The Next Picture Show

#142: (Pt. 1) Jaws / The Meg

The new Jason Statham late-summer vehicle THE MEG, like so many middling shark movies before it, can trace its lineage directly to the 1975 film that made us afraid to go into the water: Steven Spielberg’s JAWS. In this half of our sharktastic discussion, we’re diving in (cautiously) to what your NPS crew considers a perfect movie, considering what gives JAWS its hidden depths, what it told us about the director Spielberg would become, and whether its impact on the blockbuster model is a net positive for movies. Plus, some feedback on our recent MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE and SORRY TO BOTHER YOU episodes.
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about JAWS, THE MEG, or both by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.  
Show Notes
Works Cited: 
• “The great lost Jaws rip-off” by Keith Phipps
• “The men, monsters, and troubled waters of Jaws” by Noel Murray, Keith Phipps, Nathan Rabin, Tasha Robinson, and Scott Tobias
Outro Music: Dwight Twilley Band, “Shark”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Looking at cinema's present via its past. The Next Picture Show is a biweekly roundtable by the former editorial team of The Dissolve examining how classic films inspire and inform modern movies. Episodes take a deep dive into a classic film and its legacy in the first half, then compare and contrast that film with a modern successor in the second. Hosted and produced by Genevieve Koski, Keith Phipps, Tasha Robinson and Scott Tobias.