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Anyway, We Delivered The Bomb....


Principled Man
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July 30, 1945

 

 

 

635738022400508848-USSIndy-overall-crop.jpg?width=534&height=401&fit=crop

 

Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into her side, Chief. We was comin’ back from the island of Tinian to Leyte. We’d just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes.

 

Didn’t see the first shark for about a half-hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that in the water, Chief? You can tell by lookin’ from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn’t know, was that our bomb mission was so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn’t even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin’ by, so we formed ourselves into tight groups. It was sorta like you see in the calendars, you know the infantry squares in the old calendars like the Battle of Waterloo and the idea was the shark come to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin’ and hollerin’ and sometimes that shark he go away… but sometimes he wouldn’t go away.

 

Sometimes that shark looks right at ya. Right into your eyes. And the thing about a shark is he’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn’t even seem to be livin’… ’til he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then… ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’. The ocean turns red, and despite all your poundin’ and your hollerin’ those sharks come in and… they rip you to pieces.

 

You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don’t know how many sharks there were, maybe a thousand. I do know how many men, they averaged six an hour. Thursday mornin’, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boson’s mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water, he was like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he’d been bitten in half below the waist.

 

At noon on the fifth day, a Lockheed Ventura swung in low and he spotted us, a young pilot, lot younger than Mr. Hooper here, anyway he spotted us and a few hours later a big ol’ fat PBY come down and started to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened. Waitin’ for my turn. I’ll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.

 

Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

 

 

quint_speech.jpg

 

 

 

 

[Note: Quint's speech has a few inaccuracies regarding the Indianapolis tragedy. Regardless, it was one of the most powerful scenes in all of film history. ]

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The fate of the men on the Indianapolis was horrible. My dad was in the navy over a decade later and they still talked about it. There was a show about it one time on History or Discovery and he wouldn't watch it.
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The fate of the men on the Indianapolis was horrible. My dad was in the navy over a decade later and they still talked about it. There was a show about it one time on History or Discovery and he wouldn't watch it.

 

I totally understand. Really, what is the point of reliving it? :huh:

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July 30, 1945

 

 

 

635738022400508848-USSIndy-overall-crop.jpg?width=534&height=401&fit=crop

 

Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into her side, Chief. We was comin’ back from the island of Tinian to Leyte. We’d just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes.

 

Didn’t see the first shark for about a half-hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that in the water, Chief? You can tell by lookin’ from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn’t know, was that our bomb mission was so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn’t even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin’ by, so we formed ourselves into tight groups. It was sorta like you see in the calendars, you know the infantry squares in the old calendars like the Battle of Waterloo and the idea was the shark come to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin’ and hollerin’ and sometimes that shark he go away… but sometimes he wouldn’t go away.

 

Sometimes that shark looks right at ya. Right into your eyes. And the thing about a shark is he’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn’t even seem to be livin’… ’til he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then… ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’. The ocean turns red, and despite all your poundin’ and your hollerin’ those sharks come in and… they rip you to pieces.

 

You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don’t know how many sharks there were, maybe a thousand. I do know how many men, they averaged six an hour. Thursday mornin’, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boson’s mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water, he was like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he’d been bitten in half below the waist.

 

At noon on the fifth day, a Lockheed Ventura swung in low and he spotted us, a young pilot, lot younger than Mr. Hooper here, anyway he spotted us and a few hours later a big ol’ fat PBY come down and started to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened. Waitin’ for my turn. I’ll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.

 

Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

 

 

quint_speech.jpg

 

 

 

 

[Note: Quint's speech has a few inaccuracies regarding the Indianapolis tragedy. Regardless, it was one of the most powerful scenes in all of film history. ]

 

Apparently the speech (which wasn't in the book) went thru quite a few drafts, the final one being written by Robert Shaw (who was also a writer).

 

http://www.theafw.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Robert-Shaw-Jaws.jpg

 

If you haven't read it, Carl Gottlieb's "The Jaws Log" is a great read about the making of the movie.

 

Any good books about the Indianapolis?

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Apparently the speech (which wasn't in the book) went thru quite a few drafts, the final one being written by Robert Shaw (who was also a writer).

 

http://www.theafw.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Robert-Shaw-Jaws.jpg

 

 

 

I've read that the initial draft was TEN pages long.... :o :o

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July 30, 1945

 

 

 

635738022400508848-USSIndy-overall-crop.jpg?width=534&height=401&fit=crop

 

Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into her side, Chief. We was comin’ back from the island of Tinian to Leyte. We’d just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes.

 

Didn’t see the first shark for about a half-hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that in the water, Chief? You can tell by lookin’ from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn’t know, was that our bomb mission was so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn’t even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin’ by, so we formed ourselves into tight groups. It was sorta like you see in the calendars, you know the infantry squares in the old calendars like the Battle of Waterloo and the idea was the shark come to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin’ and hollerin’ and sometimes that shark he go away… but sometimes he wouldn’t go away.

 

Sometimes that shark looks right at ya. Right into your eyes. And the thing about a shark is he’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn’t even seem to be livin’… ’til he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then… ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’. The ocean turns red, and despite all your poundin’ and your hollerin’ those sharks come in and… they rip you to pieces.

 

You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don’t know how many sharks there were, maybe a thousand. I do know how many men, they averaged six an hour. Thursday mornin’, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boson’s mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water, he was like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he’d been bitten in half below the waist.

 

At noon on the fifth day, a Lockheed Ventura swung in low and he spotted us, a young pilot, lot younger than Mr. Hooper here, anyway he spotted us and a few hours later a big ol’ fat PBY come down and started to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened. Waitin’ for my turn. I’ll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.

 

Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

 

 

quint_speech.jpg

 

 

 

 

[Note: Quint's speech has a few inaccuracies regarding the Indianapolis tragedy. Regardless, it was one of the most powerful scenes in all of film history. ]

 

Apparently the speech (which wasn't in the book) went thru quite a few drafts, the final one being written by Robert Shaw (who was also a writer).

 

http://www.theafw.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Robert-Shaw-Jaws.jpg

 

If you haven't read it, Carl Gottlieb's "The Jaws Log" is a great read about the making of the movie.

 

Any good books about the Indianapolis?

 

When I worked at the town library, we used to recommend this one, although I haven't read it myself . . .

 

oc6X4Vmm.jpg

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Apparently the speech (which wasn't in the book) went thru quite a few drafts, the final one being written by Robert Shaw (who was also a writer).

 

http://www.theafw.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Robert-Shaw-Jaws.jpg

 

 

 

I've read that the initial draft was TEN pages long.... :o :o

 

The "Indianapolis" speech made everyone nervous; it was two-and-a-half pages long, an immense chunk of dialogue, and absolutely essential to understanding Quint's character and obsession with sharks. [Howard] Sackler worked on it. I worked on it. [spielberg] worked on it. John Milius...As far as I'm concerned, the author of the USS Indianapolis speech was Robert Shaw.

To the best of my recollection, Shaw collated the research and examined the drafts of the speech...I can remember Robert joined us after dinner. He said, "I've been working on that troublesome speech," and added that he had written something he thought might work. He said he'd like to read it to us, pulled some paper from his pocket, and read, almost verbatim, the speech that appears in the movie.

(Carl Gottlieb, The Jaws Log)

 

They shot the scene twice. In the first, Shaw was drunk and "his reading of the speech was passionate, but not accurate," so he sobered up and did a re-shoot the next day. The finished scene uses takes from both days.

 

hqdefault.jpg

"Okay, so we drink to our legs!"

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Probably the best part of that great movie.

 

It sets up the audience for the horror that is about to come. One of the best setups ever.

 

The underlying theme of Quint and his pending doom is brilliant. His lifelong vendetta against sharks is evident. He's abrasive, arrogant and cocky, but as the film progresses, we see his internal horrific fear of sharks come out more and more, until he eventually gives up and asks Hooper for help. He even breaks out the life jackets, because he knows that they're doomed.

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Probably the best part of that great movie.

 

It sets up the audience for the horror that is about to come. One of the best setups ever.

 

The underlying theme of Quint and his pending doom is brilliant. His lifelong vendetta against sharks is evident. He's abrasive, arrogant and cocky, but as the film progresses, we see his internal horrific fear of sharks come out more and more, until he eventually gives up and asks Hooper for help. He even breaks out the life jackets, because he knows that they're doomed.

 

I think he's also carried a tremendous amount of survivor's guilt with him all those years. He's dedicated his life to killing sharks, but I think on some level not too far down, he wants to suffer the same fate as all the crewmen who died in the water.

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Probably the best part of that great movie.

 

It sets up the audience for the horror that is about to come. One of the best setups ever.

 

The underlying theme of Quint and his pending doom is brilliant. His lifelong vendetta against sharks is evident. He's abrasive, arrogant and cocky, but as the film progresses, we see his internal horrific fear of sharks come out more and more, until he eventually gives up and asks Hooper for help. He even breaks out the life jackets, because he knows that they're doomed.

 

I think he's also carried a tremendous amount of survivor's guilt with him all those years. He's dedicated his life to killing sharks, but I think on some level not too far down, he wants to suffer the same fate as all the crewmen who died in the water.

 

That's possible. He may have a death wish, which is why he hunts sharks for a living. He's Ahab, waiting for his white whale to come for him.

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Probably the best part of that great movie.

 

It sets up the audience for the horror that is about to come. One of the best setups ever.

 

The underlying theme of Quint and his pending doom is brilliant. His lifelong vendetta against sharks is evident. He's abrasive, arrogant and cocky, but as the film progresses, we see his internal horrific fear of sharks come out more and more, until he eventually gives up and asks Hooper for help. He even breaks out the life jackets, because he knows that they're doomed.

 

I think he's also carried a tremendous amount of survivor's guilt with him all those years. He's dedicated his life to killing sharks, but I think on some level not too far down, he wants to suffer the same fate as all the crewmen who died in the water.

 

That's possible. He may have a death wish, which is why he hunts sharks for a living. He's Ahab, waiting for his white whale to come for him.

 

Quint as a modern day Captain Ahab is another apt analogy.

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Completely turned the movie business on its ear. Summer was usually considered down time for movies. Now it's just about their biggest period.

The first summer blockbuster and the first to earn $100 million in US box offices receipts.
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Completely turned the movie business on its ear. Summer was usually considered down time for movies. Now it's just about their biggest period.

The first summer blockbuster and the first to earn $100 million in US box offices receipts.

 

When the revenue is adjusted for inflation, Jaws is still #7 in all-time domestic box office revenue. $1.15 billion

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When I was a kid and we first got HBO I must have watched Jaws 2 about a dozen times. That and Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band with the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton

 

I'm pretty sure that Jaws was the first film I saw in a regular theater (not a drive-in), and without Ma and Pa there with me.

 

I was 13, and what an experience it was!! :o :o I still have good recollection of how I felt during the most horrific scenes.

 

 

1499935978_scared-to-death.gif

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Probably the best part of that great movie.

 

It sets up the audience for the horror that is about to come. One of the best setups ever.

 

The underlying theme of Quint and his pending doom is brilliant. His lifelong vendetta against sharks is evident. He's abrasive, arrogant and cocky, but as the film progresses, we see his internal horrific fear of sharks come out more and more, until he eventually gives up and asks Hooper for help. He even breaks out the life jackets, because he knows that they're doomed.

 

I think he's also carried a tremendous amount of survivor's guilt with him all those years. He's dedicated his life to killing sharks, but I think on some level not too far down, he wants to suffer the same fate as all the crewmen who died in the water.

 

That's possible. He may have a death wish, which is why he hunts sharks for a living. He's Ahab, waiting for his white whale to come for him.

 

He pretty much f*cks everything up when he smashes the radio. And then blowing out the engines was the icing on the cake.

 

The book pushes the Quint/Ahab connection to the point where they die the exact same way (drowned after being caught in a rope attached to the whale/shark). Oops. Spoiler!

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Probably the best part of that great movie.

 

It sets up the audience for the horror that is about to come. One of the best setups ever.

 

The underlying theme of Quint and his pending doom is brilliant. His lifelong vendetta against sharks is evident. He's abrasive, arrogant and cocky, but as the film progresses, we see his internal horrific fear of sharks come out more and more, until he eventually gives up and asks Hooper for help. He even breaks out the life jackets, because he knows that they're doomed.

 

I think he's also carried a tremendous amount of survivor's guilt with him all those years. He's dedicated his life to killing sharks, but I think on some level not too far down, he wants to suffer the same fate as all the crewmen who died in the water.

 

That's possible. He may have a death wish, which is why he hunts sharks for a living. He's Ahab, waiting for his white whale to come for him.

 

He pretty much f*cks everything up when he smashes the radio. And then blowing out the engines was the icing on the cake.

 

The book pushes the Quint/Ahab connection to the point where they die the exact same way (drowned after being caught in a rope attached to the whale/shark). Oops. Spoiler!

 

The book's ending isn't nearly as explosive as the film's ending. :doh:

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The fate of the men on the Indianapolis was horrible. My dad was in the navy over a decade later and they still talked about it. There was a show about it one time on History or Discovery and he wouldn't watch it.

 

I read the book, such a terrible tragedy. And what the Navy did to the Captain was unconscionable, I don't understand the reasoning behind it at all.

 

The book is In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton (who's a simply outstanding historian). If you're at all interested in the tragedy of the USS Indianapolis then you should read it.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Harms-Way-Indianapolis-Extraordinary-Survivors/dp/0805073663/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=in+harm%27s+way+stanton&qid=1565316672&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Edited by Jack Aubrey
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The fate of the men on the Indianapolis was horrible. My dad was in the navy over a decade later and they still talked about it. There was a show about it one time on History or Discovery and he wouldn't watch it.

 

I read the book, such a terrible tragedy. And what the Navy did to the Captain was unconscionable, I don't understand the reasoning behind it at all.

 

It seems to me that it’s classic scapegoating. There always has to be a fall guy.

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The fate of the men on the Indianapolis was horrible. My dad was in the navy over a decade later and they still talked about it. There was a show about it one time on History or Discovery and he wouldn't watch it.

 

I read the book, such a terrible tragedy. And what the Navy did to the Captain was unconscionable, I don't understand the reasoning behind it at all.

 

It seems to me that it’s classic scapegoating. There always has to be a fall guy.

 

Yes, he was scapegoated, but he didn't have to be the fall guy. As you know, we lost thousands of ships during WWII and no Captain was ever charged for it. However, Captain McVay was, and was found guilty even though he was following his orders to the letter. Captain McVay was court-martialed and found guilty in order to divert attention from the fact that the Navy did nothing to search for the Indianapolis survivors and that they were only found by accident by a PBY on routine patrol. According to friends and family, Captain McVay was never the same afterwards and wound up taking his own life in 1968. It took a 9 year-old student, Hunter Scott, writing a research paper for a class history project in 1996 to exonerate him which just further compounds the tragedy of the Indianapolis.

Edited by Jack Aubrey
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