An Eye For Profit

Rating: 6/10 (3 July 2006)

Spielberg didn't get to be so successful by being bad...nobody does. But he did achieve success by deriving all of his imagery from even lesser sources and convincing audiences they were seeing something new. The lower the overhead cost, the greater the net profit, and this is where he first raked it in.
There's nothing complex here. He simply uses the eye of "Creature from the Black Lagoon", and gives Amity and its birdbrain inhabitants the mechanics and IQ of so many 50s monster flicks.
This is relatively good compared to the rest of his catalog, because the narrative is held together by someone else - here, the writer - who simply usurps the "Moby Dick" story...right down to the "Farewell and adieu..."...Shaw's Quint as Ahab.
The absurdity works because of the Williams score which is straight out of the "Psycho" playbook; also the rubber shark ("Bruce") was uncooperative half of the time; it surely saved this by forcing Spielberg to show less of the creature. He had to tighten the tension in other ways.
Although this is cheap and simple, that's what makes it ideal for commercial consumption. Just don't call it art - that began and pretty much ended with "Duel".