journal features

movie review - Jaws

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Vancouver, 2002.04.02

This is a movie about three guys who go out to hunt down a shark that's been terrorizing the waters of their small resort town. Just kidding. It's a remarkable story of three characters from three different social strata, and the types of challenges those men face due to the distinct worlds in which they were born. The working-class shark fisherman, for instance, speaks coarsely, served in the navy, and was on a vessel that went down in the Pacific. The middle-class policeman suffers fools for a living, a humiliating and frantic experience where he carries the weight for scum like the truly resplendent shit-heel mayor. And the scion of a wealthy family, who is the only one of the three whose life seems to be under his control.

There's a scene that Heidi pointed out, in which the ex-navy sailor looks meaningfully at the life jackets. He knows his ship is going down, and he's vowed he'll never wear a life-jacket again. Because when that ship went down in the Pacific, he lost countless ship-mates to the sharks. It's no more than a couple of seconds and it's perfect. Plus the foreshadowing; perfection!

I dunno what it is about this movie. Is it the whole epic nature of the tale, in which three uncannily brave men from different parts of society face unknown hell to save the women and children? Is it the unflinching reality of the scenes where the shark just takes people during pleasant beach activities? Is it the drunken singing? Still love this one, despite the 27 years and the many viewings.

Strongly recommended. A favorite.

rand()m quote

Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.

—John Gardner