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"Jaws" 40th Anniversary in 4K


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Today I saw TCM's digitally restored version of Jaws in Sony 4K and I have to say it looked (and sounded) amazing. Considering this was the first time I'd ever seen it on the big screen, it was a great cinematic experience. I'd actually only seen it presented in widescreen very few times. Most of the times I watched it was during the days of panning & scanning.

 

The colors were extremely vivid, the picture was crisp and the sound truly heightened the experience. I actually jumped at one scene and I've seen the film countless times. The film grain was evident but in a way that simply said it was shot on film. Only a few scenes looked a tad noisy, as if they had been pushed - namely the scene when Hooper stops by Brody's house for dinner as well the night scenes following that when the two of them are out at sea. But if it was shot on 100ASA film as IMDb says, the clarity of the picture is a testament to Bill Butler, ASC and the digital restoration team.

 

Again, it was great to see in widescreen because the compositions made so much more sense this time around. Kind of like seeing a whole new film. Wonderful photography by Butler. There are a few new inserts thrown in there, too.

 

So 4K gets a thumbs up from me...especially for restored classics like this.

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Very cool Bill, thanks for sharing.

 

Jaws is quite an amazing film and it was one of the first blockbusters and one of the last studio films distributed in mono. So the restored version has a wonderful 5.1 mix with William's magnificent score for the first time in stereo. I've heard there is a Dolby Digital 35mm restoration print working its way around Los Angeles during the 4th of July week. I'd see it in 4k, but we don't have very many 4k theaters and the ones that do exist are playing 1st run films unfortunately. I will keep an eye out thou, never know what pops up on the schedule! :)

 

Ohh and it's one of my all-time favorite films and one of the first in my laserdisc collection when I was a kid.

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