Beijing Daily client | Reporter Wang Jinyue
In 1975, at the age of 29, Spielberg directed Jaws, which eventually grossed a staggering $471 million. The thriller sparked the dream of a younger generation of filmmakers like David Finch to be a director and became a classic in film history.
However, in the face of the idea of making a sequel like a cash cow, Spielberg held the bottom line, and he refused to direct the sequel to "Jaws". Therefore, in the next 40 years, under the banner of "Great White Shark", one movie after another, in addition to "Jaws" made three more, like "Deep Sea Shark", "Shark Gang", "Shark Beach" and other films, you sing I debuted. But honestly, no shark movie has reached the reach of Jaws.
On Friday, "Jaws of the Great White Shark", co-produced by Australia and the United Kingdom, was released in China, which played the banner of "Tribute" to "Jaws", and coincided with the re-screening of "Jaws" in North America on September 2.
However, the domestic audience did not buy it, the box office in 5 days was only 2.8 million yuan, and the Douban score was only 4.5 points.
Not to mention, from the plot point of view, this film really has a lot of similarities with "Jaws". For example, at the beginning of "Jaws", a bunch of young people play by the campfire in the dark night, and a couple runs to the sea to swim, only to be killed by the great white shark. The beginning of "Jaws of the Great White Shark" is also a couple playing in the sea, and as a result, the great white shark dived over, the man was bitten to death on the spot, and the woman's whereabouts are unknown.
The climax of Jaws is when a shark attacks a shark-catching boat, leaks water, and eventually sinks. In "The Mouth of the Great White Shark", the ship was replaced by a life raft, and the shark overturned the life raft, and finally sank due to a leak. In both films, there are scenes of people diving into the sunken hull and being frightened by a sudden corpse, and "Jaws of the Great White Shark" almost copied the former.
But the two films are actually very different. Jaws: The Mouth of the Deadly Shark is a B-grade film (low-budget film) with only 5 characters in addition to two sharks, filmed in a sea with a beach. Essentially, it's no different from low-budget horror movies that take place in a room or a building, and the idea is to save money and make a big deal out of it.
"Jaws" is not only a thrilling human shark battle, but also a discussion of the great white shark in the community, which has a broader sociological connotation. In contrast, "Jaws of the Great White Shark" has a simple story and direct motivations for the characters. The five characters in the film who should have been in the same boat quarreled constantly as soon as they appeared, and under the threat of the great white shark, everyone's psychological defense line reached its limit. At this time, it is a very test of the screenwriter's kung fu: on the one hand, let the contradictions and conflicts of these people be portrayed in a reasonable and logical way; On the other hand, it is necessary to make the attack and death of the great white shark imaginative so that the audience can be attracted. But neither of these aspects of the film is done well enough. For example, the Japanese who are afraid of water chatter along the way, and after the shark appears, it completely loses its mind, resulting in the chef being bitten by the shark, and the psychological motivation of this character is simply a bit inexplicable.
However, the end of the film is a bit interesting, the three strong male characters are full of competition and hostility, and as a result, they are killed one after another, while the two weak women unite at a critical moment and use their wisdom to kill the great white shark, but they survive. I don't know if this is an active gesture of favor to female audiences, or a compliment to the resilience of women's vitality?