Steven Spielberg at his best

Rating: Null/10 (28 November 1998)

Every summer thousands of visitors go to a small beach-side town of Amity to get some rest and relaxation in the sun and sand. But one summer, the summer of '75 a new visitor comes to the bech an enormous man-eating great white shark. Brody (ROY SCHEIDER) a former big city cop and now the local sheriff, finds the remains of a college girl and orders the beaches closed. Mayor Vaughan (MURRAY HAMILTON) and other city officials, however, rescind that order for fear of what it will do to the town's tourism. Brody and his wife Ellen (LORRAINE GARY) don't think that was the right thing to do and worry about the safety of their two boys. After several more people are killed by the shark, though, Brody closes the beaches and brings in Hooper (RICHARD DREYFUSS), an oceanographic expert, to help find the shark. In the end, however, they need Quint (ROBERT SHAW), the local, grizzled "old man of the sea" to hunt down and kill the shark. The three men then head out into open waters and bait, and wait, for their encounter with the dangerous shark. One of the great box-office hits of all time is also one of the best horror films in the last few decades. Spielberg's classic shark story, based on Peter Benchley's novel, kept millions out of the water during the summer of '75. Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and the great Robert Shaw go shark hunting off the New England coast and find Melvillian adventure. A classic combination of suspense, effects, editing, cinematography, score and bristling characterizations. The movie that was supposed to be 1975's biggest flop, but instead it has become a classic thriller. This film briefly turned all of those actors into big stars, and for the next few years they headlined many of biggest released movies.From John Williams unforgettable score to Spielberg's unmatched directorial talent, Jaws is grand entertainment.