Great movie quotes - Jaws

It is a little hard to believe that it’s been some 35 years since the movie Jaws premiered in the summer of 1975. Folks 34 or younger weren’t even born yet. Folks born between 1967 and 1975 would have been too young to remember it. But I suspect everyone of movie going age today has seen it, probably multiple times.

For those who didn’t see the premiere, you really missed something. (Ditto for Alien, the first one, in 1979. Talk about scary.) Steven Spielberg’s Jaws was among the first true blockbusters. And I’ve never regarded the ocean the same after seeing it (and, being part fish, I love the ocean).

During a lull between the action sequences, the below scene occurs below deck at night. Sam Quint (Robert Shaw) relates a personal story from WWII to Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) and shark expert Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss).

The story Quint tells about the USS Indianapolis is based on historical fact. Pardon the length, but it’s a great piece of cinematic storytelling and worth reading:

Hooper: [surprised] You were on the Indianapolis?

Brody: What happened?

Quint: [low voice] Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte... just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that when you're in the water, Chief? You tell by looking from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know, was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week.

Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin', so we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, it was kinda like old squares in the battle like you see in the calendar named "The Battle of Waterloo" and the idea was: shark comes to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin' and hollerin' and screamin' and sometimes the shark go away... but sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about a shark... he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces.

You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I know how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday morning, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boatswain's mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up, down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon, the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us. He swung in low and he saw us... he was a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper.

Anyway, he saw us and he come in low and three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and starts to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened... waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again.

So, eleven hundred men went in the water; 316 men come out and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

Great stuff. If you’re one of the five or six people on the planet who hasn’t seen Jaws, check it out on a big screen TV. Crank up the surround-sound up and dim the lights. I promise you’ll love it.