A Milestone

Rating: 9/10 (25 September 2003)

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This movie was a milestone in filmmaking because of the special effects with the shark. It's suspenseful at times and on occasion will make you jump.
When a girl is killed by a shark while swimming at a beach in a resort town, the sheriff wants to close the beach but the local town officials don't want to ruin the summer tourist season and they override him with disastrous results. Soon a young boy is eaten by the shark and the hunt is on.

The sheriff (Roy Scheider), a crusty old fisherman (Robert Shaw) and a scientific type (Richard Dreyfuss) set sail in a boat called the Orca on a shark hunt and it's a battle to the finish. Not everyone survives and I won't spoil if for you by giving that part away.
The main downfall of Jaws is that it is a very unromantic movie. The characters seem a bit shallow and are presented as nearly one dimensional. They go through the motions of their characters in a somewhat perfunctory manner. The actors seem to do the best they can with their lines, especially Robert Shaw who does the best with making his character seem like a real person. Richard Dreyfuss isn't too bad either and I like his sense of humor. It almost seems to me that great attention was paid to technical aspects of the film while the story line and character detail suffered a little.
Nonetheless, Jaws remains an entertaining adventure/suspense move and is interesting to watch. I give it an 89.0/100. I liked Jaws II better.