Greatest Movie of All-Time?
There is a theater in Los Angeles which shows first-run movies but also classic movies on occasion. I took Lark and Deline there to see "Sideways" when they were here a couple of months ago. Right now, that theater is hosting an American Film Institute film festival called 100 Years of Heroes and Villains. They're showing a classic movie every Wednesday from January thru September.
Last night, I saw "Jaws" in a theater for the first time in 30 years. I was 8 when I saw it on opening weekend at a theater in Galveston, Texas. We were supposed to go swimming at the beach after we caught the matinee, but as you can probably guess, I never made it into the water that day. I was still shaking from the movie I had just experienced. We won't get into the fact that my parents shouldn't have let me see an R-rated movie at such a young and impressionable age.
I have seen "Jaws" probably 30 or 40 times over the years on cable and videotape or DVD. It is my all-time favorite movie (barely finishes above Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan). It also is, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest movies ever made.
The blocking of the shots by Steven Spielberg is amazing. The cinematography is rich with detail. The music includes one of the best scores in the history of cinema. The actors give the performances of their lives especially Robert Shaw as the deranged fisherman, Quint. And the script includes some of the best lines in Hollywood history including:
"This was no boating accident."
"Here's to swimmin' with bow-legged women."
"You're gonna need a bigger boat."
And an eerie, haunting monologue by Shaw describing the final hours of the crew of the U.S.S. Indianapolis.
The 600-person theater was sold out for this one-time showing, and the crowd was so amped at seeing this classic in a big theater again that it clapped during both the opening and closing credits.
I know some of you don't get much of a chance to go to movie theaters anymore because of child or work obligations, but I can't tell you how wonderful it is to see classic movies on the big screen.
Last night, I saw "Jaws" in a theater for the first time in 30 years. I was 8 when I saw it on opening weekend at a theater in Galveston, Texas. We were supposed to go swimming at the beach after we caught the matinee, but as you can probably guess, I never made it into the water that day. I was still shaking from the movie I had just experienced. We won't get into the fact that my parents shouldn't have let me see an R-rated movie at such a young and impressionable age.
I have seen "Jaws" probably 30 or 40 times over the years on cable and videotape or DVD. It is my all-time favorite movie (barely finishes above Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan). It also is, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest movies ever made.
The blocking of the shots by Steven Spielberg is amazing. The cinematography is rich with detail. The music includes one of the best scores in the history of cinema. The actors give the performances of their lives especially Robert Shaw as the deranged fisherman, Quint. And the script includes some of the best lines in Hollywood history including:
"This was no boating accident."
"Here's to swimmin' with bow-legged women."
"You're gonna need a bigger boat."
And an eerie, haunting monologue by Shaw describing the final hours of the crew of the U.S.S. Indianapolis.
The 600-person theater was sold out for this one-time showing, and the crowd was so amped at seeing this classic in a big theater again that it clapped during both the opening and closing credits.
I know some of you don't get much of a chance to go to movie theaters anymore because of child or work obligations, but I can't tell you how wonderful it is to see classic movies on the big screen.
posted by cvo @ 11:36 PM
2 Comments:
At 9:44 AM,
Unknown said…
Wow, 30 years since Jaws. We are growing very old.
(BTW, Curtis, I responded to your comment in the evolution thread.)
At 5:58 PM,
R said…
If any of you are in DC, the AFI has restored a big screen cinema in Silver Spring where they show classic films all the time. I took my Dad to see High Noon, which he had seen when he was almost as young as Curtis was when he saw Jaws. I had never seen it before. It was terrific - more or less the same idea as the TV series "24" in that all the action happens in only a few hours.
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