Brilliant

Rating: 10/10 (29 June 2010)

Peter Benchley wrote a thriller about an almost supernaturally cunning great white shark which haunted the beaches of a holiday resort. It was an enjoyable book, but not exceptional. But it was definitely cinematic enough for Universal to acquire the film rights, although it was sufficiently low priority that they allocated a director who had only previously directed one cinema feature (albeit a moderate amount of TV).
OK, so the director was Steven Spielberg, and everyone has to start somewhere, right? Together with screenwriter Carl Gottlieb (whose contribution shouldn't be overlooked), the soapy aspects of the novel were discarded and the story streamlined to concentrate on the shark and its effects on the community it was stalking. The movie brilliantly intertwines shark action with the interplay between the 3 primary characters, Police Chief Brodie (Roy Scheider), shark specialist Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and professional fisherman Quint (Robert Shaw). All three performances are top notch.
But the film also contains a huge number of "moments" - the first shocking attack, the jetty, the beach attack, the nocturnal underwater search (and its brilliantly choreographed shock moment - I recall seeing daylight between bums and seats in the packed cinema when the movie first came out), the fingernail screech... the list goes on and on. Jaws demonstrated that Spielberg's gift lay in orchestrating audience reactions, something he is arguably as good at as Hitchcock was.
And let us not forget the impact of one of John William's most effective scores.
Bruce, the mechanical shark, isn't always convincing, but that matters little. Even now, all these years later, Jaws still has the power to thrill, shock, and - above all - entertain.