Jaws (1975) review

Jaws was the first major blockbuster to ever be released and hence it is a revolutionary piece of cinema. To think that by now, all Speilberg had to do was create a simplistic story about a killer shark and only show it very briefly in order to gain a masterpiece. Indeed one of his best films, I’d rank it his second finest next to Raiders of the Lost Ark.

During shooting of the film, there was much production problems especially with creating a larger than life shark and make it convincing. Eventually they settled into using the shark only at the most desperate moments and hence, created a film so extraordinarily brilliant that all it took was glimpses of the shark and one of the most simplistic premises. A police chief named Brody, a shark hunter named Quint and a scientist must work together to catch and kill this shark before further mayhem is ensued.

A very simplistic premise and incredibly effective, Jaws heavily relies on fantastic characters which it masterfully achieves. Quint is clearly shown, from the moment where he scrapes his fingers on a chalkboard, to be a troubled man. His hate for sharks is evident throughout the film in one of the best scenes, where he recounts a story about a killer shark wiping out the majority of passengers on an expedition. Hooper is the comedic relief character and whilst the least interesting of the trio, is provided with fantastic sequences. Brody is a guilt stricken man who feels heavily responsible for the death of a young boy and girl, thus convincing him that he must head out to kill the shark. His character is given fantastic depth, especially a fantastic scene at the dinner table with his young son as they imitate one another. This shows that whilst he is guilt stricken, he is still and he is only human. Quint is introduced in one of the greatest and most memorable ways as he scrapes his fingers on a chalkboard. The sound alone is irritating and attention grabbing and the scene, whilst definitely not annoying is most definitely memorable. He proves later to be the best character of the film.

Speilberg’s directing is absolutely brilliant perfectly allowing the story to unfold smoothly. His brilliant use of the shark and the effective characters and simplistic story gives extra layers to an otherwise fascinating story. Despite no shark present for the majority of the film, its presence is felt the entire way through as a result of fantastic directing. The script too, is extremely engaging and John Williams’ memorable score makes the film all the better. Speilberg has revealed that half of the success of Jaws is due to the score, which has become one of the most identifiable pieces of music ever put to film, right up there with various other John Williams classic tunes. The cinematography and the various tricks used to enlarge the shark is brilliant seeing as how much production problems rose with the film.

The pacing to the film is perfect. The first hour masterfully builds up mystery and suspense and the second half completely delivers, providing some incredible suspense and humor in the mix. The chemistry between Roy Schneider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss was amazing as the three resembled the ideal movie trio. Thankfully, the production problems were overlooked by the cast and crew and what we have now is one of the all time greatest films and one of the most unforgettable movie scores. 

Grade- 10/10

Mean Streets (1973) review

Director Martin Scorsese, a newcomer at the time of its release, must be credited for his direction taken with this crime film considering the year earlier brought to us the greatest crime film ever created, which is portrayed as a big and epic mafia film. However, Mean Streets is the complete opposite of Mean Streets. It has a low budget, has a small scoped story and takes crime films back a few years. Even with all the changes, Mean Streets is a rather enjoyable film by master filmmaker Martin Scorsese, who would later go on to make far greater films.

This is where Mean Streets is separated from other crime masterpieces such as The Godfather Parts I & II, Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas and even other crime films such as the absurd Scarface. The story is such a shorter part of the story that the essential focus isn’t always around the story but more so the characters. Here is where I have one of my issues. Whilst the story is told early on about Johnny Boy (Robert de Niro) owing money to many people in the streets and how he is basically a con, the story come to a point in the middle of the film with Harvey Keitel’s Charlie and Teresa, Johnny’s cousin which is all about romance which completely threw me away from the story. Not that romance is a bad thing, in fact it works perfectly in The Godfather but here, it felt as if the entire focus suddenly shifted which made my attention shift. From here, the story becomes less relevant until towards which is a rather pity considering that by the end of the film, the story folds up beautifully. It is truly a pity that a little more focus wasn’t spent on the basic story.

In one of his earliest films, Robert de Niro truly delivers a great performance as a semi psychotic teenaged man with a tendency to go off towards others and a tendency towards violence. De Niro completely embodies the character of Johnny Boy and is a rather pity that he didn’t receive the role of Sonny in The Godfather in the previous year. The following year, De Niro keeps up his fantastic acting as Vito in The Godfather Part II and then as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. From Mean Streets, De Niro became an acting legend. Twenty years before Reservoir Dogs, Harvey Keitel starred in Scorsese’s Mean Streets as an uncertain and much more friendly and thought provoking man by the name of Charlie, who throughout the film sticks up for Johnny and for others. Keitel too, delivers a fantastic performance. The rest of the cast all give good performances each being able to act to Scorsese’s writing. De Niro shows strength, power, greed, violence and even corruption from an innocent boy to a thief. Keitel perfectly brings to the table what crime life can do to people and is used to separate others from him being able to illustrate what life is like for those who are involved in everyday crime.

By now, Martin Scorsese is a masterful director but back then, he wasn’t a name. In Mean Streets, whilst definitely providing a good premise and some fantastic actors, as well as an engaging script (just like all his other films), Mean Streets is easily his weakest film I’ve seen (I have not seen Hugo and his more recent work) Whilst a very interesting first act, the second act of this film falls underwater with the third act having to rise from the water which it eventually does. However, when viewed as one piece, Mean Streets can be a little tiring, a little messy and a little tough to relate to, especially when a love story is rather suddenly introduced and is eventually one of the central focuses. Whilst a definite good film with great performances, Mean Streets didn’t meet my expectations but is nevertheless, a film that I enjoyed even though it can be a little messy as one film.

Grade- 7.5/10

#2- The Godfather (1972) review

Hailed by many as the greatest film to ever grace the big screen, it can usually be hard to agree with such statement when hundreds of ground breaking films have also been released but in this case, when the Godfather Part I is considered the greatest of all time, I without hesitation, will agree!

Focusing around the Corleone Family, the story’s essential focus is that of their youngest son, Michael Corleone, a World War II patriotic veteran who has returned home just in time for his sister’s wedding. The film depicts the fall and rise to power of Michael Corleone as well as various other family businesses movements.

The greatest strength of the film, which is extremely tough to pick one when everything about this movie is flawless and perfection, but the greatest aspect of the film is the acting. Marlon Brando’s performance of Vito Corleone is what I believe one of the all time greatest performances ever. It is chilling, calming, intense but completely believable. If I were to ever have a godfather, I would imagine him as Brando’s Vito. He embodies that, he is the Godfather! You remember the poster to Forrest Gump that says “TOM HANKS….IS FORREST GUMP”, in this case it should most certainly say ‘MARLON BRANDO IS THE GODFATHER” He is the scene stealer of the film, he owns the film, he motivates the film and he is simply the driving force of the film. 

However, the supporting cast is unbelievable. Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen, adopted son of the family and lawyer, Duvall is fantastic in his role and is welcome! His character is also superbly done. James Caan as the oldest brother, Sonny, is unbelievable and believe me, right up there with Al Pacino’s performance in this film. It’s a truly remarkable performance, that everything I see him, I’m left with the biggest of smiles on my face! Caan and Brando are the ones that are sorely missed in The Godfather Part II. Diane Keaton is great in her role, despite heavy criticism towards her performance. It  isn’t most definitely the greatest she could give but it is a believable performance. However, what would acting be without a strong performance by our lead star: Al Pacino. Despite not being the scene stealer, it is mainly Michael’s story and Al Pacino is the only man to possibly play Michael. He is innocent when he needs to be, caring and lovable and simply, the one character you wouldn’t want to fall into the family business but when he does, it is one of the greatest performances ever. Like Brando, it is extremely relaxed yet extremely intimidating.

The acting is flawless, the direction taken by Francis Ford Coppola is only described by the word ‘flawless’ and that’s what every aspect of the film is. The writing is superb and obviously helps from incredibly strong source material by Mario Puzo and the amazing cinematography is just gorgeous to look at. Every scene is filmed in the most gorgeous of ways even though it does not seem like they try to do so. That’s what good filming does! Gorgeously filmed and executed, along with strong writing, The Godfather is still flawless.

When you have a three hour epic like The Godfather, the pacing to the film must be strong and that’s exactly what this film is. It is paced unbelievably well. For a three hour film, a lot of important events happen such as the death of a character. Francis Ford Coppola shows his mastery here by leaving a clear indication to how it affects Michael but has the brain to not have any further discussions about this, therefore not wasting any time unnecessarily. Whilst this may be considered too packed, believe it or not, it isn’t. There isn’t one moment that feels too slow nor too packed. The dialogue is downright amazing, the music is legendary. One of the most iconic soundtracks ever to grace the screen, everything it plays throughout this film, I fall in love with it. Whereas Part II uses it, it doesn’t have the effect that the score has on this film.

The Godfather is packed with many iconic scenes and dialogue. Dialogue from ‘I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse’ to ‘Look how they massacred my boy!’ to ‘It’s a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes!” are the definition of iconic dialogue. Then, the iconic scenes in this movie do not stop. Unlike Part II, which despite being a masterpiece, offers very little iconic sequences or if they are iconic, aren’t anywhere to the extent of the power in this film. The film is packed with iconic sequences to the horse head, to Luca Brasi, to the Sollozo/McCluskey incident, to Vito being shot, to the baptism, Vito’s talk with Michael, the agreement with the Five Families to the tollbooth sequence. The word iconic graces every minute of the film and that’s no joke!

And that is no joke too! That being said, The Godfather is the definition of a masterpiece and quite possibly, the greatest film ever made. A gorgeously shot movie with masterful directing and writing, to legendary acting and story-telling alongside one of the greatest film scores of all time, The Godfather is the definition of an iconic movie. It’s a legend…Everyone needs to see The Godfather…Or else…Vito Corleone will catch you!  

Grade- 10/10

#3- Star Wars (1977) review

Since its release, ‘Star Wars’ has easily become one of the most beloved films of all time and is regarded as one of the most revolutionary films of all time. Even though the ‘Star Trek’ TV Show and a few films such as ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ had been released prior to the release of ‘Star Wars’, there is no denying that ‘Star Wars’ has placed a much larger impact on cinema. When taking a look at iconic and memorable films, ‘Star Wars’ ranks amongst the very highest. 

The story to ‘Star Wars’ is one that every single human on Earth knows. A young farmer boy named Luke Skywalker has hopes of fighting for the Rebellion against the evil Empire but one day, with the help of a Jedi master named Ben Kenobi, realizes that he is to become something of much more value and importance to the galaxy. He eventually agrees to go to a planet named Alderaan to deliver two droids, sent by the princess of Alderaan, with the crucial information to the technical readouts of an Imperial battle station with the potential of wiping out entire planets. Realizing that this planet is already destroyed and are suddenly caught in by a tractor beam coming from the Death Star. Here, it becomes both a survival and rescue mission as the princess is discovered to be kept captive here.

  

Every film has its strength and the biggest strength to ‘Star Wars’ is not in the incredibly breath taking action sequences or the stunning visual effects or even the incredibly inspirational story but in the characters itself. Every single main character of the ‘Star Wars’ original trilogy have now become household items whether it be Luke, Han, Leia, Darth Vader, C-3PO, R2-D2, Ben Kenobi or even characters who appear later, most notably Yoda. Each character is so energetic and even if the performances aren’t the greatest, there’s no denying that these characters have placed a huge impact on cinema. When watching these films, it is so easy to get distracted and confused to thinking that these characters are your family as their importance and love for one another is unable to be summed up in words. The bonds formed between characters in this series is legendary and the way everything was set up in this 1977 epic, is beyond my belief! 

The gorgeous and stunning visual effects continue to shock audiences across the world. No film had dared to go into visual effects to the extent of ‘Star Wars’ and to the absolute depth. To simply think that no CGI was involved but everything was made out of props and various other practical effects is astounding. Even to this day, every effect looks incredible. Those who complain that the original Star Wars films have bad effects in today’s books and that the original trilogy needs to be re-hashed are drunken morons. To top off incredible visual effects follows exciting and intense action sequences though a little silly at times, especially shootout scenes involving Imperial Stormtroopers! That said, all the action is still exciting even upon re-watches and the space battles are once more, astounding.

  

Not all the performances in this film are amazing. Mark Hamill, at the time was just getting a name in the movie industry, and so his performance isn’t always amazing. Even, Carrie Fisher delivers a good performance but not a fantastic one as these two actors would prove in later Star Wars films to give. Harrison Ford, is however the shining knight in armor of the trio and gives such an energetic and charming performance and is able to perfectly mix in wit and humour with arrogance and selfishness! The best performance of the film would most likely be that from Sir Alec Guiness, whose portrayal of Obi-wan Kenobi is so serious and so realistic that whenever he is on screen, he gives such a look of confusion yet experience from his past with Anakin Skywalker. When talking about ‘Star Wars’, not many people seem to give much reference to British legend, Peter Cushing and the voice of Darth Vader, James Earl Jones! These three performances are utterly fantastic and add such intensity and seriousness to the film. 

Anyone who reviews Star Wars without referring to and dedicating enough space to John Williams’ most iconic and best of all his legendary musical scores, truly fails. John Williams is, undeniably, the greatest musical composer to ever grace cinema. None are better than his musical score of ‘Star Wars’, which is argued to be the greatest of all time. His musical score is exciting, it’s sad, shows adventure and friendship like no other soundtrack has ever before and is the most breathable soundtrack ever. When lines such as ‘The force will be with you, always!” or “Use to the force, Luke!” have so much more power with Williams’ legendary musical score. His musical score takes it to a whole new level, and surely, without this iconic piece of music, Star Wars just would not be the same. Try to imagine the opening title crawl without the music!

  

Everything that needs to be said about Star Wars has been said a million times before, but my love for Star Wars clearly needs to be expressed, especially considering that Star Wars isn’t a childhood film for me. To think that one can still love one of these childhood favorites with no nostalgic feelings, is unbelievable. 

Grade- 10/10- One of the most magical films ever made!