Jaws: Bloomsbury Pocket Movie Guide 5 [Paperback]

Nigel Andrews (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2000

Bloomsbury Movie Guides are A to Z companions to some of the greatest, most memorable films ever made. The books feature scores of entries on all aspects of the making and meaning of movies, and include historic, cinematic, and literary references; profiles of the actors and directors; and interviews. Nigel Andrews offers a lively dissection of the shark story that launched the blockbuster era—and changed forever the way movies were made and marketed. Replete with insights, interviews, and thrills, here is everything you need to know about Steven Spielberg's first box-office hit.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Bloomsbury's new Movie Guide series looks like being easily the best idea to have assaulted the cinema bookshelves . . . Exhaustive, affectionate, commited, intelligent, flip, provocative, and, above all, personal . . . Having read them it's guaranteed that the next time you see these movies, something will have changed, and changed for good."—Uncut

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Publisher

Bloomsbury¹s Movie Guides, now in pocket-size editions, are A to Z companions to some of the greatest, most memorable films ever made. The books feature scores of entries on all aspects of the making and meaning of movies and include historic, cinematic, and literary references; profiles of the actors and directors; and interviews. Erudite and opinionated, they will change the way you look at films.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury UK (October 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747551863
• ISBN-13: 978-0747551867
• Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 3.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,142,150 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't bite, August 26, 2000

By 

M. Ritchie (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nigel Andrews on Jaws: A Bloomsbury Movie Guide (Bloomsbury Movie Guides) (Paperback)

This is one of the most disappointing movie books I have ever read. The author rehashes the same old stories without adding anything new of any real value. If you've read the books that came out in the mid-70's on the making of Jaws, then you definitely don't need this book. The number of errors is astounding for a professionally published book; most of the lines from the movie that he quotes he gets wrong (and it's a "land shark," not a "ground shark" in Saturday Night Live's famous parody). At one point, he sets up an analogy that even a ten-year-old could see doesn't work: behavioural scientists are like Chinese food because "soon after inventing one, you want to invent another." Neither scientists nor chinese food invent one another. I read the whole thing because I was stuck in an airport, but I'm throwing it away now. If you really must read it, use the library.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is an embarrassment, August 11, 2000

By 

S. Altobello (New York City, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nigel Andrews on Jaws: A Bloomsbury Movie Guide (Bloomsbury Movie Guides) (Paperback)

I eagerly bought this book the moment I saw it. The cover--front & back--is marvelous, and though it's outrageously (I'd even say snobbishly) priced, Jaws is my favorite film and I believe there isn't enough solid criticism on 70's cinema. So, I scooped it up.

Pretty quickly I was ashamed. Mr. Andrews style renders trite his frequently astute observations, and he frequently lacked follow-through. For example, his section entitled "Ben Gardner's Head: the Untold Story" (pg. 99) hardly provides exactly that; instead, he merely poses the same questions my associates and I have been asking for 25 years, ending with another one of his 'jokes'--"Ben Gardner: The Movie". For this I paid 14.35?

Worst of all, the fact that renders this book 'defective': 10 mis-quotes in 9 pages! (These happen from pages 71 to 79.) Did he write this book out of memory? Perhaps two of Jaws's most famous lines--"You're gonna need a bigger boat." and "For that you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing"--are incorrect as well as some sloppy oversights. An intern and a VCR for a half hour's work could have saved Mr. Andrew's and the whole Bloomsbury Film Guide series from being a disreputible waste of time.

Just because this is a 'Film Guide' doesn't free them from the fundamentals of journalism, in this case accuracy.

If you've already fallen prey the way I did, I suggest you mail the damn book back. I did, with these complaints, only to be refused. If more people try, perhaps the second printing will relfect the negative attention and have corrections. I just want a comapny to assume responsibility for their product even if it is just popular culture sociology.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Rip off? Yes!, September 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Nigel Andrews on Jaws: A Bloomsbury Movie Guide (Bloomsbury Movie Guides) (Paperback)

A pedestrian rehash of existing materials, and no mention of THE JAWS LOG (soon to be reissued by Newmarket Press!), which is the source of much of Mr. Andrews' lightweight book. It's full of dialogue errors, misreadings of the film, and lots of chatty disinformation.

In all, a disappointing package. Some nice art, an excellent cover, and slickly published, but on the whole, not worth the money.