+++++
A movie that isn't so much an adaptation of a book as a rewrite of it. Distilling the salient portions of a novel and filtering out its irrelevant subplots, it turns out, can produce a whale of a movie. That is, if you also humanize its characters, hire terrific actors, and direct the whole thing with imagination, skill, and incredible energy. This is a movie that is, unlike Benchley's novel, completely riveting. It is, of course, about three men who, each for his own reasons, set to sea to catch or kill the huge shark that has been eating people off the beaches of a small island resort town. It's got humor, suspense, excitement, and an evocative and apropos soundtrack. It also has one of the most memorable monologues in the history of movies, as Quint, the crude but colorful fisherman hired to lead the shark hunt, recounts one of his experiences from World War II. With Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss, and novel author Peter Benchley in a cameo as a reporter on the beach. Followed by three sequels, ranging from bad to deplorable.
A movie that isn't so much an adaptation of a book as a rewrite of it. Distilling the salient portions of a novel and filtering out its irrelevant subplots, it turns out, can produce a whale of a movie. That is, if you also humanize its characters, hire terrific actors, and direct the whole thing with imagination, skill, and incredible energy. This is a movie that is, unlike Benchley's novel, completely riveting. It is, of course, about three men who, each for his own reasons, set to sea to catch or kill the huge shark that has been eating people off the beaches of a small island resort town. It's got humor, suspense, excitement, and an evocative and apropos soundtrack. It also has one of the most memorable monologues in the history of movies, as Quint, the crude but colorful fisherman hired to lead the shark hunt, recounts one of his experiences from World War II. With Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss, and novel author Peter Benchley in a cameo as a reporter on the beach. Followed by three sequels, ranging from bad to deplorable.
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