You'll never go in the water again!

No, not talking about the Captain's Hazard on the 14th!

We decided to have a family film night on Saturday, so after I'd watched the Footy and the Rugby we finished our meal and sat down to watch something.

What to watch though..........Daughter of 13 going on 17, son of 7 and the good lady wife.....could be a tricky choice.

As they were arguning over what DVD to watch I flicked through the Sky planner and spotted Jaws!!!

Sophie, the daughter, had seen it a few years before and was keen to see it again, whilst Josh was easliy persuaded.

Would it be too scary for him? What about the skinny dipping at the beginning?

I remember in 1975, aged 14 going to the local cinema, a single theatre at the time, to see Jaws every night for a week! Me and a group of mates used to go to this cinema nearly every Sunday almost no matter what was on.

Bit 7 nights in a row. We only ever did that for one other film and that was Star Wars! It was a very old cinema, quite small, independent of the Rank,  or Odeon chain;s it was not unheard of to cancel the showing if too few people came to see the film. It was easier to give us our money back!

Not for a blockbuster like Jaws and not when we would be going every night of the week.

Up on the big screen the action was vivid, load and frightening. Everyone jumped when the Shark struck, especially when the head pooped out of the hole in the bottom of the boat, with one eye missing and optic nerves hanging ou of the socket! Even when we knew it was coming we jumped! Even though the famous music warned that the Shark was coming.

For the time, the Shark was realistic.

Now, at home, on the TV, it looked awfull.

The kids loved it, but commented on how unrealistic the Shark looked. They've both been on the Jaws Ride at Universal Studios and to be honest, that was more realistic.

How far have come since then. We all went to see Avatar, in 3D, obviously and whilst the story was ok, the special effects were unbelievable. Probably won't bother to see the film again though.

Sophie made a comment about it not being very real and then I suddenly thought.

"Sophie, this film is 35 years old!" "I was your age when I saw this at the pictures"

It was of it's time! It did scare us, but now it was pretty tame.

Bit it did take me back to that grotty cinema, with the ripped seats, the gas lamps, me and me mates scared to death, or mesmerised by Star Wars, sneaking in under age to see Saturday Night Fever, or Roller Ball or the disaster movies like Earthquake, the Towering Inferno, the original Rocky film, scared shitless at the end of Carrie and the James Bond double bills they used to show!

That's what I remembered when I watched Jaws...........