Truly Impactful Film

Rating: 8/10 (2 April 2019)

While there are other great suspense movies this was certainly a milestone. Through the use of music (John Williams) and other tools Spielberg actually made people scared to go in the water, oddly paralleling what occurs in the movie.
The stories have grown that it was the failure of the animatronic shark that subsequently forced Spielberg to cleverly shoot and edit around the shark and thereby in its absence build the suspense far higher than it might have been had the shark been available. While these stories may or may not be true the effect is still impressive.
The film also benefits from Spielberg's ability to capture the regular routine of everyday life of the residents in a beach side resort as the summer season swings into high gear.
The final ingredient is the strong performances particularly from the trio of Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfus,