A shark may have been spotted off South Beach in Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard ("That's where he's been feeding," - Matt Hooper), according to a story in the Boston Globe, reprinted below.

What is especially encouraging is the persistence of the use of the word "waters" as a collective term for bodies of water, which is a central theme in "All That Jaws." Unfortunately, the article also reveals that residents of Martha's Vineyard don't remember Robert Ellsworth's costumes from the film.

Shark is reported off Martha's Vineyard
By Milton J. Valencia
Globe Staff / July 11, 2008

Lifeguards spotted what they believed was a great white shark off Martha's Vineyard yesterday, forcing the closing of beaches and prompting the inevitable references to "Jaws," the movie thriller that was filmed on the island.

The dorsal fin of the shark, sticking some 2 1/2 feet out of the water, was spotted 75 yards offshore at South Beach in Edgartown. Authorities received reports of other sightings along State Beach, on the island's northeast and the site of the opening scene of "Jaws."

"It definitely creates some excitement in town," said Trish Lyman, a resident who works at The Boneyard surf shop. "People are tentative but still excited."

Lisa Capone, spokeswoman for the state Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, said the Coast Guard received several reports of the shark sighting. The state sent a plane to scan the waters, she said, but the pilot could not confirm the sighting.

HOOPER
Didn't you notify the Coast Guard about this?

BRODY
No. It was only local jurisdiction

Though unconfirmed, the sightings left residents wondering whether they would be able to see the massive creature. Arthur Smadbeck, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said the police chief joked to him that he ought to head to the shores with a red plaid jacket, an allusion to a character in "Jaws."

A great white shark sighting is rare, but not unheard of in Massachusetts waters, said Greg Skomal, a shark specialist with the Division of Marine Fisheries. He said the species has a range spreading from the Gulf of Mexico into Canadian waters.

In 2004, a great white was entrapped for two weeks in a salt pond not far from the island, giving Skomal and other researchers a rare opportunity to study the animal. "That was a telling sign for us that the animals are here," Skomal said.

Last year, great white sharks were believed to be feeding on the local seals. Other local sightings have been reported over the years, which Skomal attributed to a greater awareness, perhaps a fascination, with the animal. But he stressed that the greater number of reports does not necessarily translate into an influx of sharks.

Yesterday, the state took the threat seriously enough to close beaches in South Beach State Park, along the southern coastline, where lifeguards reported spotting the great white. Edgartown Police Chief Paul Condlin said local officials were acting in the best interest of public safety.

The last believed great white attack in the Massachusetts area was in 1936, Skomal said, and there are believed to be only three in history.

Smadbeck said he did not think the sighting will have a negative impact on tourism, now in the island's busiest season.

"People will be so darn curious we'll probably be inundated with people wanting to see it," he said.

Lyman pointed out that the popular Monster Shark Tournament is planned for next weekend, giving participants a benchmark as they head into the waters.

"You can just surf cast and get a winning shark," she said.

As for going down to the beach in a red plaid jacket, I have no clue who they're referring to. Neither Brody, Quint, Hooper, Harbormaster Frank Silva, nor Ben Gardner wore a red plaid jacket.

See also: Shark is reported off Martha's Vineyard

Labels: martha's vineyard, real world, robert ellsworth

Perhaps the greatest intellectual debate (aside from this one) of our age is upon us.

One of the nicest moments of Jaws the Movie is when Quint and Hooper (on the evening of July 4, with the only fireworks being shooting stars and the cries of whales) regard each other, as if for the first time, over their shared experience of nautical injuries. Quint's tales are more manly, but at least Hooper more or less matches him bruise by bruise (though, like Tom Cassidy, he submits to Quint by making his last injury a joke about having his heart broken).

Brody can't compete, and instead listens to their war stories. But at one point he lifts his shirt and checks his abdomen, as if for a scar. What is he looking for?

THEORY ONE

Brody is looking for evidence of his long-ago appendectomy or hernia operation. Finding nothing worthy of the conversation, he shuts up and listens.

THEORY TWO

Brody looks for a gunshot wound, the reason he uprooted his family from New York (in an earlier drunken conversation, Brody tells Hooper that Amity Island hasn't had a murder in 25 years but in New York you had to walk the kids to school).

I am partial to Theory One; a gunshot wound would at least be as cool as a Moray Eel biting through Hooper's wetsuit.

Jaws screenwriter Carl Gottlieb still lives in the L.A. area and I keep meaning to ask him which theory is correct, but I'm opening this up for debate.

Labels: brody, conundra, gottlieb, hooper, indianapolis, quint

Early in the morning of July 2, Brody receives a call from Deputy Hendricks that someone has washed up on the beach. He goes to investigate, and there finds Tom Cassidy, who would've been Chrissie Watkins' swim partner the night before had he not passed out.

Brody is allowed to drive from his home only after promising his wife he will return her coffee mug.

Brody and Cassidy (played by Jonathan Filley, now a successful Hollywood producer and unit production manager) conduct what seems to be an amicable information-gathering conversation as they walk toward Chrissie's remains.

BRODY
And nobody saw her go into the water?

TOM
Somebody could have. I was sort of passed out.

BRODY
You mean she ran out on you?

TOM
No sir! She must've drowned.

(Here, for no apparent reason, Tom snaps a stick he has been carrying in both hands in two.)

Look, I reported it to you, didn't I?

It is clear that Tom carried that stick only so he could break it in two, but it wasn't like Brody was interrogating him. If, in everyday conversation, you or I chose to break a stick in two in the face of such questions, the person we were talking to would think we were up to something.

In fact, in the book Brody didn't even care if Tom joined him on the beach, having figured out everything he needed to know about Chrissie earlier.

But in Brody's long road to assert his manhood in the movie, especially dealing with his fear of water in the shadows of the more masterful Quint and Hooper, here at least is an early sign that at least Tom submitted to Brody's maleness.

Labels: brody, conundra, movie, tom

If history is written by the victor, then we do not know whom to trust in the various official and unofficial written statements about the deaths of Chrissie Watkins and Alex Kintner.

Repeated viewings of Jaws - not that that is bad - reveal a tendency of the characters to get the date wrong. The movie opens with the death of Chrissie Watkins, and in Chief Brody's official report the next day, in which the "Corner" tells him that Watkins died of a shark attack, we read that she was last seen (somewhere in "Vineyard Woods") at 11:50 p.m. on July 1, 1974, and probably died at that time.

Fine.

On July 2 Brody does the right thing and orders Polly to print up some No Swimming signs, but Mayor Vaughn shuts him down, ordering the beaches open for business.

Later that day, with an agitated Brody watching the beach, both Alex Kintner and the good dog, Pippet, are eaten. Amateur shark hunters from as far away as New York and New Jersey converge on Amity Island, without the benefit of the summer deputies, scheduled to arrive on July 4.

This means that not only did Kintner die on July 2, but also that fisherman managed to drive and ferry up to Amity at an amazing speed, and that word traveled lightning fast in that pre-Internet time.

At a town meeting we read on a poster that Mrs. Kintner, Alex' mom, is offering a $3,000 reward for the shark that killed Alex "on June 29."

Still, the yahoos kill a tiger shark - extremely rare for these waters - and in the heady relief of the demise of the predator up comes Mrs. Kintner, in full mourning regalia.

"I just found out that a girl was killed here last week," (emphasis added) she tells Chief Brody, "and you knew about it." Slap! Wince! "My boy is dead," she adds unnecessarily. "I wanted you to know that."

(At this point Brody should have said, "Who was your boy again?")

So, according to the poster and the police report, Alex died two days before Chrissie did.

While I had to go frame by frame, pushing up my glasses as I did so, it was easy to see both the "July 1" and the "June 29" on the written materials.

Quint is a different matter because he uttered the wrong date. Brody determined that Quint was "certifiable," what with his destruction of the Orca's CB radio and his ravings about kiddie scissor classes, the battle of Waterloo, and electric toothbrushes. But it was in Quint's Indianapolis Speech that he says the Hiroshima Bomb was delivered on June 29, 1945, meaning that Brody chartered the Orca 29 years and six days later.

The problem is that Fat Man and Little Boy, the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were not delivered until late July or early August, 1945. In "All That Jaws," therefore, we posit that Quint just likes to associate himself with maritime disasters.

It is not lost on us that two years later the Edmund Fitzgerald sank with 29 men on board. It is whispered that when the witch of November came slashing, she was riding Pippet.

Labels: brody, gaffes, kintner, movie, quint, vaughn

Roy Scheider, who helped define character acting in the 1970's, died this weekend in Arkansas. He was 75.

Best known for his work in "Jaws," an unexpected hit that became the first film to gross over $100 million, Scheider also delivered strong and memorable performances in "Marathon Man," "The French Connection," and "All that Jazz." He later delivered standout performances in "2010" and as Dr. Benway in David Cronenberg's version of "Naked Lunch."

His oft-quoted line from "Jaws," "You're gonna need a bigger boat," was an ad-lib.

Scheider helped pave the way for the flawed leading man of 20th century film. Wry, vulnerable, but courageous where it mattered. Along with Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss, Scheider made that first summer blockbuster an intimate portrait.

We are currently recording the "All That Jaws" cast album at the Analog Cabin in Great Wrightwood, CA. Much of Brody's character was inspired by Scheider's performance in the film. We will miss him.

Labels: movie, roy scheider

Official work on the cast recording of "All That Jaws" can finally be said to have been started after a delay of some five months and change. Fourteen hours of back-breaking recording were logged this past Sunday by the ATJ rhythm section in an attempt to get "Carcharodon Carcharias" - a song that will eventually feature the vocals of Brody, Ellen, and Hooper - at least partially "in the can." The recording took place at Music Director Tyrone Merriner's Analog Cabin in Wrightwood, CA. on a recording device that scientists say dates all the way back to the EARLY SEVENTIES! This machine helped to produce some clear, wonderful, bone-crunching playbacks on the various takes but we soon began to realize that this fickle old beast would require more finessing than we had originally planned on. Of course, by then it was 2 in the morning and Tyrone had to run out to Italy for a few things.
So, as soon as Tyrone comes back into town with the keys (tentatively scheduled for late December) we will be sending out a call to all ATJ alumni to come enjoy a retreat up in the mountains.
Cast may be wise to bring along heavy clothes, long underwear, boots, poles, and skis.