On this day in movie history - Spielberg (2017)

Spielberg

a documentary on director Steven Spielberg,

directed by Susan Lacy,

was released at the New York Film Festival in the United States on October 5, 2017.

Cast:

Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Richard Dreyfuss, Bill Butler, John Williams, David Edelstein, Michael Phillips, Nancy Spielberg, Anne Spielberg, Janet Maslin, Sue Spielberg, Leah Adler, Arnold Spielberg, J.J. Abrams, Sid Sheinberg, James Brolin, David Geffen, Roger Ernest, Steven Bochco, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Vilmos Zsigmond, Brian De Palma, Tony Kushner, Bob Balaban, Tom Hanks, Drew Barrymore, Peter Coyote, Melissa Mathison, Leonardo DiCaprio, A.O. Scott, Kathleen Kennedy, Harrison Ford, Tom Stoppard, Walter F. Parkes, Oprah Winfrey, J. Hoberman, Frank Marshall, Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Janusz Kaminski, Michael Kahn, Annette Insdorf, Dennis Muren, David Koepp, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Rick Carter, Robert Zemeckis, Ron Meyer, Laurie MacDonald, Cate Blanchett, Holly Hunter, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Dustin Hoffman, Lawrence Kasdan, Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Todd McCarthy, Tom Cruise, Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Adam Somner, Joanna Johnston, Alan Alda, Karen Allen, William Atherton, Richard Attenborough, Dan Aykroyd, Ned Beatty, John Belushi, Ed Bradley, Tom Brokaw, Jessica Capshaw, Kate Capshaw, Dana Carvey, Bill Clinton, Sean Connery, Joan Crawford, Hugh Downs, Denholm Elliott, Peter Falk, Paul Freeman, Teri Garr, Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, Cary Guffey, Goldie Hawn, Alfred Hitchcock, Norman Howell, Amy Irving, Ben Johnson, Wayne Knight, Shia LaBeouf, Marcia Lucas, K.C. Martel, Mike Myers, George Negus, Al Pacino, Fievel Posner, Dan Rather, John Rhys-Davies, Terry Richards, Oliver Robins, Mark Rylance, Roy Scheider, Gene Shalit, Robert Shaw, Dinah Shore, Tom Snyder, Rebecca Spielberg, Sasha Spielberg, Theo Spielberg, David Strathairn, Henry Thomas, François Truffaut, Dennis Weaver, Robert Young, Margaret Avery, Ruby Barnhill, Marlon Brando, Edward Burns, John Candy, David Costabile, Melinda Dillon, Dakota Fanning, Morgan Freeman, Adam Goldberg, Alec Guinness, Mark Hamill, Hal Holbrook, Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounsou, Byron Jennings, Tommy Lee Jones, Charlie Korsmo, Ronald Lacey, Maurice LaMarche, Lee Majors, Joseph Mazzello, Samantha Morton, Sam Neill, Frances O'Connor, Kevin J. O'Connor, Peter O'Toole, Haley Joel Osment, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Ribisi, Ariana Richards, Miranda Richardson, Pat Roach, Geoffrey Rush, Amy Ryan, Omar Sharif, Martin Short, Tom Sizemore, Robert Stack, Christopher Walken, Dee Wallace, Robin Williams.

On this day in movie and book history - War of the Worlds (2005)

War of the Worlds

directed by Steven Spielberg,

written by Josh Friedman and David Koepp,

based on the novel The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells,

was released in the United States on June 29, 2005.

Narrated by Morgan Freeman.

Music by John Williams.

Cast:

Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto, Justin Chatwin, Tim Robbins, Rick Gonzalez, Yul Vazquez, Lenny Venito, Lisa Ann Walter, Ann Robinson, Gene Barry, David Alan Basche, Roz Abrams, Michael Brownlee, Camillia Monet, Marlon Young, John Eddins, Peter Gerety, David Harbour, Miguel Antonio Ferrer, January LaVoy, Stephen Gevedon, Julie White, Marianne Ebert, Rafael Sardina, Amy Ryan, Erika LaVonn, Christopher Evan Welch, John Michael Bolger, Zoe Quist, Ana Maria Quintana, Lorelei Llee, Mark Manley, John Scurti, Becky Ann Baker, Mariann Mayberry, Jerry Walsh, Tommy Guiffre, Daniel Franzese, Ed Schiff, Ellen Barry, Amy Hohn, Dan Ziskie, David Conley, Daniel Eric Gold, Booker T. Washington, Eric Zuckerman, Daniel A. Jacobs, Asha R. Nanavati, Joaquin Perez-Campbell, Dendrie Taylor, James DuMont, Ben Ciaramello, Ricky Luna, Columbus Short, Kent Faulcon, Kevin Collins, Terry Thomas, Clay Bringhurst, Jorge-Luis Pallo, Suanne Spoke, Kirsten Nelson, Melody Garrett, Lauri Johnson, Takayo Fischer, Shanna Collins, Elizabeth Jayne Hong, Art Chudabala, Jeffrey Hutchinson, Dempsey Pappion, Chris Todd, Johnny Kastl, Juan Carlos Hernández, Bruce W. Derdoski Jr., John N. Morales.

Recommended reading:

The War of the Worlds

by H.G. Wells.

 

First published 1898.

ISBN 10: 0451522761

ISBN 13: 9780451522764

Description:

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own....

So begins The War of the Worlds, the science fiction classic that first proposed the possibility of intelligent life on other planets and has enthralled readers for generations. This compelling tale describes the Martian invasion of earth. When huge, tireless creatures land in England, complete chaos erupts. Using their fiery heat rays and crushing strength, the aliens just may succeed in silencing all opposition. Is life on earth doomed? Will mankind survive? A timeless view of a universe turned upside down, The War of the Worlds is an ingenious and imaginative look into the possibilities of the future and the secrets yet to be revealed. 

On this day in movie history - The Fabelmans (2022)

The Fabelmans

directed by Steven Spielberg,

written by Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner,

was released at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada on September 10, 2022.

Music by John Williams.

Cast:

Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Gabriel LaBelle, Mateo Zoryan, Keeley Karsten, Alina Brace, Julia Butters, Birdie Borria, Judd Hirsch, Sophia Kopera, Jeannie Berlin, Robin Bartlett, Sam Rechner, Oakes Fegley, Chloe East, Isabelle Kusman, Chandler Lovelle, Gustavo Escobar, Nicolas Cantu, Cooper Dodson, Gabriel Bateman, Stephen Matthew Smith, James Urbaniak, Alex Quijano, Kalama Epstein, Connor Trinneer, Lane Factor, Greg Grunberg, David Lynch, Jan Hoag, Carlos Javier Castillo, Ezra Buzzington, Paul Chepikian, Brinly Marum, Mason Bumba, Mary M. Flynn, Adriel Porter, Tia Nalls, Larkin Campbell, Harper Dustin, Crystal the Monkey, Nikolai Bazan, Jared Becker, Art Bonilla, Colt Carville, Ari Davis, William Dawson, Deborah Dir, April Elize, Kendal Evans, Alejandro Fuenzalida, Samantha Rose Gomez, Andrew Goodman, Caroline Anna-Kaye Green, Taylor Hall, Sarah Hamilton, Orion Hunter, Cody Mitchell Key, Julian Lerma, Paige Locke, Marissa McBride, Cody Miller, Jonathan Moorwood, Vera Myers, Nick W. Nicholson, Molly Renze, Brandon Keith Rogers, Julyah Rose, Meg Schimelpfenig, Lucy Schmidt, Rob Shiells, Meredith VanCuyk, Trang Vo, Max David Weinberg, Nicole Alicia Xavier.

On this day in television history - Band of Brothers (2001)

Band of Brothers

11-part mini-series created by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.

Based on the book Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne: From Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest by Stephen E. Ambrose.

Released in the United States on September 9, 2001.

Music by Michael Kamen.

Episode titles:
Currahee; Day of Days; Carentan; Replacements; Crossroads; Bastogne; The Breaking Point; The Last Patrol; Why We Fight; Points; We Stand Alone Together: The Men of Easy Company (series companion documentary).
 
Cast:

Kirk Acevedo, Eion Bailey, Michael Cudlitz, Dale Dye, Rick Gomez, Scott Grimes, Frank John Hughes, Damian Lewis, Ron Livingston, James Madio, Neal McDonough, Rene L. Moreno, David Schwimmer, Richard Speight, Jr., Donnie Wahlberg, Matthew Settle, Douglas Spain, Rick Warden, Marc Warren, Shane Taylor, Dexter Fletcher, Ross McCall, Matthew Leitch, Peter Youngblood Hills, Nicholas Aaron, Philip Barantini, Doug Allen, George Calil, Nolan Hemmings, Robin Laing, Michael Fassbender, Tim Matthews, Craig Heaney, Peter McCabe, Jamie Bamber, Ben Caplan, Mark Huberman, Phil McKee, Mark Lawrence, Rocky Marshall, David Andrews, Bill Armstrong, Jonie Broom, Doug Cockle, Alexis Conran, Dominic Cooper as Allington, Marcos D’Cruze, Tony Devlin, Jimmy Fallon, Simon Fenton, Iain Fletcher, Tom George, Ezra Godden, Stephen Graham, Luke Griffin, Tom Hardy, Matt Hickey, Andrew Howard, Nigel Hoyle, Lucie Jeanne, Corey Johnson, Marc Ryan-Jordan, Wolf Kahler, John Light, Joseph May, James McAvoy, Stephen McCole, Hugo Metsers, Benjamin Montague, Hans Georg Nenning, David Nicolle, Kieran O’Brien, Rebecca Okot, Jason O’Mara, Peter O’Meara, Oscar Pearce, Simon Pegg, Ben Peyton, Andrew Lee Potts, Dave Power, Luke Roberts, Iain Robertson, Toby Ross Bryant, Bart Ruspoli, Alex Sagba, Simon Schatzberger, Andrew Scott, Graham Seed, Adam Sims, Anatole Taubman, Stephen Walters, Paul Williams, Jonathan Young, Colin Hanks.

On this day in movie history - John Candy: I Like Me (2025)

John Candy: I Like Me

documentary directed by Colin Hanks,

released at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada on September 4, 2025.

Music by Tyler Strickland.

Cast: John Candy, Bill Murray, Chris Candy, Jennifer Candy-Sullivan, Steve Aker, Rose Candy, Pat Kelly, Terry Enright, Ennio Gregoris, Tom Davidson, Rita Davidson, Catherine McCartney, Dan Aykroyd, Dave Thomas, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Robin Duke, Andrew Alexander, Catherine O'Hara, Tom Hanks, Steve Martin, Conan O'Brien, Mel Brooks, Chris Columbus, Macaulay Culkin, Kelvin Pruenster, Don Lake, John Belushi, Valri Bromfield, Evangeline Candy, Jim Candy, Sidney Candy, Dick Cavett, John Chancellor, Chevy Chase, Roger Ebert, Joe Flaherty, Wayne Gretzky, John Hughes, David Letterman, Peter Mansbridge, Bruce McNall, Marilyn Suzanne Miller, Jack Nicholson, Sydney Pollack, Harold Ramis, Steven Spielberg, Mary Margaret O'Hara.

On this day in movie history - Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Saving Private Ryan

directed by Steven Spielberg,

written by Robert Rodat,

was released in the United States on July 24, 1998.

Music by John Williams.

Cast:

Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Matt Damon, Harrison Young, Tom Sizemore, Jeremy Davies, Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Ribisi, Dennis Farina, Ted Danson, Harve Presnell, Bryan Cranston, David Wohl, Nathan Fillion, Paul Giamatti, Ryan Hurst, Max Martini, Leland Orser, Joerg Stadler, Dylan Bruno, Demetri Goritsas, Rolf Saxon, Corey Johnson, John Sharian, Glenn Wrage, Stéphane Cornicard, Dale Dye, Amanda Boxer, Kathleen Byron, Andrew Scott, Erich Redman.

On this day in movie history - Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story (2025)

 

Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story

documentary directed by Laurent Bouzereau,

based on the novel by Peter Benchley,

released in the United States on July 10, 2025.

Music by Blake Neely.

 
Cast:

Emily Blunt, Steven Spielberg, Guillermo del Toro, Jordan Peele, J.J. Abrams, Steven Soderbergh, James Cameron, George Lucas, Robert Zemeckis, Cameron Crowe, John Williams, Lorraine Gary, Greg Nicotero, Jeffrey Voorhees, Jeffrey Kramer, Ian Shaw, Carl Gottlieb, Jonathan Filley, Joe Alves, Wendy Benchley, Tracy Benchley Turner.

On this day in movie history - Minority Report (2002)

Minority Report

directed by Steven Spielberg,

written by Scott Frank and Jon Cohen,

based on the novella The Minority Report by Philip K. Dick,

was released in the United States on June 21, 2002.

Music by John Williams.

Cast:

Tom Cruise, Max von Sydow, Steve Harris, Neal McDonough, Patrick Kilpatrick, Jessica Capshaw, Richard Coca, Keith Campbell, Kirk B.R. Woller, Klea Scott, Frank Grillo, Anna Maria Horsford, Sarah Simmons, Eugene Osment, James Henderson, Vene L. Arcoraci, Erica Ford, Keith Flippen, Nathan Taylor, Radmar Agana Jao, Karina Logue, Elizabeth Anne Smith, Victoria Kelleher, Jim Rash, Colin Farrell, Stephen Ramsey, Tom Choi, Tom Whitenight, William Morts, Samantha Morton, Daniel London, Michael Dickman, Matthew Dickman, Lois Smith, Tim Blake Nelson, George D. Wallace, Ann Ryerson, Kathryn Morris, Tyler Patrick Jones, Dominic Scott Kay, Arye Gross, Ashley Crow, Mike Binder, Joel Gretsch, Jessica Harper, Bertell Lawrence, Jason Antoon, William Mesnik, Scott Frank, Severin Wunderman, Max Trumpower, Allie Raye, Rocael Leiva, Nicholas Edwin Barb, Catfish Bates, Peter Stormare, Caroline Lagerfelt, Danny Parker-Lopes, Vanessa Cedotal, Katy Boyer, Adrianna Kamosa, Kari Gordon, Elizabeth Kamosa, Raquel Gordon, Laurel Kamosa, Fiona Hale, Pamela Roberts, Clement Blake, Jerry Perchesky, Victor Raider-Wexler, Nancy Linehan Charles, Nadia Axakowsky, Dude Walker, Tony Hill, Drakeel Burns, William Mapother, Morgan Hasson, Andrew Sandler, Bonnie Morgan, Kathi Copeland, Ana Maria Quintana, Lucille M. Oliver, Gene Wheeler, Tonya Ivey, David Stifel, Kurt Sinclair, Rebecca Ritz, Beverly Morgan, John Bennett, Maureen Dunn, Ron Ulstad, Blake Bashoff, David Doty, Gina Gallego, David Hornsby, Anne Judson-Yager, Meredith Monroe, Benita Krista Nall, Shannon O’Hurley, Jorge-Luis Pallo, Elizabeth Payne, Ethan Sherman, Jarah Mariano, Miles Dinsmoor, Vanessa Asbert.

Jaws (1975) - the thing about a shark …

Review by Jack Kost

Movies, in general, are just movies – nothing more.
You see them – you forget them.
However, some movies are so good – you never forget them; they stay with you forever and get better every time you watch them.

Jaws (1975) has always had a special place in my heart.
It was the movie that made me fall in love with movies.
During my early teens, it was the first movie I saw on rental VHS video cassette.
When I was fifteen, I bought a four-hour video cassette and recorded Rollerball and Jaws when they were screened on TV.
Already a dyed in the wool movie fanatic, it felt great to have my own copies of two movies I love, and that video cassette was like gold to me – a treasure!
Both movies were released in 1975 – a great year for movies – and I will post a blog on Rollerball in the future.

I went through the usual precautions concerning prized video cassettes: broke the small, square plastic tab on the base of the cassette, preventing accidental erasure … affixed a label to the base of the cassette, on which I wrote ROLLERBALL & JAWS in bold, felt-tip-pen capitals … then hoarded it away in my bedroom.

Unless I was watching some other late-night movie on TV, then the double-feature of Rollerball and Jaws was my late-Saturday-night-into-the-early-hours-of-Sunday-morning treat.

During that period, settling to watch movies was something of a ceremony:
More coals on the fire to keep the room temperature comfortable … check!
Draft-excluder covering the gap at the bottom of the lounge door … check!
TV angle realigned, parallel with the rug in front of the fire … check!
Seat cushions banked with my bed pillow against the base of the couch … check!
Fresh mug of coffee … check!
Snacks … check!
Me laid on rug … check!
Cushions behind my shoulders … check!
Pillow behind my head … check!
TV screen perfectly positioned with my direct line of view … check!
TV remote strategically placed to the right of my coffee mug … check!
The ceiling light and corner lamps out; room lit only by the glowing coals and TV screen … check!
My German Shepherd dog stretched out asleep on the couch behind me … check!
Yep! You read that right! I was laid on the floor; my dog was on the couch. I spoil my pets.
Over the years, I’ve watched both those movies less frequently, but each new viewing has always felt like a special event and my appreciation for them has never waned.

I’ll focus on Jaws for this blog.

Jaws was released in the United States on June 20, 1975.
The plot, based on the novel by Peter Benchley, is simple: the locals in the summer resort of Amity Island have their livelihoods – along with their lives! – threatened when a Great White Shark makes a smorgasbord of the swimmers.
Police Chief, Brody (Roy Scheider), Oceanographic expert, Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), and shark fisherman, Quint (Robert Shaw), eventually team up and set out on Quint’s vessel, the Orca, to hunt down the shark and kill it.

There is so much to love and admire about this movie: superb script, beautiful cinematography, fully developed characters, suspense and humor.
I can’t choose one particular favorite scene – I love the entire movie and can’t find a fault with it.
From the classic opening, starting with those marine sounds, leading into John Williams’ now timeless and brilliant theme music:

Beach party tragedy:

Official report:

MAYOR VAUGHN:
Martin, it's all psychological. You yell barracuda, everybody says, "Huh? What?" You yell shark, we've got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July.

The moment of shock, zoom shot:

HOOPER:
This was no boat accident!

Dinner conversation:

Covert autopsy:

Sunken boat:

MAYOR VAUGHN:
(pointing to the billboard as he talks to BRODY):
Brody! Sick vandalism! That is a deliberate mutilation of a public service message. Now, I want those little paint-happy bastards caught and hung up by their Buster Browns!

Author, Peter Benchley’s cameo as the news reporter:

Estuary victim:

Working out differences and setting terms:

Gone fishing:

Keeping the chum line going:

False alarm:

BRODY:
"Slow ahead." I can go slow ahead. Come on down here and chum some of this shit.

BRODY:
You’re gonna need a bigger boat.

The first barrel:

Quint’s story:

HOOPER:
You were on the Indianapolis?

BRODY:
What happened?

QUINT:
Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte. Just delivered the bomb – the Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. Thirteen-footer. You know how you know that, when you're in the water, Chief? You tell by looking from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know, was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week.
Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin', so we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, it was kinda like old squares in the battle, like you see in the calendar named: The Battle of Waterloo, and the idea was: shark comes to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin' and hollerin' and screamin' and sometimes the shark would go away... but sometimes he wouldn't go away.
Sometimes that shark he looks right into ya, right into your eyes. You know, the thing about a shark, he's got lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living ... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then ... ah, then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin', the ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they ... rip you to pieces.

You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I know how many men, they averaged six an hour.
On Thursday morning, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Bosun’s mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up and down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist.

Noon, the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us. He swung in low and he saw us ... he was a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper. Anyway, he saw us and he come in low and three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and starts to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened ... waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again.
So, eleven-hundred men went into the water; three-hundred-and-sixteen men come out and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

NOTE:
Although the story of Jaws is fiction, Quint’s story of the USS Indianapolis is rooted in fact.
Stacy Keach and Richard Thomas starred in a 1991 TV movie of the story: Mission of the Shark: The Saga of the U.S.S. Indianapolis.
Jack L. Chalker’s fictionalized novel of the event: The Devil’s Voyage, was published in 1981.
In 2016, Mario Van Peebles directed USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage, starring Nicolas Cage, Thomas Jane, Tom Sizemore, and James Remar.

Shark attack:

The shooting stars in this scene were real:

Man against shark:

Final battle:

BRODY:
Smile, you son of a bitch!

For me, Jaws remains the best of the genre.

The sequels to Jaws didn’t come near the magic of the original and sank (pun intended) into the depths of the cinematic pit of movies so bad – they are woefully BAD!

There have been numerous other shark-themed movies, not connected to the Jaws franchise: Open Water … Shark Night … Deep Blue Sea … Red Water … Bait … The Reef … The Shallows …

Oh … yeah … and let’s not forget the cinematic classic that is Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus … and I still can’t believe I actually sat through it!!!

… but I have yet to see another shark-themed movie as exciting or entertaining as Steven Spielberg’s 1975 original: Jaws.

If you’re ever thinking of buying a suitable vessel for a shark fishing trip … always opt for the bigger boat!