A great watershed moment in the history of film. Jaws is prototypical summer blockbuster. Get out of the water and watch this film! It will take a bite out of you!

Rating: 9/10 (7 July 2013)

Based on Peter Benchley's best-selling novel, Director Steven Spielberg's 1975 shark saga set the standard for the New Hollywood popcorn blockbuster while frightening millions of moviegoers out of the water. Jaws was a mega blockbuster at the time, becoming the highest grossing film at that point and changed the way Hollywood release and marketed movie. Both the film and the novel was inspired by the historic event of the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916. The movie starts out with the infamous scene of a moonlight skinner dipper getting drag under the ocean. In the morning, the town of Amity Island finds out that she was attacked by a shark attack. Police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) orders Amity's beaches closed, but is overruled by mayor Larry Vaughan (Murray Hamilton), fearing it would hurt the summer tourism on which the town's economy is heavily dependent on. When the deaths continue to pile up, Brody brings in ichthyologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and shark hunter Quint (Robert Shaw) to kill the killer Great White Shark once and for all. Quint is larger than life and even cartoonish because the story needs this character. Quint is the ring leader for the great "Boys" adventure which is the turn this movie takes in the last third act of the movie and the best part. Quint, Brody, and Hooper. They laugh, they argue, they are tested, they bond, and it work. Robert Shaw does a great job in the role, and the whole USS Indianapolis speech was amazing. His overt bravado and Machismo was greatly needed to play counterpoint to Hooper's nebbishes. He is the story's Captain Ahab. It was one of the things they change from the novel. Another is cutting most of Benchley's many subplots, like Hooper having an affair with Brody's wife, which is great in my opinion. In my opinion, Richard Dreyfuss was the weakest of the three main characters. It was so unlike the character from the book. Still, Hooper should had the same ending as the novel. It was disappointing. I do like Roy Scheider as Brody. I love Roy Scheider's ad-lib of the line "You're gonna need a bigger boat.". I just wish his fear of the open water was explain. It was generalized and non-specific to fit the expected fears of most of the audience. Brody is the everyman character so he must be most generalized, least brave throughout, least in control throughout. He does not become "heroic" until he is finally all alone and must do whatever he can to kill the beast, which he does the vicarious triumph of the audience through him. The film had a troubled production, going over budget and past schedule. Due to that, Spielberg rarely show the shark, until the third act. The shark instead is shown by camera point of view of the creature looming in the ocean or close shots of its fin. John Williams's orchestral theme, the creepiest since Herrmann's Psycho also plays a part. Spielberg decided to mostly suggest the animal's presence, employing an ominous, minimalistic theme created by composer John Williams to indicate the shark's impending appearances. The music gives it a pulsing heartbeat. It ramps up the tension from point to point and brings the film to higher and higher plateaus. Due to the lack of shark presence, so critics might say, this is the greatest B movie ever. I disagree. It's not a B movie. It's a movie that follows the same structure as B movies. B movies are not necessarily bad. They're cheap and they put the premise before character and plot development. The two things that separate Jaws from B movies are the deep characters and the insane budget. The writers cared so much for who the characters were that it could not be a B movie. I just recently saw the movie again and I am amazed how well it holds up. Spielberg was a master at showing his skill and awareness to story, setting and character. Then the art! There is a shot of Brody looking out the boat window while reflected in the glass is the yellow barrel being dragged out to sea by the monster shark. Brilliant! It is sublime in illustrating the magic and exhilaration of this great "Boys" adventure! The reason why Jaws works as a good horror movie is because who can deny it? Great White Sharks have killed people in the past, and aren't creatures of morality. Great white sharks are apex predators. Their physiology and whole lives even are centered around killing. Nature can be scary and brutal; why not show it as it really is? Great White Sharks, although they are indeed misunderstood creatures who don't outrightly kill people for pleasure or even sport like humans do. They have been known to kill people under the perception that they have mistaken swimmers as wounded prey. Hence their attraction to loud noise and splashing. They are indeed a force of nature, but as humanity has learned time and time again, nature is a dangerous thing, and great white sharks are some of the most deadly the ocean has to offer. Some people got offended because it portray sharks in a bad light and help cause some species of sharks to be nearly extinct due to hunting. New studies have shown that the danger great white sharks pose to humans is greatly exaggerated and I agree, they are dangerous, but it's rare to have shark attacks. What isn't exaggerated is how popular the movie got after the released. Its spawn horrible sequels, and a few Universal Studios rides. In the end, Jaws is a pretty good horror movie. Filled with terror and adventure, Jaws continues to make new generations of fans afraid to go swimming. Let Jaws take a bite out of you!