I just read an article that mentioned the public reaction to the movie jaws. Many people would not go in the water after they watched that movie. To this day, it bothers me to get in the ocean. The jaws factor is always in the back of my mind. Why did this happen? It was a very beleivable story. Watch the public reaction to the movie around the old water cooler Monday morning. You will get the answer to the panic question then. Any thoughts?

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), November 18, 1999

Answers

In the movie JAWS, people have to make a conscious act to get in the water, therefore they would have a choice. In Y2K, they are already in the water with no way to get out. The point is, that they will feel frustrated that they haven't made preparations and that it is futile to try. The anly course of action is to forget it and ignore it and find something else to occupy the mind. It is too horrible to contemplate.

-- Herb (herb01@prodigy.net), November 18, 1999.

If the press and govt spent 18 months telling people to prepare for a small bug bite prior to Jaws, and then told them there was no such thing as a shark in swimming waters because all govt and industry had placed a safety net around the swimming area, and then played down or didn't play at all the eye witness attacks, the movie may have been less of a thrill. y2k, the movie, will be a non-event. If tshtf the price of admission will be grief for many, death for some. So be it.

-- enough is (enough@enough.com), November 18, 1999.

Just read the news story out this morning "Y2K A Bust" slamming NBC's movie. There was another slam story a few days ago.

Just ask yourself one simple question.

When was the last time you saw any reviews, good or bad, of a made- for-TV movie before it aired (or after it aired for that matter)?

-- Pete (pberry1_98@yahoo.com), November 18, 1999.

Herb? Eh? What? Are the stores empty already? Are the banks shut? Did I blink and wake up in January 1900, sorry, 2000?

Don't get me wrong, I understand and agree with your point that we're already in the water. It's way, way too late every for Joe Blow in the country to stock lots or become self sufficient, and even Joe will be able to figure that out. I'm assuming that he will also figure out that if he gets to the shops and bank fast enough, it'll be some OTHER Joe that'll go hungry.

The scary part about this is that Joe doesn't even have to believe that Y2K is an issue. He's just got to believe that every other Joe might stock up because THEY believe it, or (think about this) because they think the same way as our Joe, and will try and buy before him "just in case".

I think many people in this forum agree that it is prudent and sensible to lose/pay a few weeks interest for the privelege of pre- buying the goods that you would have bought ANYWAY in the run-up to New Year. The trouble is, what if a couple of million Joe Public suddenly figure this out at the same time and make a run for the shops and the bank, in full view of the news cameras.

What if, what if. We'll find out on Monday.

-- Colin MacDonald (roborogerborg@yahoo.com), November 18, 1999.

Pete - I just read this review and it sure looks like it could have been written by some of the trolls from this forum who are probably on the gubment payroll. Or maybe it was written by the guy who wrote that fine sermon for the American Bankers Assos.

They sure are pulling out all the stops to keep people from seeing the movie and getting worried enough to take preparation steps.

Here's hoping its not going to be anywhere as bad as we think it will be.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), November 18, 1999.

I find it interesting that on last nite's Dateline, the whole hour was spent on survival. The first segment was survival in the desert, then an aircrash into water, and then ending with a multiple car pile-up scenario.

With the movie coming Sunday is this a lead in?

-- rb (ronbanks_2000@yahoo.com), November 18, 1999.

Remember the Summer of '75 well.

"JAWS" was an event. It was the first movie that had an entire audience jump clear out of their seats. It was the first "Blockbuster" movie that had lines wrapped around theatres. It was the first movie that affected the culture at-large, by creating subliminal fear that permeated every conversation that Summer and Fall. Beaches and resorts suffered losses as folks stayed out of the water, newspaper articles were written to calm the fears and give the statistical odds of a shark attack.

The amazing thing is that the nervous twitch that JAWS visited on the public is still there in the back of our collective cultural concience. I still am of the opinion that JAWS is the best thriller movie that I've ever seen. .Even-though special effects today are light-years ahead of where they were back then, no one in June of '75 was aware that the shark was a machine. We thought it was a real trained shark (like a killer whale).

Since then, we've had all kinds of disaster movies and so-called threats to our civillization (killer bee movies) that has now desensitized the public to real possible disasters. Disaster movies are now just pure entertainment. The bigger the disaster, the better the ride will be at Universal Studios.

The American people are willfully oblivious to threats to themselves. They continue to build on floodplains, they defy reasonable preparations for earthquakes and hurricanes until they are evident.

This Y2K movie will have little effect on the public at-large. The only group I can see this movie having an impact, would be the elderly who never have really trusted technology to begin with, and who may remember the Great Depression's effect on banks.

Y2K The Movie may prove to be nothing more than a blueprint for another Florida attraction in the minds of the mindless American public.

JAWS was a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon, surpassed only by Star Wars.

But then again, who is affraid of a lightsaber?

-- INVAR (gundark@sw.net), November 18, 1999.