I’m Talkin’ ’bout Sharkin’

Jaws ruined the beach for a generation of kids, present writer included. The tradeoff is that it's provided hours of air-conditioned entertainment, as the movie is impossible to skip over when channel surfing. Roy Scheider's brilliant performance as Chief Brody, the hydrophobic cop in charge of public safety for a small beach town that's become the hunting ground for a great white shark, is remarkable and eminently watchable. Robert Shaw's turn as Quint, the grizzled shark hunter, more than matches Scheider for its intensity. Shaw's late-film speech about the sinking of the Indianapolis is one of the best monologues in any genre — his lust for shark blood is understandable, but still horrible to behold. Sure, the shark behaves nothing like a shark, but come on — the chomping. Oh, the chomping. Front Yard Features presents a free outdoor screening of the original summer blockbuster at Old Post Office Plaza (Ninth and Locust streets; www.fyfstl.com), a location comfortably far from water. The film starts around 8:30 p.m.
Thu., June 4, 2009