciting for the film to concentrate on the shark and what to do about it, rather than delving into exactly what the mayor's motivations are, Ellen's history, how the town relies on summer tourism, and tiny insights into how this shark is affecting nameless characters we only see for one scene. I agree! Imo it definitely worked in the book, however in a film I think it would drag and give it a slow pace, which would really not be a good thing, especially as the film has such a tense and tight atmopshere right from the opening scene, it's very reminiscent of a Hithcock film imo!
Augh yes, I love Hooper in the film as well, but never liked him in the book.
1. Young people do not talk the way he writes them, even in the 70's. No, really, they don't use slang like that. IKR XD.
2. Women do not think or behave the way he writes them, and I'm thankful that we only got one or two scenes from Ellen's POV when usually I'm complaining about the lack of female characters in books, While I do actually know a couple irl that do (there are always exceptions after all), I totally agree that women do not generally think or behave that way either.
and 3. He was a little bit racist. This is probably a product of the time period, and a little bit a deliberate attempt to explain the attitude of this small town, Personally I didn't like the description either but I did indeed chalk it up to be a deliberate attempt to explain the attitudes. I live in a very small place myself, where unfortunately, many people still have very racist outlooks and that sort of stereotypical narrow-minded, smalltown mentality and I did think that's what he was aiming for. Especially as in the 70's those attitudes were even more prevalent as you said.
I realize that rape fantasy is a thing, and that it's probably fairly common (given that 'bodice-rippers' is a genre) but this is not the way you present that either as an author or a character. Rape fantasy is apparantly one of the most common fantasies (based on everything I've read about sexual psychology over the years), but he definitely didn't lead in enough for me either. It felt like it came out of the blue for me. Regarding Hooper, I always thought the reason for him asking if the rapist was black was to show Hooper to be a racist and make us dislike him more, thought that may just be me.
Personally the whole thing with Ellen interested me from the psychological standpoint (I basically love to analyse everything), however I did feel it was only there to make the book somewhat longer and in this context I would have preferred the story concentrated more on Brody and the shark (because I find them to be the most interesting part XD).
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He kept using slang for the sake of using slang, and it came across like when older people try to be 'hip' and fit in with the kids these days. Aka, awkward.
Ooh, it didn't even occur to me that it was meant to show Hooper as racist in addition to all his other ~stellar~ qualities, but that's definitely a possibility! He's just so... ugh.
I think I would have been less bothered by the Ellen subplot if it had 1. affected the main plot more forcefully (I mean, it created tension between Brody and Hooper, but that could have been achieved in another way) and 2. BEEN RESOLVED. It just seemed to fizzle out, and if he wasn't ever going to go anywhere with it, why did he bother including it?
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ikr. Kind of like the mother in mean girls, who tries to sound cool and young etc. I always wondered if that was done on purpose to; in order to make them look immature and such?
He's awful in the book and unfortunately I've known a few Book!Hoopers in my time >.>
That always irked me; that it never reached a real conclusion. It was almost like it was thrown in as an afterthought to add length to the book tbh! :s
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