Midnight at the Egyptian
This weekend at midnight will be your chance to revisit Jaws, the scariest movie about a shark ever made. Just because it lost the 1976 Best Picture Oscar to “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” doesn’t mean it’s not still awesome, even though I can’t watch it because I’m a big baby. (This is less than true–I am a big baby, but the primary reason I can’t watch it is because of an unfortunate association my college roommate forged between Jaws and the movie version of The Canterbury Tales.)
I actually snuck into the doorway of the living room one night when I was a very small child and saw part of this movie when I shouldn’t have, and subsequently had the worst nightmare of my entire life. The music that John Williams wrote for this film is still prominent today, and deservedly won him the Oscar for best score that year. Steven Spielberg was 28 when he directed it, and it pretty much paved the way for him to take on things like Indiana Jones, E.T., and, um, Hook.
If you’ve never seen Jaws before then you might not quite understand why this movie still scares the pants off of people, but it’s really about time to give it a go.
I used to love body surfing (when I was a teen during the 70’s). And then I saw the trailer for the film on a large screen. Just the trailer. I haven’t been “in” the ocean since then. Many years later I rented it and watched it on a small screen. Mistake!
However, I love that the phrase from the movie “we’re going to need a bigger boat” has come into use as a way to casually respond when you’ve GROSSLY underestimated the enormity any given situation.