A landmark film that loses much of its impact in modern times.

Rating: Null/10 (18 December 2004)

I can't tell you why I waited almost 30 years to see "Jaws", but I saw it today, celebrating both my and Spielberg's birthday. I'm just a bit older than he is! "Jaws" is a fine movie, but I can't see why it has received so many votes of '9' and '10'. It is the 4th of July celebration coming up on Amity Island ( fictional beach community was actually Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts) and someone thinks they may have seen a shark. Local businessmen don't want to scare away the vacation crowd and all their money, so attempt to underplay it. But the shark is real, and the threesome of Roy Scheider (Police Chief, Martin Brody), the boat captain, Quint, played by Robert Shaw, and a young Richard Dreyfuss who plays Matt Hooper, a shark expert sent to help out band together to neutralize the beast. The most that this movie can claim, in retrospect, is that it will make you think a couple more times before you go swimming in an ocean. It is the movie that gave Spielberg his jump-start, as well as composer John Williams.
SOME SPOILERS FOLLOW, you may want to quit reading. The movie starts with an overnight beach party, and two teens head for the water for a swim as the sun is poised for rising. The girl goes in, the boy is too drunk and falls asleep, the next day they find her mangled body washed up. It isn't clear why the hungry shark didn't just eat all of her. In a day or two, when lots of people are swimming, a young boy on a raft gets eaten. The first half of the movie establishes the risk, with the struggle between those who want to shut down the beach and protect the people, and those who don't want to lose business. The second half is the hunt, the three men in the fishing boat, to harpoon and kill a very persistent and strong Great White shark. The old captain gets eaten, but the Scheider and Dreyfuss characters survive. The old shark is finally done in by an air tank in his mouth, and a gun shot breaks off the valve, exploding the shark.