the summer of '75

Rating: 9/10 (20 March 2008)

Like 'Jurassic Park,' 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' and 'Star Wars', 'Jaws' was clearly the movie of the moment when it came out in the summer of '75, and it began a string of blockbusters by Steven Spielberg that pretty much continues to present day. All the familiar elements and themes that people love (and hate) about Spielberg are present, though some are more muted and underplayed than they would be in later films by the director. Perhaps he didn't feel he had as free a hand to indulge himself as he would later. As everyone on the planet has seen 'Jaws,' there's no point in recounting the plot. So instead, just a few observations. Roy Scheider died recently, and as almost inevitably happens, we tend to look at his performance a little differently now, with a touch of nostalgia and melancholy. He really was good in this, the Everyman we could all relate to. A decent guy in over his head, scared, not terribly intelligent but not stupid either, with the added ironic trait of being afraid of the water, and someone who ultimately becomes somewhat heroic, though not intentionally. He reacts the way we hope we would in a crisis where we're frightened out of our wits, but from somewhere inside ourselves we find the courage or fortitude or blind luck to do the right thing and save the day. Richard Dreyfuss has a star-making role as the shark expert Hooper. His character and performance are what date the movie more than anything; he has '70's yuppie written all over him and is the prototypical Spielberg male lead. Hooper embodies all the things that Spielberg seems to find so appealing: he is clever, funny, childish, emotive, silly, put-upon, but, like Scheider's Chief Brody, more resourceful than he gives himself credit for. Hooper is the man-child that inhabits so many of the director's movies (Dreyfuss would go on to star in 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'), and that most of the audience roots for and finds very entertaining. And Robert Shaw has the plum role, the scene-stealing turn as Quint, who is part Captain Ahab and part Popeye. In one of his best scenes, where the boat is being prepared for the shark hunt, Shaw keeps up a steady stream of seafaring prattle, almost gibberish, that is very funny and perfectly in character. Later, when he recounts his harrowing experience as a crewmember of the USS Indianapolis in World War II, and the desperate fear of floating helplessly in shark-infested waters waiting to be rescued, you can't take your eyes off him. (Spielberg says Shaw came up with much of the dialogue in this scene.) Quint has a kind of modified respect for Brody, but none for Hooper, whom he gives unholy hell all through the movie. 'Jaws' is one of those films that takes you back to wherever you were the first time you saw it. And for a couple of hours, it's 1975 all over again, right down to the leisure suits.