Der Weiße Hai

Rating: 9/10 (20 April 1999)

Funny how one of the worst books ever written can be adapted into one of the best movies ever made. Peter Benchley's tawdry gutter fiction is hugely improved upon by Carl Gottlieb's screenplay. With Spielberg's taut direction, Williams iconic score, terse editing, lovely anamorphic Panavision photography, and wonderful chemistry between the three leads also to its advantage Benchley's novel thankfully becomes a distant memory.
Before Spielberg became the biggest name in Hollywood, capable of green-lighting anything he wants, he wandered in Richard Zanuck's office and picked up the script thinking he could churn out a decent B-movie. His only theatrical movie before this was The Sugarland Express, though it wasn't a huge hit. Jaws became the first summer blockbuster when crowds literally lined-up around the block to see it. $470 million dollars worth of bust is enough to kick-start any career.
In the Atlantic waters off the coast of Amity Island a 25-foot Great White Shark has staked a claim for his hunting ground. The bathers and holiday makers are all he needs for his breakfast, lunch, and dinner. New police chief Martin Brody wants to close the beaches but the greed of local business owners keeps the meaty flesh of human on the sand and beneath the sun.
When a young boy is devoured his mother offers a $3K reward for the killing of the shark, causing the overzealous, money-hungry local fishermen to crowd the waters with dynamite and chum. Only Quint (the one and only Robert Shaw), a WWII veteran with a personal vendetta against shark-kind, has the skill to pursue the monster. Brody and oceanographer Matt Hooper (a 'young' Richard Dreyfuss) join Quint on his hunt not knowing how monstrous the shark really is.
Jaws is split into two perfect halves. One landlocked, filled with fences, boundaries, and a sense of being contained. The other filled with isolation and a sense of not belonging. The Orca, Quint's ramshackle boat, becomes its own little island, ever so slowly disintegrating and sinking as their safety slips away. Brody, already afraid of the water, almost buckles under the pressure, Hooper loses his cool when no one trusts his judgment, and Quint loses his sanity as he aggressively, psychotically pursues the shark.
What makes Jaws special is that it scars and stays with you. The only other movie that I can of that has had similar success is the 1999 horror The Blair Witch Project. In much the same way as Jaws kept millions of people out of the water, Blair Witch kept them out of the woods too. There are some places that humans are just not supposed to go. Whenever you've been paddling at the beach and suddenly wander into a 'cold bit' don't tell me you've never thought about Bruce the shark coming to get you.
He IS out there, you know. For real.