it's scary, it's thought provoking, and it's brilliant

Rating: 10/10 (16 December 2000)

I have this movie to thank for my shark fascination, and also for demonstrating to me, at an early stage in my development as a writer, how successful horror is when it is implied, rather than shown. Of course, the actual shark is fairly terrifying, but it's twice as scary when it just pulls people under the water, or pursues them with a torn off fishing dock stuck on its back (and how about the scene where the yellow barrels become so much scarrier than a dorsal fin). The killing of the little boy (a choice that Spielberg seems to me spending the rest of his career atoning for by having little kids get rescued in all his other movies) is an especially brilliant scene- writing, filming, acting and... oh God!... the pacing and timing!!! Excellent performances from all three of the leads and some of the supportings as well (Lorraine Gary... unsung brilliance sadly tarnished by later appearing in JAWS: THE REVENGE); Shaw's monologue about his pacific experience is one of the greatest movie speeches ever. The writing in general is excellent- they remembered to take the time to develop characters and such, rather than just move from one shark attack to the next- as is the filming (my favorite moment being the beginning, when there's a shot of the sun setting on the water, and you see Chrissie's arm and hand sink slowly beneath the surface). Too bad the sequals were all so terrible, and have more or less stigmatized the first.