Watch it in widescreen

Rating: 10/10 (21 January 2003)

If you, like me, have seen *Jaws* at least a dozen times in the full-frame TV/VHS version, you owe it to yourself to watch it in widescreen. There are so many shots in which pan-and-scan destroys the effect of Spielberg's composition that seeing it in widescreen is like watching a completely different (and better) film.
This is especially true if you're one of those anti-letterboxing types who actually *prefers* full-frame movies on TV. All the theoretical talk about the "director's vision" may leave you cold, but if you can watch both versions of *Jaws* and not understand why widescreen is better, then I frankly don't see why you bother to watch movies at all.