Dick Durham's blog
Web log entry dated 12 February 2008
Captain Calamity
As the police chief of a US sailing, water-ski-ing and diving community, Amity sheriff Martin Brody desperately needs some RYA instruction.
Brody, was back on my telly, Sunday night in Jaws 2 and I'd forgotten just how awful the attention to anything but the great white shark itself, was all those years ago.
Brody reacted to his deputy's guidance on steering a compass course, thus: 'Never mind that crap, just point'. His knowledge of using a VHF radio was displayed by smashing the receiver at the first sign of interference. And his ability to tow a flotilla of shark-crumpled dinghies left the police launch high and dry on the rocks.
You will meet a similar Captain Calamity in April's YM.
Meanwhile spare a thought for Brody, who was played by actor Roy Scheider, who died two days ago aged 75.
Scheider should be remembered, by the way, for the superb film French Connection, in which he played another cop, alongside Gene Hackman - an actor who in real life bought a sailing yacht and cruised the Caribbean for a year or two. French Connection is also screened on TV this week.
Dick Durham
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