Jaws

Tuesday

Christopher Sandford

A compelling account of actor Robert Shaw’s life

A narrative biography by a member of its subject’s family is, if not unique, something of a novelty. Here, Christopher Shaw Myers writes the story, while his uncle Robert Shaw’s life (1927-78) provides the book’s framework. Shaw Myers has previously written the as-yet-unfilmed screenplay Jaws & Mrs. Shaw and revisits some of the same material here. In both cases, a pivotal moment comes when Robert Shaw’s mother visits the set where Jaws is being shot in 1974 off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, and thus happens to be present when her son polishes off the monologue about the shark attack on survivors of the USS Indianapolis that anticipates the gory finale of the film.

Shaw

Tuesday

Christopher Sandford

The enduring appeal of Jaws, 50 years on

It’s been 50 years since audiences first thrilled to the thudding theme music and bared teeth of the original Jaws. The movie, released on June 20, 1975, immediately had customers lining up around the block, recouping its then-astronomic $20 million production cost within a week. It still stands alongside Rocky and Star Wars as one of a trio of enduring “high-concept” mid-70s blockbusters. In keeping with Sylvester Stallone’s boxing picture and George Lucas’s space opera – and most other Hollywood money-spinners – it’s easy to forget that there was nothing inevitable about the film’s long-lasting success.

Jaws

Tuesday

Shez Shafiq

Swimming with sharks is nothing to be scared of

The small South African coastal town of Umkomaas hosts many scuba diving operations and resorts; its local reef system, the Aliwal Shoal, is one of the top fifty dive sites in the world. It contains the usual attractions like schools of tropical fish, turtles, rays and a few shipwrecks. The real attraction though — the reason people come from all over the world to this sleepy town — is to dive with sharks. Without a cage. For up to sixty minutes at a time. The Blue Ocean Dive Resort, where I stayed for a week, specializes in these dives, employing several experts to maximize the shark sightings. During my time there, I must have seen over fifty different sharks, including oceanic blacktips, bull sharks and tiger sharks.

sharks