Jaws (1975)

A shark decides to make an area outside of a small town his hunting grounds during one of the busiest tourist seasons for a nearby small town. The mayor gets fed up and sends the sheriff, a scientist, and an old fisherman to exact revenge on the shark. Their hunt does not go as planned and now they are fighting for their survival in an area where no one will hear you if you call for help.

I loved the movie for what it was. The sheer terror of the swimmers and the graphic violence really blossomed in this movie and violence of this nature was rarely seen before this time. I have a lot of respect for Steven Spielberg for going the distance and showing something that was not looked highly upon in film at this time.

I can see this movie any day of the week and it would never be enough.

Shaft (1971)

Shaft to me was about a black detective during the 70's that really felt at home in his environment. He knew the streets and he knew the language. Basically he walked the walk and he talked the talk. Shaft was charged with finding the daughter of a gangster in the midst of a gang battle for control of Harlem. The Italian Mafia was moving in and decided to use the daughter as leverage. Shaft must track the mafia down and rescue the gangsters daughter, otherwise, who else will?

I went into this movie with a different mindset. I have never seen the movie before but I knew about all of the different references from the movie used in various other media. I was thinking more along the line of an action movie instead of a detective flick with a little action on the side. Maybe something more along the lines of Starsky & Hutch. I do like how the characters seemed more real and less like they were models behind a window from us. The characters were believable for the most part.

Overall I liked the movie and I hope to see it again.

The Conversation (1974)

Once again, another conspiracy movie. This time, though, focuses on spying and secretly recording conversations by any means necessary. Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is one of the best buggers in the world, but his paranoia of his personal life or history becoming more public than his wishes it to be suggests that he is slowly going crazy. He seems to feel that nothing is as it seems and there are others trying to gain the information that he was contracted to acquire. Harry's past also comes into play when he discovers that peoples lives are in danger with the information that he holds. Does he give in and fulfill his contract and release the information to his client, or does he destroy the evidence and potentially save lives?

I thought this movie was a lot more thought out than the previous one. Coppula definitely understands his audience better and knows that to divulge and what not to. I feel as though I am decently perceptive but this movie had me at the end. I was not expecting what happened.  Although there was an ambiguous ending, I feel as though there was enough closure to where I can accept the events of the story, it leaves me wondering what happened, but I didn't feel cheated by the movie.

I would watch it again.

The Parallax View (1974)

The Parallax View with Warren Beatty is a conspiracy theory movie about a newspaper reporter (Joe Frady) who feels that he has stumbled upon a secret society of assassins who ultimately control the fate of the government from the shadows. The plot begins with a senator's assassination and over the years following, almost every person associated with that specific event mysteriously ends up dead. Joe stumbles across a recruitment paper but he is not ready for what he is about to experience.

I felt that the idea behind this movie was solid, but I found the delivery more annoying than anything at all. Excessively long shots left me sitting there saying to myself, "Really? Is this really necessary?" I felt as though the director, Pakula, was trying to instill tension in the audience but I do not believe that he succeeded. I think he made more people annoyed from this that what was needed. There is also a propaganda film in the middle of the movie that skewed the line between enemy and country, family and the love for them, among many other things. The scene itself was excessively long and made me feel like I was going to have an epileptic attack.

Ultimately, I respect what the director was aiming for, but I felt that in his early years of directing that he was trying too hard and was not completely experienced and I think that those faults shone through his overlaying plot and intent.

I hope to never see this movie again.