Just in time for Hallowe'en, here's a piece I wrote on Verna Fields' award-winning editing on Jaws for The Film Experience's 'Oscar Horrors' series.
Spielberg made it a star of fearful proportions. John Williams gave it
an iconic theme tune. Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw
obsessively stalked it. And Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown looked on,
clutching the purse strings, as they all went about their blockbusting
business. But the person who gave Amity Island’s Great White unwanted
visitor fierce presence and a sinister personality most could arguably
be the editor Verna Fields. Alongside Spielberg and Co. she was
instrumental in terrorizing the world with Jaws, summer 1975’s
maiden blockbuster movie. She manoeuvred the shark’s arrival and
departure – in tandem, of course, with Williams’ score – helping to
create cinema’s scariest PG-rated, non-human villain...
Read the rest here
great write, sharp
ReplyDeleteThanks Jake.
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