“Jaws” has more to teach us than we think
Steven Spielberg's masterpiece has permeated our culture, and its story speaks volumes about our times, observes writer Tom Naegels in the Brussels daily De Standaard. Each week, Courrier International offers you a column that raises questions about our modern condition, drawing on literary, scientific, and, of course, philosophical works.
All these cultural icons are turning 50 this year! Iron Maiden. Jaws . Yours truly—just imagine! Among them, the media is particularly interested in Steven Spielberg 's horror classic, the film that made the summer blockbuster a pillar of Western culture.
The New York Times published a very interesting article on this subject which shows that Jaws served as a model for a long series of films whose sole purpose is to confront us with the imminent arrival of danger, like Alien or Jurassic Park : take a bloodthirsty creature (a shark, an orca, a piranha, a snake, a spider, a bear, a dinosaur, an alien…) and release it in an isolated place (an island, a spaceship…) where, at the very beginning of the story, it claims a victim, a victim who remains anonymous.
Your main character is an ordinary person with a few problems (a divorce, drinking problems, etc.) who hardly has the makings of a hero, but who notices the danger before the official authorities. These authorities (the mayor of the small town, the owner of the amusement park, etc.) even work against the hero, because – tsk – they put financial or political interests before the common good. The hero in spite of himself e
The Standard (Brussels)Launched in 1918, the leading newspaper of the Flemish establishment gradually distanced itself from the Catholic world as well as the Flemish movement – and, more specifically, from the Flemish Christian Social Party, in power in Belgium from 1945 to 1999.
From its first issue on 4 December 1918, the top of the front page featured a cross forming the letters AVV-VVK ( “Alles voor Vlaanderen, Vlaanderen voor Christus”, “All for Flanders, Flanders for Christ”). This reference was removed in 1999 in order to give the magazine a new look and rejuvenate its readership.
De Standaard , which aims to provide “reliable, independent and high-quality” information, undertook a major overhaul in 2007: it reduced its format, modernized its graphic identity and adapted to the digital context.
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