Jaws (1975) and real life (1979)

The I UNDERSTOOD THAT REFERENCE series is a semi-weekly pairing of popular films with films they are directly referenced in or they directly reference. Got that? Good.

Albert Brooks’ debut feature REAL LIFE is incredible not only for being one of the great comedies of all time, but also for its prescience. The film so accurately predicts the rise of reality television that one wonders how we ever went down that path in the first place.
But aside from lampooning what would eventually be the majority of the television landscape, the true genius in Brooks’ film is the decision to focus his comedic ire at the filmmaker himself. In it, he plays a pompous, self-aggrandizing version of Albert Brooks, and the main arc of the film is his foolhardy insistence that his project is the most important piece of storytelling in history. His relentless pursuit of verisimilitude results in complete catastrophe at every turn, so that by the end he’s desperate for a big dramatic finish... a la Steven Spielberg’s JAWS.
At a moment of total failure, Brooks’ character invokes the 1975 blockbuster that changed Hollywood (along with Star Wars) as an example of what people want from their stories. They want action and melodrama, big experiences for them live out vicariously through the characters. Using that as inspiration, Brooks inflicts one final, climactic act of cruelty on his unassuming subjects, gloriously exclaiming “Oh, this is a million times better than a big fish!”