Feel Good Factor Like No Other!

Rating: Null/10 (9 August 2001)

For me the obsession started in 1975 when I was carted off to see Jaws at the now demolished Plaza cinema in Cardiff. I was 5 years old, I remember being there and being amazed though I was probably too young to be scared by it. Surely they wouldn't let 5 year olds see it today! This was the film that got me addicted to cinema, not Disney classics that most kids seem to love.
Years later I remember watching Jaws on TV and being absolutely fascinated by it again but it was not until I bought a copy on VHS in about 1988 that I really started to watch the film in detail. What a piece of work! The second half of the film must be the best three-hander in film history, the casting of Shaw, Dreyfuss and Scheider has amazing chemistry. Scheider's everyman, Martin Brody being the "fish out of water" against the salty Quint and Ocean Brat, Hooper's needling relationship. (Has anyone else noticed Scheider's resemblance to the shark?? - sorry Roy) Virtually every line that comes out of Quint's head is macho rhetoric that we'd all love to be able to quote verbatim when we are drunk. He is from the same mould as Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore in Apocalypse Now. A macho hard man impenetrable mostly but with a slightly soft centre when put under the microscope.
Jaws has had an undeniable influence on our culture. It has instilled in a generation a fear of what is under the water. How many times have you had a moment of illogical panic whilst swimming? For me and many I know this was put there by Jaws. The "scars" scene is undeniably a Cinema classic and has been parodied and tributed many times. It is in this scene that we see a more human side to Quint emerging. How many times have you heard people in desperate situations say "We're gonna need a bigger boat"? Just watch Buffy!

So much has been said about the film and it IS a flawed masterpiece but no one questions the fact Halliwell's rates this as two star film! I love Halliwell's and this is the only real faux pas it contains. Such a seminal film (the true father of summer blockbusters) and a film so well crafted, scored, acted and scripted should qualify as a four star. Technically Jaws is brilliant - temperamantal mechanical sharks aside! All that water-level perspective camerawork is groundbreaking and was copied hugely in Robert Zemekis' Cast Away - go on take a look it's where the camera is half in the water half out.
I am glad to see that other IMDB users love this film enough to put it where it is in the Top 250. It may not be fresh in our memories and there may be better films out there from one aspect or another but when it comes to the best all-rounder of all time I don't think there's one to beat this. It is so accessible and it preys on a fundamental human fear while using very human relationships to convey the story.
Of all the films that I'd like to see a remake of this is the one, Here's your cast: Edward Norton - Brody, Seann William Scott - Hooper, William H Macy - Mayor Vaughan, Tommy Lee Jones - Quint, Brian Singer - Director.