The Village Screen Quarantine Cinema Take 4 – Jaws

The Village Screen Quarantine Cinema - Jaws, online, 10 May 2020, free entry - Visit now

What is there to say about Jaws which hasn’t already been said a million times? The mechanical shark was called Bruce, it rarely worked (often sinking), it doesn’t actually appear until nearly an hour and a half in, and even then for only about four minutes of actual screentime. The absence of Bruce wasn’t missed, with John Williams’ music more than enough to turn the box-office-breaking cinema-goers of 1975 into keen land-lovers. Voila! The summer blockbuster was born, the movie brat revolution had begun and cinema would never be the same again.

There is, however, a very good reason to visit Amity Island again this weekend with The Village Screen Quarantine Cinema Take 4. No, it’s not because of the recent spate of political leaders fumbling over each other to win the most-like-the-mayor-from-jaws-who-wanted-to-open-the-beaches-too-early competition. It’s that it really stands up. That might sound obvious – Jaws is a classic, right? Privately though, some classics are a little harder to enjoy than others. We get it, they were important movies, pioneering, a step-change in the history of cinema. Sure, agreed. Also though, maybe a bit of a hard slog to your average, non-academic. non-Criterion Collection collector.

This just isn’t the case with Jaws. It’s all bloody fabulous.

Lorraine Gary and Murray Hamilton are an excellent support to the three leads; Roy Scheider as Cheif Brody, Richard Dreyfuss as Hooper and, best of all, Robert Shaw as the salty old bastard Quinn. Amidst everything else in Jaws, the three drunkenly bonding as they each tell the story of their scars is a lovely moment and leads into one of cinema’s most memorable monologues as Shaw retells the story of the USS Indianapolis – a scene which, on its own, is probably the second greatest shark movie ever made.

Of course, this is a Steven Spielberg film too and marks the director’s (almost) unblemished run of movies which would come to define event cinema for the next three decades. Following Jaws with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and ending towards the end of the Millenium with Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan.

So set sail with The Village Screen Quarantine Cinema again this Sunday as they pay homage to their first-ever screening of Jaws which took place at Victoria Baths back in 2016.  Expect delicious food, cocktail recipes and feel-good tunes as they share cooking demonstrations from street food legends Shoot The Bull and PJ taste, as well as access to yummy cocktail recipes by The Gin Bar that you can whip up at home.

For The Village Screen Quarantine Cinema Take 4, cooking demonstrations will be shared ahead of the evening so you have plenty of time to prepare. Jaws is available to watch or rent on Now TV, Amazon Prime, YouTube and Google Play – you almost certainly have a copy somewhere on VHS too!