Just when you thought it was safe to re-enter the blogosphere....

Bonus Blog!

Sometimes they Come back, again and again and again and again....

Well hello there, it's another blog post... it's been a while I admit, but that's just me being lazy and never getting round to typing. But in looking for something, I did find a little hidden gem that I'm gonna share that will lead up to the eventual big blog post that has been in the works for ages... yes, it's No. 6 in the Horror Countdown, it had been typed and never posted... and I'm gonna share it here after a brief but lengthy and waffley waffle cone. Then this will tee up nicely into the Top 5 when I get round to doing it in 2031....

So, since my last post... what's new, what's groovy and what's in the hoover?

Well the last post was a year ago and was all mushy and wonderful and didn't offer a lot of movies or things I'd been doing and then before that was 2015 so a lot has happened and a lot hasn't happened. Plenty of movies have been out, almost too many to mention (but The BFG, Sing Street, Popstar, Room, Colossal, Logan, Detroit, It, Dunkirk, The Force Awakens, Rogue One, Monster Calls, Moana, Nice Guys, Civil War, Jungle Book, High Rise, Deadpool, Sisters, The Walk, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Everest to name a few few few) and TV (oh so many but Jessica Jones, Game of Thrones, Scream Queens and Kimmy Schmidt to name a few select ones) and music and all that good stuff.... I've been working away with its highs and lows, doing quite well to the moment and gaining more experience and more responsibilities and experiences....

There's been a dash of the ol' Open Mic magic and Switcheroos are ever prevelant and occasional... Switcheroo being my photo project where me and a friend take before and after photos where we switch places and outfits... it's a big bit of fun but also a comment on gender and clothing and how it defines us.... spread the word!

And my friends, oh my friends are just amazing.... I mean there's Ros, who I literally see every week now and we always try and do something whether it's our Game of Thrones nights or just cinemas or nights in. There's my three Berry angels, Nesha Tonia and Ranina... who are all just the best, mostly at the moment it's popping to Manchester to spend quality time with Tonia who is just the best to spend time with, we always get on so well and chat loads of in depth stuff which helps us both.

Steph is amazing, always lovely and friendly and great to chat to, we have so much fun when we catch up.... there's Jemma who is my switcheroo friend and has been helping me a ton with it all and is just amazing....

Pete obviously is one of my longest friends and just rocks and is responsible for many an open mic, there's Mikey Prince who is simply the loveliest dude and is so crazy and fun and lovely whilst Amy is one of the most treasured people I know, she is glorious and lovely and very close to my heart. Cara is just always on my wavelength with the movie stuff and other random stuff and we have the best how we met story as well as other random stories and she is so lovely, her smile just makes my day and my face makes her cry and we only meet when I'm running around.

There's my work friends who are just the loveliest bunch of loyal legends you could meet... Tim my chaffeur and crazy buddy, the lovely Suzanne and Anita, the wonderful Aaron and Phil, the fabulous Philomena and June, the lovely Joan, the ace Alvin and Alex, lovely Laura, and the lovely Wendy

Bernie is an incredibly loyal friend and I consider her family, she's terrific and there's Becky Owens, one of my very oldest friends, living a bit further away now so been a while but she's always there for me... whereas Jonty and Neil, two of my REALLY oldest friends are just amazing! Then goodness, there's Chelsea and Helen and Sophie and Bobbie and Steph and Maff and so on.....

Anyway, enough about me onto the main event....

The Horror Countdown: Number Six!

Jaws (1975) 
Rated: 12
Directed by Steven Spielberg

There are those films that are timeless... they're stone cold, a dead cert, absolute classics... but being horror movies as well? Sure they clearly are to some degree, but it still catches you by surprise in a way, no matter how obvious it could really... because to a lot of people, these films would clearly be defined as classic horror... but even then, to a majority of people it would be a case of 'Oh yeah, so it is I guess'.... they'll recognize it as being a horror to a degree but not really put it up there with the greats of the genre because they see it as a fantasy or a drama or an adventure or simple summer blockbuster fare or fluff to a degree, with the tension and the action and what have you, but horror? Is it really that scary?

I can do this on occasion with Jurassic Park, because it's certainly scary enough to send me running a lot of the time (see also the recent Jurassic World), but sometimes I find myself wanting to put it amongst my favourites of scary horror films but then beginning to think 'Is it really up there with such and such?' (But you'll be getting no spoilers for the remainder of the big list, you cheeky thing you). But in this particular case, Jaws is such a darn good movie, a genuine bonafide masterclass in tension and scariness.... it's both terrifying and merciless and pretty downright scarring for life at moments (admit it, who doesn't swim anymore ever?) but then when you want to categorize it, I think that easily not enough people would probably really give it the full blown credit that it fully deserves for how just how damned good a horror movie it really is.... it's a really curious thing.

One of the pretty well known things to begin with, is that a lot of the well built up tension, suspense and scares of the movie are brought around by pure coincidence and happenstance... because originally the shark was going to be seen in the movie a hell of a lot more than you do in the final movie. You were going to see him a lot, and boy do I mean a lot! But as fate had it, they couldn't get the model/ animatronic shark to work as well as they wanted it to, so they reduced the screentime for the shark by a considerable amount to what they could manage.... so much so one documentary about the movie later went on to be called 'The Shark is still Working' which I hear is a fantastic and thorough documentary on the making of this movie, so check that out too.

But anyway, because of the limited screentime of the actual shark in the flesh... the mood of a lot of the actual film is more about suggestion and the unknown and what we do not see... which lends a lot to the tension and atmosphere of the piece itself. So it's quite coincidental and fortuitous that this came to pass and we have the film the way it was... because imagine how it might have worked if we've had the shark in most of the film, doing its thing and maybe being a bit too corny. The script and the story would still have been the same, so no doubt it might still have been a pretty decent film but one of the films strong suits is it's sense of what you don't see (something nicely employed by Spielberg in a whole bunch of his films, E.T and Jurassic Park being too where you don't always see things straight away... there is a lot of suggestion and shadows beforehand).

Another great thing and element in this movie is the casting and the central trio who we follow through the story, not to mention the rich tapestry of fun and interesting characters that populate both the story and the wonderful town of Amity itself, from the unscrupulous Mayor through to Bad Hat Harry, the local town fishermen, Ben Gardner and Mrs. Kintner amongst others. You have the terrific Roy Schneider as our lead Chief Brody... a strong and determined character, who just wants to do good by people and has his own personal fears to overcome (chiefly the water) in pursuit of stopping the menace that has entered the area, but ultimately hits particular snags along the way (like not being able to close the beach due to a run in with the Mayor, which ultimately leads to the death of the Kintner boy as a result) but in the end, buckles himself in and sets off in pursuit becoming the reluctant hero this film needs, and Schneider is just fantastic in this role... both headstrong and determined but ultimately with his flaws and problems too.

Try telling Quint he has problems though (and boy does he) and you'll be in a spot of bother. Played oh so tremendously by Robert Shaw (so mesmerising as Red Grant in From Russia with Love), Quint is the definition of a very troubled 'crusty old sea dog' though maybe not that old, with his tales of encounters at sea and a personal vendetta against the shark it seems... his tale is a fascinating one and his fate is I guess, sadly inevitable....

Completing the trio is a never more wonderful Richard Dreyfuss as Matt Hooper, the nerdy Oceanographer who comes on board to help find the shark, study it and then in the end help to capture and stop it. His is a performance that mixes sly humour, intelligence, false bravado and basic honesty and in the end is probably the character we love the most because he says what we're thinking a lot of the time and sometimes reflects how we feel too.

These themes, and these characters plus that ever surmounting tension is all tantamount to what makes Jaws such an enduring classic and a masterful piece of cinematic history. The fact it can continue to terrify us all at the same time is just one more fantastic reason to continuously watch this movie again and again.... and then go for a nice swim....

So that's all for now on this one, till we meet again....

You stay classy,

Ribbles