I was quite happy when the 4K Ultra HD disk of Jaws arrived in the mail this past week. Jaws is one of my favorite movies, and I will never pass up a chance to revisit the film. If I’m flipping channels on the TV and Jaws is on, well… It’s settled. I’m rewatching Jaws.
The 4K version of the film is exquisite. Remastered in HD a few years back, this is the first time the film has been available in the full high-def version on disk. And it is as close to a movie-going experience as you can get. If you put a 35mm print and a digitally projected “print” of this version next to each other, I dare say the digital version would win the contest.
Except…
I noticed something.
Nothing about the remastering – It is perfect. It’s just that I saw a plot-hole I had never noticed before. After a thousand views of the film (exaggerating… slightly) it finally struck me.
And it’s a BIG plot-hole.
In the first act of the film, after the killer shark is supposedly caught and killed, Hooper and Brody do a half-assed autopsy to find that it was not the shark that killed Chrissy or Alex Kitner. So they go out to search for it at night, on Hooper’s boat. A boat that has state-of-the-art equipment that he uses to track sharks.
Remember that.
They find Ben Gardner’s boat “all chewed up” and they go back to the Mayor to try and convince them the killer shark is still out there. The Mayor is all “Sure, where’s the tooth?” and refuses to shut the beaches. The second beach attach occurs, and they hire Quint to kill the shark.
Fair enough. They then go to meet Quint, and he is a complete A-hole to Hooper. “Soft hands… countin’ money.” Working class hero crap. “I’ll take him for ballast, chief.”
Except…
HOOPER HAS A BOAT.
WHY DID THEY NOT USE TWO BOATS?
If Hooper was acting logically, he would have gone, “Fine. You know, I have a boat. I can follow you, and we can both look for the shark. I’ll stay within earshot, and we also have radios.”
If Hooper was acting emotionally, he would have gone, “F*** you! I have a boat too, ya know. I’ll follow, and you can do your fisherman Hemingway crap, and I’ll stay back. Call me if you need any help.”
But he didn’t do this. Because plot.
(Similarly, Luke ALSO didn’t go on his own in the original Star Wars. “Ten thousand? We could almost buy our own ship for that!” But they didn’t, because… Again, plot.)
It is a testimony to how good Jaws is that it took me so many reviewings to see this plot hole. I used to say Jaws was a perfect movie (fake shark aside).
Now it’s only nearly perfect.
Still kinda afraid to go in the water.