Comments on: You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Phallic Symbol: Jaws As a Journey from Impotence to Manhood

By: dgt

dgt — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 07:47:23 +0000

Great article.

I enjoy an article that looks into the symbolism of films, because I am a movie geek and yet have trouble grappling all the metaphors and whatnot.

I particularly enjoy someone writing it out in an easy to read and (as said above) a completely unpretentious style. It doesn’t sound like any of it is made up and it all continues to be interesting.

Cheers.

By: D.N.

D.N. — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 05:53:52 +0000

“I think an obvious film for the unlikely hero aspect that you mention is “Deliverance” where the man’s man (Burt Reynolds) is injured early on and the pacifist (Jon Voight) has to save the day.”

Also “The Exorcist,” when veteran exorcist Father Merrin (Max von Sydow) dies and the less-experienced Father Karras (Jason Miller), who’s spent the better part of the movie grappling with his crisis of faith, has to take over and save Regan.

By: Keith

Keith — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 04:22:35 +0000

An interesting article, thank you.

I think an obvious film for the unlikely hero aspect that you mention is “Deliverance” where the man’s man (Burt Reynolds) is injured early on and the pacifist (Jon Voight) has to save the day.

By: minter

minter — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:02:17 +0000

many of hitchcock’s films deal with the hero’s progression towards agency. Especially Rear Window and Spellbound

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 02:43:44 +0000

Excellent analysis, very un-pretentious and really interesting. But I take issue with your mention of Cary Grant as some epitome of manliness. While I agree that he is (in many ways), you never mention North by Northwest, which I think is another film about a man who goes from inadequacy to heroism. And if we want to dig deeper into Hitchcock’s oeuvre, The 39 Steps is also similar. Still, really cool essay.

By: David

David — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 01:36:30 +0000

Amusingly, I wrote this paper for a Gender & Sexuality class about four years ago. You’ve got some interesting things here that I didn’t have, and I had a few you don’t, but it’s basically the same paper.

By: D.N.

D.N. — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 22:13:44 +0000

Great article! And it’s interesting that in “Jaws 2,” Brody had to regain his manhood again, as he spent most of that movie being disbelieved/mocked/ineffectual etc. And he had to do it alone (Hooper couldn’t even come to the phone).

By: Grant

Grant — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 17:05:43 +0000

So Jaws is gay?

By: Ian

Ian — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 08:19:48 +0000

Another great article – doesn’t seem like overthinkingit at all really – most of this is a pretty convincing reading of the film.

By: Darin

Darin — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 04:49:07 +0000

Great OTI.

@matt: I hope riffle enters the lexicon for phallic-ness like cod piece.