Definitely Above Average

Rating: 8/10 (17 April 2014)

This is one of those rare films that has won so many awards that it's hard to keep up with them. For example, it won two Academy Awards for "Best Sound" and "Best Film Editing". It was also nominated for an Academy Award for "Best Picture" and while it didn't win on that particular night it later did win a Golden Globe award for "Best Motion Picture-Drama". Likewise, Richard Dreyfuss won a BAFTA award for his performance as the oceanographer named "Matt Hooper". And there were other awards and nominations as well. In all it was quite impressive. Now, as far as the movie is concerned, this is definitely one that I can recommend to all but the very young and faint-hearted. Although there isn't much gore, graphic language or nudity it still has enough drama and suspense to keep a person's interest throughout most of the movie. Personally, while I thought the special effects were more than adequate for that specific time period, I still would have preferred a bit more gore to make it seem even more realistic. Additionally, I thought some of the film got a bit bogged down by the dialogue-especially while the three main characters, "Sheriff Brody" (Roy Schieder), "Captain Quint" (Robert Shaw) and the aforementioned "Matt Hooper" were at sea waiting for the shark to appear. Even so this was a very good movie and as proof of that one need only look at the number of sequels, clones and similar movies which have been spawned (no pun intended) due to it. Definitely above average.