Very Homely Cast


I watched the film today with a friend and his 12 year old son (who hadn't seen it before)-I saw it originally on its release in 1975 and had seen it a number of times on TV over the years-the one thing about it that struck me most was that everyone in it was very ordinary in looks, far beyond the comic relief 'Bad Hat Harry' and other yokel types-anything made from 1980 or so that was set at the beachside would have had a much sexier cast, at least in part.

"What is an Oprah?"-Teal'c.

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I wouldn't call them "homely", but yes, they looked like the ordinary, everyday people that you would find living in small towns everywhere (in fact, some of the minor characters are played by locals). I think it contributes to the realism of the film.

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That's the problem with today's films. Not only is everything digitalized, homogenized, glossed, polished and CGI'd.....but also, everyone is perfect looking, right off magazine covers. In Jaws, the the characters each looked very realistic. And really, can you picture anyone OTHER than Shaw as Quint? Dreyfuss as Hooper? Perfection.

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I wasn't making a criticism as much as an observation-it's a very 70s film in that regard.

"What is an Oprah?"-Teal'c.

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To me, that's part of the film's charm; they all look like just regular, everyday type people.

Anyone here mentions Hotel California dies before the first line clears his lips.

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I think the young adults at the start of the movie look fairly good and sexy. Chrissy Watkins and her guy friend that passes out drunk on the beach while she's being attacked looked good to me and I think they would be considered good looking in any era, whether it's 1975 or 2015.

Now Hooper, Brody and ofcourse Quint, yeah those three do not at all have traditional Hollywood leading man looks. But they fit their characters.

The rest of the town establishement, like Mayor Vaughn and his cronies look like the stuffy older adult farts that they are. It would have been weird as hell if they cast a good looking man in his 50s at that time, such as Marlon Brando as Mayor Vaughn. The cast they picked worked perfectly.

Keep in mind the sequel to this movie, 1978's Jaws 2 tried to have a sexier teenage/20 something cast. But Brody was still in it as the regular looking older adult that comes and saves the day.

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Robert Shaw was anything but homely in this, and/or in any of his other films. Photogenic, cinematic, ruggedly handsome. Could carry a tune, too.

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Yes, Shaw oozed charisma in this...

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Fear not for the future; weep not for the past -- Percy Bysshe Shelley
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Yeah, and in so many other screen performances. I never get tired of watching him as King Henry VIII in Zinnemann's A Man for All Seasons...

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Robert Shaw, as Quint, had the looks, the personality and the accent of a rough-and-tough local townsperson, which is what made him exude the kind of charm that he did.

Both Martin and Ellen Brody, on the other hand, looked like transplanted Manhattanites.

Robert Shaw can definitely carry at tune, as well.

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Shudder to think what a modern day cast would look like, probably be full of boring, generic white people who wouldn't look like islanders, just Kardashian klones...

I think we've got another shark problem. 

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A modern reboot would have the younger guy Hooper being played a 18 or 19 year old teen star. Brody would be 24 and someone that looks like Channing Tatum or Chris Hemsworth, and "the old man" Quint would be 30, talking about how he was in the Navy only 10 or 12 years ago.

Ben Gardner instead being some elderly guy would only be a 40 year old. Chrissy Watkins would be a 15 year old high school girl instead of a college student. The actors would all be a good 10-20 years younger then their original counterparts.

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Lmao! He could tell the story when he served on the whale wars boat and they ran out of tofu. The tension builds as they waited for the PBY to swoop down and drop off more horkin fiber chunks.

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You'd have to have a role for Morgan Freeman or Samual L Jackson too. What movies are they NOT in?

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Full of white people? In this day and age, no.

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Yes, they used real actors back then not models pretending to be actors. As a result the acting, drama, and performances are light years ahead. Funny that.

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Yes, it's too bad they didn't all look like Fabio, it would have improved the movie immeasurably...

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was a casting coup by SS to pick common, suburban looking people rather than glamorous stars as the main and secondary cast. First, seemed the kind of people who's livelihood is dependant on tourism and second, added the "could happen to you or me" aspect to the film's horror.

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really? because i think roy scheider was a very handsome man. he went on to be the leading man in a number of big budget thrillers as well as the ladies' man, Joel Gideon, in All That Jazz.

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He's pretty much it though (even then he's more rugged than a pretty boy type)-Quint is a weathered, hard drinking seadog in his 50s at the time the film is set, and Richard Dreyfus was never leading man material, always more of a character actor.

"What is an Oprah?"-Teal'c.

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Peter Benchley , author of the novel "Jaws," joked that the three leads in the movie should be: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and Steve McQueen.

You can actually SEE that, if you look hard enough. Newman as Chief Brody, Redford(with glasses) as Hooper; McQueen as Quint.

CONT:

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But that would have cost way too much and those three wouldn't sign up together(in pairs, yes, together -- no.)

Given the three evenly matched roles, and budget concerns, I think Spielberg felt compelled to cast character actors.

Roy Schedier had been the SUPPORT in The French Connection. Richard Dreyfuss had been part of an ENSEMBLE in American Graffii.

Spielberg actually did try for a big star for the Quint part: Lee Marvin. But Lee turned it down. Next up: Sterling Hayden(the crooked cop McClusky in The Godfather; General Jack Ripper in Strangelove.) But he had tax problems that kept him abroad.

Shaw got the part of recommendation of producers David Brown and Richard Zanuck, who had used Shaw as the villain in The Sting after Richard Boone(a good possible Quint) turned THAT part(Doyle Lonnigan) down.

And so, a perfect seventies cast without a big star: Scheider and Shaw and Dreyfuss. Not a pretty puss in the bunch...but REAL.

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