A cultural phenomenon of the best kind

Rating: 10/10 (4 October 2011)

The 1970s was a transitional period for Hollywood and American society. Failure to win Vietnam and the shame of Watergate prompted a reassessment of America. The moral certainties of old Hollywood were now irrelevant. In late 60's a new group of directors emerged to fill the vacuum. Their influences were other films. They were the movie brats. And the only one of them to achieve sustained unbroken success was Steven Spielberg. He is the most commercially successful filmmaker of all time, with an unerring instinct for the modern mainstream. He has converted his filmmaking powers to unprecedented corporate power in Hollywood. But while his commercial success is indisputable he has suffered much criticism; chiefly that his films are childish in their viewpoint. He positions himself in the cosy Middle-American ideological mainstream and presented issues in morally simplistic terms. His movies were full of sentimentality, moral certainties and special effects wizardry. He made Schindler's List partly with a view to address the accusation that he was not a serious filmmaker. But to be perfectly honest, whether you agree with this viewpoint or not the fact remains that Steven Spielberg directed Jaws. And that will be something that no one can ever take away from him. Jaws remains one of the most iconic, timeless, suspenseful and brilliant films ever made.
It was nothing short of a cultural phenomenon on release. Not only in that it terrified a generation of people from going anywhere near the ocean but it had a profound and lasting effect on the movie industry. It was the biggest money maker of all time on release and it instigated a Hollywood production strategy that has been geared towards summer blockbusters ever since. It ushered in the era where marketing campaigns often cost more than the movie itself; while it was also the first film to be released via saturation booking, forever changing exhibition strategy. For better or for worse, Jaws changed the way the industry did business.
But it would be enormously unfair to blame Jaws for the blockbuster phenomena. It was just by chance that this movie about a killer shark was the monumental success it was. In many ways this was a sister film to Spielberg's earlier movie Duel. Where that movie pitted an everyman against a malevolent truck driver, Jaws adopted the same basic idea but made the villain a great white shark. Jaws is essentially a horror movie because the creature in this film does not behave in the way any shark would. Here, the shark is given a malevolent evil intelligence that makes it behave in an almost supernatural way. It operates along the same lines as a maniac from a stalk and slash horror film. Moreover, the killing of the sexually liberated girl at the beginning of the film is very much in line with the conservative ethos of the slasher films that would follow in its wake. The price of immorality is evidently death in the universe of Jaws too.
Spielberg manipulates the audience brilliantly by keeping the shark off the screen for a long time. Instead John Williams extraordinarily effective music is used to signify the presence of the monster. There are a series of scenes of incredible suspense where the fear of the unknown are played to the maximum, such as the opening killing and the attack on the two night fishermen. When the shark does finally appear it is nowhere near as rubbish looking as many claim. Despite being clearly fake you always believe in it. This is the power of Jaws.
Spielberg's preoccupation with suburbia is very evident here. Amity is a small community put under siege by an alien enemy. This deadly foreign presence threatens this suburban idyll. Does Amity = America? Who can say for sure but there is no question about the parallels to Watergate in the town mayor's repeated attempt to cover up the scandal for his own self-interest. Political corruption was everywhere in 70's American movies, and here is no exception.
Masculinity and class is represented in three types here. There is the abrasive and working class Quint, the intellectual and wealthy Hooper and the even-handed and middle class Brody. Despite their antagonistic relationship Quint and Hooper have much more in common with each other than with Brody. They share expertise despite the class divide. But seeing as this is the world according to Spielberg, narrative logic dictates that Brody - the man of the suburbs - will provide the sane middle ground that will ultimately prevail. His motivation is born of concern for the community, he is a family man with self-doubt; he does what he does out of a sense of duty not for selfish reasons. The everyman triumphs against evil.
Jaws does crystallise the world view of Steven Spielberg. But where in some of his other films this perspective is coated with a saccharine feel, it is simply not the case here. Jaws is a thrilling film, with three dimensional characters. It terrified a generation of cinema-goers in the 70's and remains one of the genuinely great blockbusters. It never gets old.