'Jaws' Draws

Everyone has wondered what it would be like to be maimed and mangled by a great white shark. Oliver A. Horovitz ’08 actually did something about it.

Longing for off-the-wall events at Harvard, Horovitz decided to blend inner tubes, Swedish fish, and a 1975 thriller. The result? The “MAC Attack,” which lured adventurous students to the MAC pool, getting them to shell out to sit in inner-tubes while watching Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” on a large screen.

“I feel like at Harvard we are missing events that are really quirky—the kind of thing you see and you get excited about,” says Horovitz. “I think what made me realize how good this idea is that you can describe it in one sentence and get people excited.”

Thursday’s extravaganza was quirky indeed. Shark attack music—and questionably relevant indie rock—played in the background as the courageous pool viewers settled into their floating devices. Other viewers watched from the grandstands, munching Swedish fish with shark-like enthusiasm.

According to Horovitz, the event took over a year to plan, inspired by a similar screening at another college where “The Little Mermaid” was shown to a pool-bound audience.

“Clearly a lot of planning went into this,” says Monica M. Renta ’08, “I mean—the Swedish fish.”

“I thought it was awesome. I mean, what a random thing to do,” says Patrick G. Mauro ’07. “We need more things like this.” Many of the students who packed the pool and bleachers agreed with him. But not everyone enjoyed being partially submerged in chlorinated fluid.

Rather than experiencing a chilly sense of dread, Vanessa A. Pope ’07 just felt chilled.

“It wasn’t that well thought out; it was really cold. I wish it had been a screening of ‘Titanic,’ because then the cold would have been more realistic.”

“Titanic” may have been appropriate for the bikini-clad, but for those with their feet dangling in dark water, Jaws was an ideal choice.

Indeed, some viewers found the experience appropriately thrilling. “In the scary parts everyone was sitting with their feet out of the water,” says Katherine A. Rawlinson ’08, who watched from the stands. Most of the floating audience managed to work through their fears, but a few of the more timid members struggled with the experience.

“I was with a couple of friends, who were female, and they were grabbing on to me a little bit, but it was a lot of fun,” says Mauro.

At least one student ended up letting the infamous Great White get to her.

“I mean, it was a pool, I knew there weren’t any sharks,” says Pope. “Although I had a friend I was with, and she left early because she was so scared.”

But something was lurking in the dark waters. Magnus Grimeland ’07 patrolled underwater, decked out in SCUBA gear and prepared to deal with any emergencies that might arise.

Horovitz added that safety was a big concern. “Basically, I made a list of everything that could go wrong and I tried to make sure that didn’t happen.”

But the performance went off sans drowning or shark attacks, though the 10 p.m. showing did feature a dramatic enforcement of the no horseplay policy. A lifeguard called a male student out of the pool, and a dramatic confrontation ensued. Many other staff and security members went to the scene, but it was discovered that the viewer had simply fallen out of the inner tube and was soon let back in. The show continued without a hitch.

“I’d love to see the MAC Attack become an annual event at Harvard,” Horovitz wrote in an e-mail. “It definitely has the potential to become an ongoing tradition. It’s the kind of thing we need more here at this school.”

“‘Jaws’ is the quintessential scary water movie, and there is no better place to watch it than in a pool, on inner tubes,” says Horovitz. “It would be the equivalent of watching ‘Blair Witch Project’ out on the woods when you’re camping.”

Next year?