Captivating........ in one hell of a scary way

Rating: 10/10 (26 October 2003)

When i was about 9 i bought this film solely for the purpose that is was a popular film. I sat down and watched it excepting a typical horror movie, ala nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th. Instead i got so much more then that. For anyone who calls themselves a movie collector who hasn't seen JAWS i advise you to get it.
The opening sequence when Chrissie Watkins gets killed is cinema magic. Then shark is never shown yet it gives us an uneasy feeling of "what if?". What if we had of seen the shark? what gore is it unleashing on this poor girl? If they had of showed it, there is no way that the scene would have been as scary. Instead Spielberg gives us he IMPRESSION of what is happening.
Alex Kintner's death is much the same. We see blood although we do NOT see violence. Our imagination is much worse then the actual truth.

Then the Orca scenes
The bad chemistry that is going between Hooper and Quint is very obvious. Then you have Brody who is the common man. He earns a common salary, being the police chief of a common town with a common wife and common kids. He is US!!. The average person. He has fears, he has family he has a connection to us. His flash of courage in the ending is very uncommon. When Brody breaks the style from ordinary man to extraordinary man is the key to the movie. It ends up as a monster battling (in the end) an ordinary man.

The movie of JAWS is not only a definitive point of Steven Spielberg, but the entire horror genre. The thought of being killed when you went swimming is unimaginable... until JAWS. After that film people are, and still are today, scared of swimming because of this movie. If a film of this magnitude has this effect on so many people, then there is no question that you have to see it.
**** 1/2