almost 45 years later, still the greatest shark movie ever made.

Rating: 10/10 (24 May 2020)

When Jaws the book came out in 1974, it became a hit with summer readers. When the movie came out the following year, attendance at beaches dropped and moviegoers headed in droves to their local theaters to see again and again a tale of a manic shark attacking a local villa near a beach run by a corrupt mayor. The movie would soon find more success on home video as being the first major movie to come out on laserdisc, and on TV airings where there was additional footage while being edited for tv. Three sequels as well as numerous video games and merchandise soon followed, as well as a memorable soundtrack that has been made fun of numerous times. This was Spielberg's first big hit, and the term blockbuster was coined as this movie came out in June of 1975 backed by a major tv ad campaign that didn't show the shark in real footage except at the very end with the poster and the film's rating, which could be pg-13 if it were remade today.