The blockbuster of all blockbusters

Rating: 10/10 (18 September 2012)

This is the film that epitomizes the word "blockbuster". It is a thrilling, potentially haunting work, brilliantly sewn together by Spielberg's direction (despite his youth!), John Williams' riveting musical score, and the performances of the actors.
Roy Scheider excellently portrays Martin Brody as an everyman who conquers his deepest fears at the realization of his guilt for the calamities on the waters of Amity Island. Richard Dreyfuss brings a lot of fervor and energy to the role of Matt Hooper, which is key to that character's scientifically inquisitive nature -- yet he also has an amiable side, forming a friendship with Brody which forms a strong backbone for the story. Quint (Robert Shaw) is a legendary character -- a man both simple and mysterious whose fearlessness is nothing short of inspiring. His soliloquy about the USS Indianapolis is among the most spine-chilling that I have ever seen in a film before. It truly shook me to my core with trepidation and awe, which is precisely what a film like this should aim to do.
What Spielberg did especially well was conceal the monster throughout the first half of the story. By not showing the face of Jaws during the first few encounters, tension was able to mount until finally the shark was glaring right at us several feet away from Brody. This was done while Brody was throwing bait into the water, and right on the heels of a joking line! Absolutely perfect timing! Plus by this time we'd become accustomed to hearing that low-pitch music whenever Jaws was around, thereby making the appearance even less expected. The element of surprise was employed masterfully by the screenwriters and cinematographer throughout Jaws -- in the early scenes on the beach I was on the edge of my seat with anxiety, just waiting for an innocent swimmer to be pulled beneath the water!
I also got a kick out of Brody and Hooper's constant feuding with the mayor of the town (Murray Hamilton). That just goes to show you that politics and protection of the citizens are not always one and the same. Hooper's insistence on the tiger shark that was caught being "a shark but not THE shark" in the face of adversity very much drew my respect.
I also saw some extra behind-the-scenes footage of the production of Jaws, and learned that when Spielberg first heard Williams play the theme music of Jaws, he laughed at its simplicity, only to later come to appreciate that aspect of it and applaud it. This is a wonderful lesson on how simple things are not always necessarily dull or cliché -- sometimes they meet the demand perfectly, and that is the case here, as I'm sure I'm not alone in claiming I can't get that music out of my head!