On this week's episode of 'The Revisit', comedian Mario Rosenstock revisits Steven Spielberg's 1975 horror-thriller and prototype summer blockbuster, 'Jaws'.
Regarded as one of Spielberg's greatest works, 'Jaws' was pivotal in establishing not only Spielberg's credentials as a director, but in the very idea of the blockbuster business model we know today. Given what was then considered a massive wide release, 'Jaws' came to dominate the summer of 1975 and has become a landmark movie since then.
For Mario Rosenstock, an actor by trade though primarily regarded as a comedian, it's a movie that made him love movies. "It gave me the rapture, that almost semi-religious feeling when you go into a movie," Rosenstock explained, though he adds that 'ET' - another Spielberg classic - was the first movie he ever saw in a cinema.
"'Jaws' was a film I found I could watch over and over again and still find little moments in it where I was marvelling at this young tyro, this young filmmaker's balls, tenacity and just sheer genius for telling a story. There's something about him that reminds me of Mozart. There's something brazen about him... something with utter conviction. He has this virtuosity that is magic."
Indeed, Spielberg's career flourished in the wake of 'Jaws'. After came the sci-fi classic, 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind', and six years after 'Jaws' came 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', the first of the Indiana Jones trilogy, and a year later, 'ET'.
You can listen to the full episode of 'The Revisit' with Mario Rosenstock below or on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major podcast platforms.
Previous episodes of this latest season of 'The Revisit' featured comedian and actor Tommy Tiernan and Dublin Lord Mayor Hazel Chu. You can listen to those interviews and more from 'The Revisit' here.
