Jaws still lurks in the waters

Rating: 10/10 (2 March 2008)

This is the mother of all shark movies. Still standing the test of time since it was made, Jaws is a solid gold classic. I have had this on video and DVD many times now, but every time i see it on TV I always end up watching it. It is a film that has universal appeal (no pun intended). By now everyone should know the story a killer Great White Shark is chowing down on the small town inhabitants of the peaceful Amity and the Police Chief Martin Brody must find a way to stop it. Right from those terrifying (Spielberg found the tune silly when John Williams played it for him, later it would become the theme that would strike fear into film-goers hearts and still do to this day) opening scenes with THAT music immediately instills the fear into you. To tell the truth i have never been swimming in any sea since i saw this movie, purely because like its depicted in this film, you don't know whats under you. This is a gem of a film as it still has the power that it had many years ago and still terrifies the new generation. Spielberg did a wonderful job capturing the magic of Benchley's novel. A lot of people slag off the ending even benchley didn't like the way that Spielberg scripted the shark dying. I say think about this without that scene Scheider would never have had the opportunity to say that great line "smile you son of a....." If you haven't seen Jaws then where the hell have you been, you have missed a great film. The shark breaking down during the film was great because then Spielberg gave us the POV of the shark as it's about to attack. If he had of had the shark to begin with it probably would have never worked, thank god he didn't. There's something about the view of the shark that more scary than seeing the shark. Maybe it's cause you know it's going to kill someone, or it could be the fact that Spielberg makes the audience think that for brief moments WE are the shark. The film should have got an Oscar for not only Editing (which it did) but for Roy Scheider for best actor, Richard Dreyfuss as Supporting Actor and Spielberg as best Director because it deserves it. When you do finally see Jaws, you do jump and if the shark had been seen earlier, i believe that, the scene on the boat would have lost it's shock value. All in all Jaws boasts some great performances from all the key players and yes even to "Bruce". This is also the only Jaws film where the shark was believable and not rubber looking like the sequels. I'm not so sure that it would still work if a CGI was integrated into the film or if they do a remake, the power is behind the eyes and thats exactly where i should stay.
"I think you are going to ignore this particular problem until it swims up and bite you on the ass"