PORCH PONDERINGS

JAWS

It's a cloudy, cool day here. We got about 1/4 inch of rain last night. Not enough to do much. But that's okay. Perhaps the gray clouds I see on the horizon will bring some moisture.

I wanted to do nothing today. Watch a movie, just do nothing. But DirecTV had no offerings I cared about. And I don't want to pay for any. So I looked through the ancient archives. Seems I have JAWS on VHS. I do have a player, a VHS and DVD player. So JAWS it is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaws_(film)

I have seen this so many times. So now I watch this with an eye of a storyteller. The first scene with the girl sets the tone. She swims toward a buoy, and at one point her leg in the water makes you think of a shark. But if you've never seen this before, that doesn't register as such. And then the music. John Williams did the score, as other memorable movie songs. You can hear just the first few notes and immediately know which movie. Just like Beethoven's famous 'ba, ba, ba, bum'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-fFHeTX70Q&t=826s You hear and know that is Beethoven.

The town is mad, a big tourist season is about to start. Money is the object for these islanders. I find a correlation between this and the towns in Montana. Out of state tourists in 2019 spent $3.76 billion here. http://www.voicesoftourism.com/tourisms-value. The feeling now is 'Come, spend your money. Then go back home."

But the word is out, Montana is a wide-open pretty awesome place to live. Housing is hard to find. People cannot find a house to buy. Rentals are pretty much non-existent.

Back to the film: It was dated 1975, 46 years ago. But the story seems timeless. Hometown folks against the scientist that comes to help. Current police chief from NYC sparring with the local politicians. Then man versus nature, always a good theme. Think of Moby Dick.

In four years, I'm sure there will be a big shindig to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first summer blockbuster.

Right now I'm going to watch Stephen Spielberg's fun movie.




Queen NormaJean II GreenEyes