Jaws

Rating:
Summary: Great discussion of the film, albeit with flaws
Review: This is my favorite of the BFI Modern Classics books so far, but Ms. Quirke should have researched the film's dialogue a bit more closely. She misquotes several lines and gets the sequence of a few scenes wrong.

Granted, she has some interesting things to say about many aspects of the film, and I really enjoyed the book on the whole. I even underlined a few passages I particularly liked, as geeky as that may sound, but that may be partially attributable to the fact that I am still in college, do a lot of reading for classes, and underline stuff out of habit.

As a LONG-time fan of "Jaws" and one who knows that film quite intimately after dozens and dozens of viewings, I can assert with absolute confidence that there are too many misquoted dialogue lines for me to ignore the fact that her research into specific elements of the film was insufficient. That said, I liked her writing style, and her insight in regard to many areas of the film was fascinating and enlightening.

All the BFI Modern Classics entries tend to run about the same number of pages, and in the case of Quirke's discussion of "Jaws", it is far too few. I also read the BFI books on "Heat", "John Carpenter's 'The Thing'", and have the ones for "L.A. Confidential", "Se7en", and "The Silence of the Lambs" on order. The books are inexpensive enough that if you don't like or agree with the assorted authors you are not going to bemoan the wasted $$. But if you enjoy them, as I have so far, you will certainly consider the small sums to be money well-spent.

Rating:
Summary: Great discussion of the film, albeit with flaws
Review: This is my favorite of the BFI Modern Classics books so far, but Ms. Quirke should have researched the film's dialogue a bit more closely. She misquotes several lines and gets the sequence of a few scenes wrong.

Granted, she has some interesting things to say about many aspects of the film, and I really enjoyed the book on the whole. I even underlined a few passages I particularly liked, as geeky as that may sound, but that may be partially attributable to the fact that I am still in college, do a lot of reading for classes, and underline stuff out of habit.

As a LONG-time fan of "Jaws" and one who knows that film quite intimately after dozens and dozens of viewings, I can assert with absolute confidence that there are too many misquoted dialogue lines for me to ignore the fact that her research into specific elements of the film was insufficient. That said, I liked her writing style, and her insight in regard to many areas of the film was fascinating and enlightening.

All the BFI Modern Classics entries tend to run about the same number of pages, and in the case of Quirke's discussion of "Jaws", it is far too few. I also read the BFI books on "Heat", "John Carpenter's 'The Thing'", and have the ones for "L.A. Confidential", "Se7en", and "The Silence of the Lambs" on order. The books are inexpensive enough that if you don't like or agree with the assorted authors you are not going to bemoan the wasted $$. But if you enjoy them, as I have so far, you will certainly consider the small sums to be money well-spent.