Jaws or Star Wars

Movies
1

I had an interesting conversation with someone tonight about how these two movies are hugely influential to folks of a certain age. They have a lot in common, but of course, they’re very different. Which would you pick as your preferred movie?

For me, Jaws wins hands down, and it’s got nothing to do with what the Star Wars movies have become. It’s just that Jaws is so much better written, directed, and acted. It holds up in a way Star Wars simply doesn’t. Star Wars is a fantasy story/spectacle about destiny yadda yadda yadda, but Jaws is a man vs. himself (Brody’s fear) story told in the context of a classic man vs. nature story. Both movies shaped a generation and even Hollywood itself, but I’d have to say Jaws was far more influential to me personally. It plays on that deeply primal level that any horror movie should tap into, and it’s probably why I’m into horror movies in the way that some of your are into sci-fi and fantasy.

Okay, so how do the rest of you vote, and why?

 -Tom
2

Easy. Jaws is a perfect movie imo. It works as horror, it works as adventure, the music is perfect, the acting is perfect, great pace, dialogs man we could keep going.

4

This expressed my opinion rather well. I was 5 when Jaws came out and the poster alone scared me. When I later became a horror afficinado I watched it on tv and loved it. It’s one of my favourite films and on my top 10 of best movies ever made… but it pushes completely different buttons than the original Star Wars triology.
I was 7 when Star Wars came out, so Empire was the first I saw in the cinema and I still remeber small details of that magical evening - not just the movie but details about the drive home and stuff.

So which is the best movie? Jaws, no question… although Star wars is up there. Which is my preferred? Well, I own a Jaws Collector’s Edition dvd, but that has more to do with Lucas being a dick about releasing the originals. I love both movies, so Shit Bonerz.

5

Unfortunately, I have to abstain. I didn’t watch Jaws for the first time (that I recall) until well after high school and Star Wars I first watched in its entirety I think my junior year when one of my friends heard I’d only seen it piecemeal and out of order until that point. I wasn’t bowled over by Star Wars. I was rather bored in the first film which made me not care about either of the sequels. Later when I revisited the series, I came to appreciate how good Empire is, but still feel the first film is mostly lackluster except for a few shining moments. Jaws was enjoyable, but it was too late for it to be a formative film experience for me.

6

Shit Bonerz for me too, for the reasons mentioned above.

7

Granted, I wasn’t around to catch either during their theatrical releases – thanks, parents who waited until their mid-30s – but I did see both during my formative years, thanks to the magic of VHS. And, of course, the cultural absorption of Star Wars that was still very much the birthright of guys everywhere when I was a kid.

That said, it’s Jaws, hands-down. It is a masterpiece of pacing. It vastly improves upon the book. Spielberg really got a wonderfully taut, lean thriller out of a pulpy potboiler. And Wiliams channeled his inner Bernard Herrmann to compose the other great score that’s instantly recognizable, and spine-tingling, from only two notes. Everything came together, and since it taps into primal fear, its impact is universal.

8

Jaws for me, obviously. It’s the perfect mainstream film, I think, in that every single element of it comes together just right to make something special. Hell, even the poster is iconic.

9

Jaws never did it for me. It’s difficult for me to understand how anyone can see it as a formative movie, even given how plastic teenagers are and liable to latch on to anything at that age.

10

Star Wars. I watched both as a kid, and while Jaws did scare me, Star Wars moved me. I wanted to live in that world. I don’t think anyone wants to live in Jaws. Plus, I agree with Krayz. Jaws is an exploitation film.

11

At the risk of “me too-ing” I’ll go with Star Wars. Jaws is definitely the better film, but I saw Star Wars in the theater and was too young for Jaws so it made a better, more lasting impression.

12

Also, I totally didn’t intend to paraphrase several of Tom’s points. I hadn’t actually read them until now. Apparently we’re on the same page on this particular debate.

I did finally get an opportunity to see Jaws on a proper screen, with a real, well-worn 35mm print, a couple years back. That was a dream come true. I haven’t watched it since, because I’m not sure I want to diminish the memory of that grand, sweeping spectacle.

13

The first few replies summed up my feelings.

Star Wars (and more so Empire) pushes the nostalgia button and makes me (sometimes) yearn for my youth when things were blissfully simple, every new technological advance was mind blowing (Space Invaders in my living room? An actual computer in my bedroom?? This shiny little disc contains music played by a laser???) and most films were rapturously engaging.

It doesn’t change the fact that Jaws was the better film. It’s on a whole other level as far as acting and far more interesting thematically. So it easily gets my vote.

14

Star Wars: 4(ish) years old. Saw it at a drive-in.
Jaws: 8(ish). Saw it on a tiny screen in a basement.

Star Wars. No contest. As others have mentioned, it’s as much about the environment you watch a film in as the film itself in those early years.

15

I’m with the Star Wars crew, and for similar reasons as already mentioned: at the age I was, I saw SW on the big screen in my childhood. I don’t recall seeing Jaws until very much later, for the first time, on TV. There was no contest in the excitement level and the difference in atmosphere contributed to an enjoyment of one (SW) over the other (Jaws) to such an extent that I’ve been a Sci-Fi and Fantasy fan ever since. I don’t even have that much interest in watching Jaws again, strangely enough, but I’ve seen SW many, many times.

16

Star Wars, easily.

I first saw Star Wars very, very young, like, when I was 4. I can very clearly remember how much of the movie I didn’t get when I first saw it, if that makes any sense. I strongly remember a few key scenes, which, when I look back I was sort of kind of getting, partly.

But Star Wars has 2 things going for it:

  1. It gave me Vader. Before the prequels and to a certain extent Return of the Jedi fucked Vader up, Vader was just…overwhelming. The mask, the voice, the breathing…Jesus, the breathing…as a cinematic creation, and by that I mean, in terms of sitting in a dark room with the projector light flickering above and behind you, as you munch on popcorn, for that “going to the movies” experience in its most innocent form, nothing beats Vader for “The Bad Guy.”

  2. Also (and remember, I was 4 years old) it gave me moral ambiguity. Han Solo! He shoots a guy for no reason (I really didn’t get bounty hunting and whatnot at that age), he’s bad! He helps Luke, he’s good! He runs away from the big fight, he’s bad! AAAAAHHHHH!!! He came for the big fight at the last minute, he’s good!

Now, again, I’m 4 years old, I don’t really have the vocabulary or the neural wiring to really dig deep into anti-heroes or trickster characters or rogues or anything of the sort. But the idea that a character could walk the line of unalloyed hero and straight villain and be something different from either blew my mind (obviously Han becomes more of a conventional hero in the later movies, but whatever).

Star Wars also (later) was important to me because it was the first movie I knew of that I was aware of as being part of a greater film history and film culture. What I mean is, because it was a pulpy mashup of various influences, it was kind of a gateway for me into, well, other pulp serials, and samurai movies, and certain WW2 things like The Dam Busters, and the idea of pastiche and homage and whatnot.

Now Jaws…enh. Stepping back, intellectually I suppose I can agree that Jaws is a good movie. But it pales compared to Star Wars for me for a couple reasons.

  1. I saw Jaws later, and I guess I never found the shark all that scary. I found it more silly than anything else. I mean, they’re trying to present the shark as this perfect killing eating ultimate predator, but, enh, by then I was heavy into dinosaurs and compared to a Tyrannosaurus Rex, Jaws didn’t rate. And for scary animals I’d take a tarantula in my bed (I think I’d seen this in some other movie already, no, not Brady Bunch) over a shark, because the only time I swam as a kid was in swimming pools. I didn’t hang around on boats, and if I was at the beach I was playing on the beach. The idea of being threatened by a shark just didn’t have much impact for me.

Plus, the shark is just…I mean, it’s eating the boat? It’s eating/destroying the dock? Really? eyeroll If you want to make a supernatural sea monster movie, make a supernatural sea monster movie, you know? Don’t make a regular shark magically powerful.

Plus, I never bought Quint. I mean, this is an important mission, and you’re going to go with crazy guy? He’s like two characterization inches away from being Popeye. By the time I saw Jaws, I’d read Moby Dick, and by comparison, Quint obsessive behavior didn’t feel earned. He just felt like a collection of tics and squints and scowls. So, I didn’t really buy the shark, I didn’t really buy one of the three main characters, and the whole situation had little visceral impact because for me, not getting eaten by a shark was pretty easy.

By comparison, Star Was wasn’t trying to be any kind of real world anything, so whatever elements were silly or unrealistic didn’t bug me.

So, Star Wars for me.

17

Very well said, all of it.

18

Personally, I’d have gone with “Jaws or Jawas” as the thread title.

19

I agree that Jaws may be a perfect movie but as the former 6-year old who was run over by a car because I was mad I couldn’t see Star Wars and then went on to see it 50+ times in the cinema, I had no choice about how to vote.

20

Tom, you’re going to need a bigger vote.

21

I chose Star Wars just because Tom chose Jaws.