Roy Scheider’s landmark films
Speaking to the Associated Press in 1986, Roy Scheider spoke about his film career, and three landmark films from his filmography.
To be fair, you could have picked any of his films from the whole of the 1970’s, which included the likes of Klute (1971), Marathon Man (1976) and Sorcerer (1977), to be on that landmark list.
That is until the ones on that landmark list are revealed as The French Connection (1971), Jaws (1975) and All That Jazz (1979). All three films and performances are pretty good stuff.
Scheider said: "I've been fortunate to do what I consider three landmark films, The French Connection spawned a whole era of the relationship between two policemen, based on an enormous amount of truth about working on the job.
“Jaws was the first big, blockbuster outdoor-adventure film. And certainly All That Jazz is not like any old MGM musical. Each one of these films is unique, and I consider myself fortunate to be associated with them.”
And with one Oscar nomination at the start of the decade for Connection, the highest then grossing film of all time with Jaws in the middle and a second Oscar nomination rounding out the decade, those three personal choices of Scheider for landmark status are hard to contest.
The actor, who passed away in 2008, now has his final film Beautiful Blue Eyes, set to be released.
We look back at the films he considers to be the landmarks of his career.
The French Connection
The French Connection was released in 1971, the same year as Dirty Harry. Both are seminal police detective films that are of its time, but also helped shape the look and feel of police films and television for decades to come.
Connection connected at the box office and at the Oscars, winning a total of five Oscars, including for Best Actor for Gene Hackman, Best Film and Best Director for William Friedkin. Roy Scheider was also nominated for a Best Supporting Actor role
There's lots of handheld camera that we just take for granted now, almost giving it that documentary and gritty feel, which is what Friedkin started out making before moving into feature films.
In fact, many of the shots on the streets on New York are stolen, so are just filmed with handheld cameras with no permission and the actors surrounded by lots of real New Yorkers.
And New York is as much the star of this film as the actors are, it’s the almost forgotten filthy New York with its apocalyptic wastegrounds. It's very much the same NYC as Taxi Driver and the inhabits the violent world as The Taking of Pelham 123, which featured Robert Shaw.
With its New York locations you could almost be forgiven for viewing this as Martin Brody: the early years, Brody being put in witness protection and moved to Amity Island for a quiet life and protect him and his family. We can but dream.
Jaws
For a film that is almost 50 years old, Jaws still continues to deliver to audiences old and new alike. Jaws is firmly apex predator when it comes to any other shark film
It went over production schedule, over budget and the mechanical shark, fondly nicknamed Bruce after director Steven Spielberg’s lawyer, often didn’t work. The film should never have worked, but all of this extra time meant the film matured, like a fine wine (red and white of course), to become the classic that we have today.
By the end of its initial cinematic run, it is estimated that an astonishing 67 million Americans saw it upon release.
We all know the story, Amity Island, a seaside town off Long Island is getting ready for the summer season (the best they’ve ever had), but it could have never been ready for the murderous shadow of a Great White shark.
As the victims continue to wash up, the town hire a grizzled fisherman to catch it and kill it. Joining him at sea are a marine biologist and the town’s chief of police. It’s sink or swim for the thrust together threesome as they fight against the elements, against each other and against the shark.
However, it’s not the 25-foot shark; all three tons of it, that dominates the film though, each and every piece of the film he is in is dominated by Robert Shaw as Quint. Scheider and Dreyfuss are no slouches for sure and the way the threesome ping off each other is a joy to behold, the script coupled with the beauty of the extra rehearsal time due to operating problems with the shark et al.
And as you mature, like Quint’s pretty good stuff, the way you watch and experience Jaws also matures. When you were younger you might have been there for the shark attacks and the shark – who only has four minutes of screen time – but now you watch it for the people, the characters and the wonderfully on point dialogue.
Nothing is wasted, everything is there for a reason and all of it continues to deliver and delight, which is why Jaws only just keeps getting better with each subsequent viewing.
All That Jazz
A (very) thinly veiled semi-autobiographical musical drama directed by Broadway legend Bob Fosse.
A justifiably Oscar-nominated Scheider plays Joe Gideon, a Broadway choreographer and film director, who collapses from a heart attack while directing a new show and editing his latest film.
This is Scheider as you have never seen him before, and without doubt it is the performance of his career. It's also his own personal favourite performance, so demands to be seen.
It is almost as if the term tour de force was created to describe this performance and film. This was Scheider’s much-deserved second Oscar nomination, although he would ultimately lose out to his Marathon Man co-star Dustin Hoffman.
Words by Dean Newman
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