One of the finest films ever made

Rating: 10/10 (17 March 2014)

I cannot think of anything I would change about this movie. The acting is first rate. Shaw, Dreyfuss, and Scheider are all exceptional, one of the best matching in any film. The screenplay is well written, following Peter Benchley's book fairly closely, but dropping a needless romantic subplot, instead focusing more on the shark itself. A funny scene with the three men sharing a laugh on the boat one night while comparing scars perfectly segues into Shaw's chilling monologue about the USS Indianapolis, in another of the film's best scenes. The film next shows us the book's climax, about a half an hour before the real ending of the film- it very successfully tricks the audience into thinking the end is near, but then pulls the rug out from under our feet, and adds another act of (exceptional) new material. It leaves the audience members who had read the book prior to seeing the film wondering "That's how they killed the shark in the book, now what? Now what are they going to do to kill it?" The screenplay follows the book's story closely, but adds enough quality material to keep it unpredictable, and keep the audience guessing how it could end.
The shark effects are well done, and we don't see the shark very often, leaving our imaginations to run wild with ideas about it. But when we first see the shark full on, as it jumps out of the water as Scheider is throwing chum overboard for it, and his startled, yet deliberately calm reaction is priceless. A good jump scare, as well as being intentionally funny, which is not an easy combination to pull off. One of the best scenes ever filmed. I had the pleasure of watching this in a cinema in 2012, and I, and the rest of the audience, laughed and applauded this scene.
A victim's leg slowly sinking to the bottom of the ocean always stands out in my mind as well.
A thin story, basically an update of a 1950s monster movie, made into a classic film, with more suspense than it has any right to have, this is one of the finest ever made, one which I never grow tired of watching.