Ian Shaw talks about who came up with the "USS Indianapolis speech" in Jaws
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- Y🎬 If you enjoyed this interview, please subscribe to our RUclips channel or follow our social media channels below. Thank you!
🔴 Subscribe here - / @cinemasurgery
📸 Follow here - / cinemasurgery
🐦 Follow on X - X.com/Cinema_S...
🧵 Follow on Threads - www.threads.ne...
🙏 Thanks again!
It's the heart of the film, Quint's speech about the Indianapolis. It brings everything together and it creates the foundation for why his end is so unbelievably tragic. And yet...no life vest. Quint died as he both wanted and as he feared the most. Like many trauma survivors he was drawn to what instilled in him the greatest fear. Counterphobia. He died in the jaws of that fear quite literally. Among many amazing moments, Quint's speech is the most brilliant moment in that film. His performance was unforgettable and could never be reproduced. He was a great, great writer and actor.
Quint's speech is my favorite cinematic moment ever. It's brilliantly written and brilliantly delivered.
"HOOPER...YA IDIOT... STARBOARD AINT YA WATCHIN IT"!?
Very decent of Ian to not attempt to give his Father all the credit for that famous speech. From what I know, there were many attempts at it and Robert basically took the best parts from each attempt, condensed it, added some dialogue himself and then performed the hell out of it
That speech is completely spellbinding, I can't tell you how many times I've watched it.
Absolutely spellbinding! Gives me goosebumps every time I watch it.
Interesting point Ian makes about 'show not tell'. These days they'd have probably cut in flashback scenes of the indianapolis, which would have KILLED the moment. The speech isn't about the Indianapolis, it could have been any event. The point is the emotion that flows from Quint. You have to have the camera focused on his face (apart from the quick reaction shots on Brody and Hooper to underline how unexpected this revelation is) or it just doesn't work. Spielberg took a big chance, and if the scene hadn't worked, the film may well have been a dud....
100%, Caeser.
It's a bit of a misunderstanding of what "show, don't tell" means in film making. You don't need flashbacks to do it, in fact it would be counter productive. By having Quint give an emotional lengthy monologue about the incident, shows the audience the effect it had on him and why he is the way he is. We can SEE how it has affected him, we can SEE the emotion. And I would argue we even get to see the incident through his eyes, because he describes it so vividly. In contrast, if we were simply TOLD it, it would go like this: "Hey, Quint´s friend, what is his deal? Why is he like that? - Oh, he was on the USS Indianapolis. Saw hundreds of his friends get eaten by sharks. I think he might be a bit traumatized by it. - Oh. OK."
You can see examples of "telling, not showing" like this in numerous modern films. It results in the audience not connecting to the characters at all, because we are simply told what they have done or what has happened to them, we don´t actually get to see themselves explain how it has affected them. To be clear, I´m not saying it is automatically bad if a friend of a character explains what happened, I´m saying IN ADDITION to that we also need to see the main character show it somehow in more detail.
In fact "show, don't tell" is originally a rule for novel writers. If you want to be pedantic, EVERYTHING in a novel is telling the reader things in text form. But the difference is in how you tell it, how you describe things. "Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." You need to describe things in such vivid detail that the reader/listener can imagine the scene in their mind's eye, as Quint does in Jaws.
Ian ls so like Robert In looks
IMO the 'Speech' was almost a bit like the dialogue in Star Wars before that too was edited. Sackler had the idea for background for Quint, which was sorely lacking in the Benchley novel (which is drivel by comparison to the movie). However, the thing to understand about Milius is that he is a complete war and gun nut (and if you've seen Red Dawn, you know what I mean). The John Goodman character in The Big Lebowski is directly based on Milius. Milius was so focused on telling the story of the Indianapolis, it veered from character speech, into diatribe. Shaw, it should be remembered, was an award winning playwright (Man in the Glass Booth) and boiled the speech down to its dramatic fundamentals and made it realistic from the POV of someone who probably had undiagnosed PTSD. The scene (in conjunction with the scar comparisons) is the soul of the movie. Without it, it's a horror/Slasher movie and would have been quickly forgotten. The scene takes the movie to another level and makes it a universal story.
Yes, you get it. Although I think there were actually many moments in Jaws that elevated it from horror/slasher movie, this was the key and most powerful moment.
The story of USS Indianapollis is insane!
Sending that nuke out with no escort.
Then pinning the blame on the captain who commit suicide later in life after being tossed under the bus.
There were over 1000 went into the water.
About 300 came out I think.
Imagine being afloat in the middle of the Pacific surrounded by frenzied sharks!
Terrifying.
He looks a lot like him
Love the Shaw's
The scene where they're showing their scars it looks like there was something edited out because Robert Shaw is doing his trousers up!
They' need to now do a prequel with this guy playing his old man - as hard as this may be to do despite the nowadays far more sophisticated animatronics etc...Then again Spielberg's making of the original wasn't exactly like "going down the pond chasing bluegills and Tommy-cods"!
...Then again, it's sort of already been done given the Indianapolis movie that was made some years ago, while Ian should have been in that!
Reply
You know..
As far as I'm aware the speech is Shaws. Yes, Sackler conceived it as the story had only recently been released by the US navy. I believe everyone had a go a rewriting it as the Sackler version was pages long and it was too long for an actor to sit and read through as a monologue. John Milius has tried to take credit for the speech, and at times Spielberg went along with this. However Carl Gittlieb who was there every single day of filming (not necessarily on set) has never taken credit however he maintains the speech as seen in the film was written by Robert Shaw.
No mention of Moby Dick's Ahab as a model for Quint?
I remember in my public speaking class we had to read a short speech or monologue as a project. I wanted to do the Indianapolis Speech, but even in Shaw’s trimmed down and perfectly executed form, it was deemed “too long” by my professor (which was probably for the best, as I would have mangled it!).
I’m in the US, and haven’t seen the play (only bits online); I really hope it eventually tours and comes here. Also- and I say this having not seen the whole play, and don’t know if it would translate, or if Ian and the rest of the folks involved would want to do it- but I think “The Shark is Broken” would make a fantastic film. There are some very well done “making of” movies out there, both real and fictitious, but this would blow them all away, imho, because it’s a well known film (maybe my favorite film of all time) with some of the best behind the scenes stories, with three men/ characters whom are relatable to all of us, in some way (even more so after the world has been in a similar holding pattern during the pandemic lockdown). But first, of course, I’d love to see the play on tour!
Why does he call him Robert?
This is a play I would actually like to see. A play on the "making of a movie."
Quint's speech remains..BY FAR ..my favourite part of the movie JAWS...the final killing was rather OVER-THE-TOP for me as an older man...l do love this movie..the acting and direction were first rate...but that Indianapolis speech gives the movie a luster that it wouldn't otherwise have I believe... And Robert Shaw is dynamic in that scene..
Why does he refer to his dad as Robert?
I noticed that too. I wonder if they were estranged enough to have that seperation in their relationship. I actually have no idea, but I'm curious.
I really don't like the blatant way he tries. Is he auditioning for a part on his dad's biopic?
That's the only reason.
IDK. The resemblance is too distracting for me.
Best wishes to him and his projects.