Awesome thriller in which everything that COULD have been done right HAS been done right.

Rating: 10/10 (8 June 2007)

Based on a bestseller by Peter Benchley, Jaws is a thrilling story about a community gripped by fear as a great white shark brings death to their waters. It is also the film that truly cemented Steven Spileberg's reputation as a maker of hugely entertaining films  and introduced a trend of studios seeking to release "summer blockbusters" that has lasted to this day. More than thirty years since its release, Jaws still retains the power both to entertain and terrify. It is a classic, plain and simple.
A naked swimmer is enjoying a dip in the waters off Amity Island when she is attacked by something beneath the surface that pulls her to her death. When her mutilated remains turn up with the tide, local police officer Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) discovers that she almost certainly has fallen victim to a man-eating shark, most likely a Great White. He decides that her death is probably a tragic one-off and allows the local population, plus holiday-makers from farther afield, to come to Amity Island for the usual summer recreations. But another victim is eaten by the shark, this time a young boy swimming not too far from the beach. A huge shark hunt takes place with all the local fishermen attempting to capture the one that has brought death to their waters. They believe they have succeeded when they kill a Great White and bring it in for public display, but a scientist named Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) isn't so sure they have caught the right fish. He convince Brody to cut open the belly of the shark to see if it contains human remains in its stomach, and they discover that it does not. With the real killer Great White still at large, Brody and Hooper enlist the aid of a crusty sea-farer  Quint (Robert Shaw)  to track it down. But it is only once they are far out to sea that they discover what a strong and formidable foe they have taken on. A terrifying game of man .vs. nature ensues as the three hunters and the shark play out a battle to the death on the lonely waves.
Jaws is awesome. So many elements gel perfectly - the casting, for one, with Scheider outstanding as the police officer trying to protect his town and family from the underwater menace. But it isn't just Scheider who catches the eye; Dreyfuss also seizes his opportunity to etch a wonderful portrayal as the scientist simultaneously thrilled and terrified by the foe he is out to destroy. And Shaw is utterly mesmerising as the experienced shark hunter who comes to realise that he is on the trail of his most dangerous ever quarry. John Williams provides one of cinema's most recognisable scores, a simple but chilling tune that builds to a devastating crescendo as the action intensifies. Spielberg reinvents the meaning of "thrill" in cinematic terms, taking his audience to the point where they think their nerves can take no more only to turn the screw even tighter. The finale, as Scheider clings to the mast of a sinking ship and watches the shark's fin cut through the water towards him, is so tense that it is impossible not to feel your palms sweating and your pulse thudding in your ears. A fantastic movie.