Jaws

On Saturday, Katie went to a girls-only social event. My initial plan involved working on manuscript review that is due this week. When the time rolled around, however, I felt more like a glass of scotch and a movie. After being ridiculed by Rachel in the comments of a prior post for not having seen Jaws, I decided to give that movie priority on my to-see list.

I greatly enjoyed the movie. It was well made. I particularly enjoyed the score by John Williams and how the Jaws theme "snuck up" in the music when the shark was stealthily approaching. My favorite bit of score was actually an eerie use of silence, when the shark made an dive carrying three buoys, which everyone thought would be impossible. The frightening realization that this was a powerful shark coincided with that eerie silence to great effect.

After finishing Jaws, I was surfing channels and doing a crossword puzzle while waiting for Katie to return from her unigender activities. I happened upon Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, which I reviewed for the MIT student newspaper a long time ago. That review, for whatever reason, is the most linked to (and thus probably the most read) piece of writing I've ever done. It has ended up on sites like this Internet Movie Database page.

I re-watched the scene where Jim Carrey sneaks into a secret location to find a large tank inhabited by a shark. He falls in, of course, and then is grabbed by the shark and dragged around the tank, half out of the water. I certainly didn't realize this at the time, but it was a clear parody on the opening scene in Jaws. What an odd coincidence that I happened upon that in my channel flipping right after seeing Jaws for the first time!