MovieChat Forums > USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage (2016) Discussion > Robert Shaw & Jaws

Robert Shaw & Jaws

posted 9 years ago by arfire
18 replies | jump to latest

I have been so intrigued with the story of the USS Indianapolis since hearing Robert Shaw's character Quint in the movie Jaws tell this harrowing account of what took place that week in 1945. In interviews given for the Jaws making of documentaries, Robert Shaw stated he discussed "ad-libbing" and/or telling this story while on the ORCA to Chief Brody and Matt Hooper(Roy Scheider & Richard Dreyfuss respectively) with director Steven Spielberg during production. The story Mr. Shaw delivered was fascinating, spellbinding, and absolutely worked great in the movie. In my opinion, it's the greatest scene in Jaws and one of the best scenes in modern film history. I am looking forward to seeing this film, and to the history it will share with the younger generations of moviegoers who haven't heard the tragic story of the USS Indianapolis.

[–] DSNFan 9 years ago

This film should have featured a younger Quint.

[–] cara-stone 8 years ago

Well that would be great except 1) this is a TRUE STORY, and 2) QUINT is a fictional character. This movie needs to honor REAL heroes, not serve as a half-ass prequel to JAWS. I love Jaws and Quint was an awesome character, but your idea would be disrespectful to the real sailors of the Indianapolis.

[–] paytonsapp 8 years ago

This movie dishonors the sailors by being half-assed and a total piece of *beep*

[–] aliholly9389 9 years ago

Read "Out of the Depths" if you want a heartbreaking recount of the story.

[–] pistrix 8 years ago

Or read "In Harm's Way" by Doug Stanton.

((Damn the remakes, Save the originals.))

[–] hairyairey 8 years ago

It was a young Hunter Scott that took up the story of the Indianapolis having watched Jaws. Hey enabled the survivors to give their accounts that led to the conclusion of the injustice against Captain McVay. In July 2001 the then Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England finally ordered McVay's official Navy record purged of all wrongdoing.

As to those who think a young Quint should have been in this movie, definitely not. The story is powerful enough as it is without adding fictional characters to it (sorry if that's a terrible spoiler for those who think that Jaws is a Documentary and that Amity Island is a real place. OK it is a real place, just not with that name).

[–] darkangels-19990 8 years ago

Pah! Next you be insisting that the shark wasn't real. 😨

[–] hairyairey 8 years ago

Real enough for me as a little kid to be scared of the toilet for quite a while after watching the movie!

[–] mikeos3 8 years ago

"Shark still looks fake" (Marty McFly).

[–] Postieman 8 years ago

We had just delivered The Bum The Hiroshima Bum.

[–] gallifreyent 8 years ago

For the whiners hung up on background features, and not on the actual Men of Courage, I'd like to point out that this film is also not a documentary about ship classes, shark varieties, etc.

~If you go through enough doors, sooner or later you're gonna find a dog on the other side.~🐕

[–] cara-stone 8 years ago

Totally agree.

[–] joed1667 8 years ago

Quint was a fictional character but it sounds like only Captain McVeigh's name seems to be real. No Dr. Lewis Haynes or PFC Giles McCoy who were prominently featured in the book In Harms Way or any of the other crews names.

[–] ranger27 8 years ago

The Quint speech in Jaws was great. Just watched it again on Netflix a couple of days ago. However the Indianapolis was sunk in July not June as Quint says.

[–] kennyamac 8 years ago

Definitely great scene, with three great actors and a great script... if you haven't seen the Men of courage movie yet, do yourself a favor, go back and re-watch the Jaws scene, save yourself a couple of hours by skipping the Nicholas Cage nonsense fest...

It's a shame, because if this movie had a better script, better cast and better director it could have been a classic... oh well, guess I'll just have to wait another five-ten years until someone has another stab at making a movie of this great story.

[–] haroldbaines 8 years ago

As I was watching this crapfest last night, I kept thinking "which one of these guys is Robert Shaw?"

[–] wtdk123 8 years ago

Robert Shaw did the scene while drunk and sober for different takes (and, as I recall, on different days) but he didn't ad lib the scene. The scene was written by Howard Fast now Shaw, a talented writer, may have rewritten it to make it sound more natural to QUint's character but the scene was written for the movie.
-"Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defense." -Steve Landesberg

[–] db20db (17237) 5 years ago

I found one of the Special Bonus Features on the disk, which was about the creation of the film, to be quite interesting. Both Richard Castro, the writer and producer and Nicolas Cage admitted in interviews that they were highly influenced by that iconic scene in Jaws. Also very unique to me was an interview with an actor portraying a sailor, Matt Lanter, who was the grandson of one of the survivors.