I'm Leaving Now, Beautiful Spanish Lady

I wrote this on February 10, 2008. On that day, actor Roy Scheider died. He appeared in several films and achieved a certain degree of popularity, the best known of which was Jaws (1975 — Steven Spielberg). The film was a huge success, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time up to that point. If you haven't seen it, you should, because it's a cinema classic.
At one point, when the showdown between the shark and the three crew members aboard the boat begins, one of the most striking scenes takes place. At least, I liked it a great deal. It sets in motion the action that leads to the final struggle. Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) is standing at the edge of the fishing boat, throwing out bait, when the shark suddenly appears, looking perfectly calm. It surfaces and then swims away, as if to say, I don't want those little fish; I want you. Brody is left in a state of shock when he sees it. He gets up and starts walking backward until he reaches the boat's cabin, cigarette in hand, and says the line: "You're gonna need a bigger boat."

And that is precisely what happens, since the shark practically ends up "eating" the boat—in other words, it tears the whole thing apart.

The line itself is no ordinary line, just another sentence in the film. It marks a before and an after in the movie. But it is not merely a substantial line within the film; it is also a significant line in the history of American cinema. The line "You're gonna need a bigger boat" was ranked 35th among the American Film Institute's 100 greatest movie quotes.
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo%27s_100_a%C3%B1os..._100_frases

I took this opportunity to say a few words about the film. In reality, I have nothing to add that hasn't already been said. It is a horror film, and a very well-made one at that. It blends realism with fantasy to create a wonderful story. Alongside Roy Scheider, the film stars Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss.

The film is based on a novel titled Jaws, written by Peter Benchley, which I have in my library waiting to be read. One of its major artistic predecessors is Moby-Dick, the novel by Herman Melville. I have that one on my reading list as well.

The soundtrack created a sound that has become one of the most recognizable musical themes in the history of cinema. The score won an Academy Award and was ranked sixth among the greatest film scores by the American Film Institute.

The film has attracted all kinds of criticism, ranging from strictly cinematic assessments to academic analyses. http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibur%C3%B3n_(pel%C3%ADcula). These opinions vary widely. I can't explore them in depth because I haven't read them all, only the summaries available on the internet. Even those summaries seem interesting in their own right.

I watched the film again, and I want to highlight three excerpts.

The first excerpt features a rhyming verse I wasn't familiar with, which one of the characters recites while making fun of the other two. In this scene, Quint mocks the shark cage. According to what I read, during the making of the film, the crew actually went to Australia to film real sharks inside a cage. However, they used a small cage and brought along a short actor to sit inside it, creating the illusion of making the situation—and the sharks themselves—seem much larger.

Dialogue (1:06:56–1:07:43)

Matt Hooper: Take all this stuff downstairs and put it somewhere safe. You hear me?
Assistant: Yes, sir.
Quint: Good Lord, you see some things in this world! When I was a kid, all we ever wanted to be was harpooners or swordfish fishermen. What have you got here? A portable shower or a monkey cage?
Matt Hooper: A shark cage.
Quint: A shark cage. (He nods.) For you to get inside?
Matt Hooper: (He nods, smiling.)
Quint: So the cage will be in the water? And you'll be inside it? And there'll be a shark nearby? Our shark?

I'm leaving now, beautiful Spanish lady,
goodbye, I'm going, oh, lovely woman,
for we've been ordered to sail for Boston,
and perhaps we'll never meet again.

Quint (Robert Shaw) is a tough, rugged, irrational, rough-edged character who doesn't beat around the bush. He is a man from another era, an anachronistic figure. As one critic put it, "Authority must be restored, but not by Quint." (Biskind)

Dialogue (1:08:29–1:09:09)

(All the lines are spoken by Quint.)
— Cut it out, Chief. We're gonna lose the daylight.
— The bow is in front and the stern is in back. Learn that well, little man, unless you want me to kick you out backward through the porthole.
— Come on, Chief. This ain't no Boy Scout outing.
— It's hard to leave, huh...? Ha, ha, ha!
— Here lies the body of Maria Chestnut,
who died at the age of 103.
She kept her virginity until she was fifteen,
which is a record around this neighborhood.
— Come on, Inspector, fasten your seat belt! Ha, ha, ha!
— Hey, if you see a shark coming, Hooper, don't swallow it! Ha, ha, ha!

In the last of the excerpts I've chosen, the song appears again. Quint initially sang it on his own, but now all three men sing it aboard the boat. I only have the translated lyrics, and I don't actually know the song's exact title or who wrote it.

Dialogue (1:23:29–1:30:39)

Martin Brody: What's that?
Matt Hooper: A whale.
Quint:

I'm leaving now, beautiful Spanish lady,
goodbye, I'm going, oh, lovely woman.

Matt Hooper:

How am I to get back home?
For I want to be in my bed.

Matt Hooper and Quint:

Those four little drinks I had a while ago
are making me dizzy now.

Matt Hooper, Quint, and Martin Brody:

Wherever I may go,
by air, by land, or sea...
How am I to get back home?
For I want to be in my bed.
Those four little drinks I had a while ago
are going to make me dizzy.
Wherever I may go,
by air, by land, or sea...

 

The song would go something like this:

I'm leaving now, beautiful Spanish lady,
goodbye, I'm going, oh, lovely woman,
for we've been ordered to sail for Boston,
and perhaps we'll never meet again.
How am I to get back home?
For I want to be in my bed.
Those four little drinks I had a while ago
are making me dizzy now.
Wherever I may go,
by air, by land, or sea...
Wherever I may go,
by air, by land, or sea...