Newsbites: Max Baer’s Harry Jaws

Three more news items.

1. Max Baer Jr., who played Jethro in The Beverly Hillbillies, is upset that Cinderella Man, directed by the guy who played Opie on The Andy Griffith Show, makes his father look like an “ogre” who brags about the men he has killed in the ring, reports the New York Daily News. Says Baer: “That’s a lie. . . . My father cried about what happened to [Baer ring victim] Frankie Campbell. He had nightmares. He helped put Frankie’s children through college.”

Ron Howard’s spokeswoman replies: “The script was written from the point of view of the Braddock family. To them, Max Baer was a real threat. Ron felt that was how the character needed to be drafted.” I guess that clears it up, then. As Howard’s former director and producer George Lucas has taught us, the truth depends on our “point of view,” and there’s no need for any film to encourage us to see things from more than one of those, I guess.

2. The Harry Potter franchise has been a source of pride for Britons, as has the fact that all the movies are resolutely British in setting, casting, etc. (Interestingly enough, though, only the fourth movie — the upcoming Goblet of Fire — has been directed by a Briton; the first three were directed by an American and a Mexican.) Now comes news, via the Guardian, that the remaining films might be shot somewhere other than the British Isles. Eep.

3. The Associated Press has an item on the various celebrations in the works for the 30th anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, widely regarded as the film that, two years before Star Wars, kicked off the movement towards summer blockbusters.

Among other things, the article claims, “It was the first film to earn $100 million at the box office,” but this seems dubious to me. This site lists quite a few other films released prior to 1975 that have crossed that line — and I think quite a few of them did this before any of their re-releases. Now, the first movie to gross over $200 million — that I would accept. The only other film released prior to 1975 that has ever crossed that line, apparently, is The Exorcist (1973), and I don’t believe it accomplished that until “The Version You Have Never Seen” was released nearly 27 years later.