I wish I'd seen it when it came out.

Rating: 7/10 (11 April 2018)

Jaws is a film which has probably suffered from its own popularity. Watching it for the first time now, inured to the endless tawdry sensationalism of all the shark attack stories that have followed, the great original loses some of its punch. The first half, in particular, suffers badly from this, and the uninteresting family relationships and bargain-basement small town politics contribute to a sense of shallowness and predictability. It is not a worthy setup for the second half, in which the film comes into its own. With the three men on their boat and the shark in the water, the tension is high, the dynamic between the men and its development under pressure is fascinating, and the shark feels genuinely mysterious and menacing, particularly with the clever minimisation of visual contact with the model. The ending doesn't quite do it justice, but on the whole the second half is a damn good yarn, and makes the film worthwhile on its own. Iconic.