One of the best sea movies ever !

Rating: Null/10 (27 July 2000)

It´s hilarious how the age classication in movies has changed over the years.
I remember when JAWS first came out, it received the most restricted age classification, (here in Portugal, and i´m sure everywhere). I was about 6 or 7 years at the time, and i remember that you only could get in to see this movie, if you were older than 18, (like in ALIEN). Anyone younger than 19 wasn´t allowed in the theater, ( i remember watching people with their ID cards, buying tickets). Each time i looked at that JAWS poster i got extremely curious, but i knew that i would be real afraid of watching it.
How things change. Now we look at JAWS and i´m sure now that it´s re-released in DVD for it´s 25th aniversary, with a 15 certificate, only because it´s the politicaly correct classification, because if it wasn´t for that i bet it would get a PG certificate at the most, such is the lightness of those now famous gore scenes that seemed too creepy so many adult people back in the 70´s.
I don´t know if there is anyone on this movie-planet that hasn´t seen JAWS yet, but i´m speaking for those very few of you, who are still afraid. JAWS it´s NOT an horror movie, it´s an ADVENTURE movie set at sea !
JAWS has less gore than any INDIANA JONES !
In fact, i remember how disappointed i got ,when i saw it for the first time. After all those horror expectations from when i was a kid, JAWS turned out to be a very regular light adventure movie instead. I even thought i watched a cutted version of the movie, because i was expecting to see people getting eaten to pieces on screen and it was nothing like that. Instead of a gore movie, i got an adventure with great, positive and funny characters. Hey, i could have watched this movie when i was a kid and not get much frightened ! :-)
After my inital "disappointment", i watched JAWS plenty of other times, and each time it grew on me a little more. Perhaps because i love the sea and this remains one of the best sea movies of all time. Right now what i find trully amazing in JAWS is the way in which fools the viewer into thinking he has seen more violence and gore than what actualy shows. To me this is the great achievment in this picture. I read somewhere that Spielberg´s initial intention was to show lots more of the shark, but he had no budget and the rubber shark looked fake, so he decided to create suspanse instead of visuals.
Thank all gods that this movie was made in the 70´s, because if it was today, i´m sure it would only become another hollywood blockbuster filled with special effects, and a big pretty computer generated shark chewing on everybody. In fact i guess Spielberg did this modern "JAWS", it´s called " JURASSIC PARK" and "LOST WORLD", which are a pretty good example of how lots of special effects can make a boring and empty movie, specialy if you see it more than once. I can bet, no one will release a 25th anniversary edition of JURASSIC PARK years from now.
So once again it´s proved that lack of money equals imagination. JAWS looks so great because of it. If you haven´t seen it yet, you don´t know what you´re missing. Go see it, rent it, or buy the new incredible DVD 25th anniversary edition which has lots of extra stuff, including a 50 minute making off.
And watch it with your kids, so they can see how chicken their parents were, for being affraid of going to see a movie that nowadays could be screened in a kids matineé. Actually, it should be. :-)