True horror.

Rating: 9/10 (28 April 2008)

For all the "horror" films that are released in Hollywood today, there really are none that can compare with Steven Spielberg's classic Jaws. Starting out as a pure horror tale about a killer shark terrorizing swimmers on the New England coast, it coasts through until we come face to face with the man-eating machine itself. The cast is terrific with Scheider, Shaw, and Dreyfuss all giving one of the best performances in each of their distinguished careers. The real star, of course, is the shark, and Spielberg does a marvelous job of maintaining the suspense despite not seeing the shark at first. The film does have minor flaws, as it bogs down a little with too much footage of the shark hunt before quickly trying to cover back and make a strong finish, which it does. Nevertheless, this is true horror at its finest. It isn't particularly graphic, but some fantastic direction combined with John William's immortal score makes this one of the best films of the 1970s, of Spielberg's career, and of American cinema.