My son was in the water, too...

Rating: Null/10 (23 September 2003)

It's hard to imagine that, if "Bruce" (the name given to the mechanical shark by Spielberg) had worked as he had envisioned, this movie may have become another low-grade horror flick. Instead, it's more than halfway through the film before the creature appears in full view of the audience.
Until then, only William's haunting score is there to warn you of the approaching danger as people get picked off one by one in the surf. It also allows sufficient time to develop each of the main characters: Brody, the city-boy cop trying to deal with small-town politics, Hooper, the oceanographer who also thinks about the scientific possibilities, Vaughn, the slick mayor who turns a blind eye to the problem in favor of the business people that put him in office, and Quint, the hunter who will solve the island's problem for a handsome fee.
The movie only gets better in the second half as Quint becomes a modern Ahab, who looks upon the shark as an adversary and pledges to rid the seas of this great white terror without much thought of this daunting challenge or its significant consequences. Meanwhile, Brody and Hooper now face two problems: the menacing shark, who seems to be toying with them, and Quint, who has no problem taking them down with him should it come to that conclusion.
Having grown up on the water, had I seen this film as a young boy, I may have thought twice about dangling my hand over the side of the boat or diving off the town docks. The horror genre is usually synonymous with bad cinema but, on the rare occasion, some unforgettable classics are created and the first of this series (the only one worth watching or owning) is such an example.