You Can't Ask For Anything More

Rating: 10/10 (29 August 2011)

How would one even begin to criticize this? It's a brilliantly put together, fast moving and extremely scary movie. It features one of the greatest and most iconic pieces of theme music in movie history, it features tremendous performances from the cast and perhaps the scariest thing about it is that it isn't really a "horror" movie as you would normally define "horror." There's no "monster" in this - just a large great white shark that has developed a real taste for human flesh and takes up residence off an East Coach beach on the fictional community of Amity Island to feed. There's no wasting of time on this. The movie grabs you by the collar in just the first couple of minutes with the truly frightening first attack - made even more frightening by the fact that (although you know what it is) you never see the attacker. A young girl is just grabbed by something and disappears screaming in a pool of blood. It was a brilliant and very effective opening that ensured that the viewer would never lose interest, and indeed the shock of that opening means you don't take your eyes off the screen for even a moment.
The first part of the movie deals with the efforts of the local sheriff (Brody, played by Roy Scheider) to convince the town to shut the beach after that first attack. He's convinced (and the local ME confirmed) that it was a shark attack. But the town is about to host thousands of tourists for the July 4 holiday. Under pressure from the mayor and town Council, the ME changes his report to a boating accident, and Brody isn't allowed to shut the beach, because it would cost the town too much money. A marine biologist (Hooper, played by Richard Dreyfuss) is brought in and confirms that this was a shark attack by a huge shark, but still the town won't listen, and disaster occurs. Finally, the mayor - stunned by the carnage that ensued - agrees to pay Quint, a local fisherman played by Robert Shaw, a bounty of $10000 to hunt and kill the shark, assisted by Brody and Hooper.
It's marvellously put together. Maybe the only thing I could have done without were some of the male-bonding scenes between Quint, Brody and Hooper on board the Orca as they sing songs and compare wounds. But that's nowhere near enough to detract from the overall power of the movie, and it's in that scene that Quint shares his story as part of the crew of the USS Indianapolis, an American ship sunk by the Japanese in the closing days of World War II, with many of the crew being taken by sharks while they waited to be rescued. I had never heard that story before, checked it out after watching the movie and discovered it to be very true. The climax of the hunt as the trio is finally able to locate the great white is a tremendous fight. There are really very few moments in this that give you much of an opportunity to catch your breath. It may well be the best movie of its type ever made, and one of the best movies ever, regardless of genre. (10/10)