No Schills in the Audience, No subliminal messages, Just Great Film-making, Superb Editing, Haunting Music, Excellent Acting and This One Will Scare You!!

Rating: 10/10 (30 September 2007)

The fascination with fright on the Motion Picture Screen has been just about as popular a type of Fare as any-be they Romance, Swashbuckler, Historical Drama, Adventure, Crime, Comedy, Melodrama, Farce or the Biopic even. There seems to a certain attraction of movie goers' fantasies that draws them into identification with whatever Character is "the Baddest." Just how many boys would rather play 'Don del Oro', Al Capone or Darth Vader; than they would Zorro, Elliot Ness or Obi Won Kenobi?
As for Scary Cinema, there are several definite, distinct classifications. First of there are the Horror and the Science Fiction divisions, but of course there are a lot that have characteristics of more than one. Those we may call 'hybrids' to borrow a term from Biology Lab.
But no matter which way we look at it, JAWS (1975) is a 'Monster Movie', for even though a Shark is not a Mythological Creature, nor the product of somebody's fertile imagination, it is still monstrous to we puny humans.
We'd read an old reviewer's write up of one of Charlie Chaplin's Comic 2 Reel Shorts. We can't remember which one, but in the course of the review the author said something like, ".the Movie Ushers really liked this film, and the Ushers see the Films almost as much as the Cops!" We guess that some things just never change.
When this film was released, I was in the midst of my 35 year run as a Chicago Policeman. In addition, employment working Security for ABC-Great States' UNITED ARTISTS Theatre. When JAWS was booked in, we soon had Cops working there from opening till the last showing of the day was over. Previously, we would have 1 guy there on weekday evenings, 2 on Weekends.
Well, after a couple o' days, we went to "Plan B". That called for 2 men, coast to coast, all the way. The crowds justified such a change of staffing and necessitated bring in more 'urban mercenaries, more hired guns! You know, Schultz, more Off-Duty Cops! I mean the earliest show at around 9:00 A.M, would be packed!
There was good reason for these crowds' seeming magical materialization. JAWS. You see, was a very good film. It was thrilling, dramatic, humorous, literate and it scared the living Hell right of you. All the elements seemed to be there in proper proportions. The balance achieved by Director Steven Spielberg, Novelist Peter Benchley and Screen Writer Carl Gottlieb, seemed to be near perfection. The movie goers were all seen leaving, were both laughing and crying simultaneously (and at the same time, too!). But whatever the case was in any particular instance, people were all talking about their collective and individual cinematic experiences of the previous 2 hours or so, and all of this unsolicited feedback was Positive, Very Positive.
The key operative word here is "mood". JAWS truly benefited from a beautiful, haunting and even biosynchronous Original Musical Score from the Maestro (Himself), John Williams. From the very opening, shown from the point of view of the Shark, the subtle irising in on the swimming area, contrasted with the merrymaking on the beach by some of those Teen Agers!! Taking cue from the musical score, I swear our hearts began to beat much more quickly, and our whole nervous system joined in. The various "scary" scenes were done so well, that it did accomplish that need for "Suspension of Disbelief and every Man, Woman, Boy, Girl and Pet who was in the audience shared in the fright and eventual fit of "relief laughter" that followed.
The Production Team seems to have struck a really good balance or blend of just the right balance of all those above mentioned elements as to make for a "real scary picher" for all age groups, even the 'Big Kids'.
Highly Recommended!