So much more than a thrilling blockbuster ...

Rating: 10/10 (18 October 2011)

*** "It's all psychological. You yell barracuda, everybody says, "Huh? What?" You yell shark, we've got a panic on our hands." These words come from the mouth of Mr. Vaughn, Amityville's irresponsible mayor played by Murray Hamilton. Maybe he's right to a certain extent: "It's all psychological" but the tremendous talent of Steven Spielberg, a precocious 28-year old director, was to translate our primal fears into this terrifying experience that challenges all our perceptions.
*** "Jaws", #56 in the American Film Institute's (AFI) Top 100 Films ***
A position even more impressive when you realize that "Jaws" was doomed from the beginning. The movie had a monster-type villain, not really realistic, a B-movie plot premise, some colorful characters that confine to caricature, all the ingredients to be in the best case, a spectacular but unsubstantial success in the same vein than "Towering Inferno" or "Poseidon Adventure". But "Jaws" hid all these flaws thanks to a very masterful editing and combined the talents of many professionals at the top of their game for an effective result, and I still wonder why Spielberg didn't get an Oscar nomination for this is the true measure of his real talent. Anyways, in 1975, "Jaws" became the most successful film ever, with an indisputable classic feeling, and one film can't reach such an iconic status, only thanks to a successful marketing campaign. If it worked, it's because it succeeded on the basic premises of a horror and thriller film, to scare and to thrill the hell out of you.
*** Jaws", #2 in AFI's Top 100 Thrills ***
I didn't say "A terrifying experience that challenges all our perceptions" for the sake of it. The film plunges you in the hostile ocean's depths inhabited by a mysterious and threatening presence. Spielberg emphasizes the notion of 'presence' playing with our instinctive paranoia, basically what scares us the most is 'what we don't know but feel', or 'what we know and can't see'. The cinematography depicts the vastness of the ocean in an oddly claustrophobic way, suggesting that what we see is from the bottom, from the shark's perspective. Since our empathy is fixed on the people swimming, there's a disturbing feeling of an approaching danger when the camera slowly zooms on the victim. And when the first contact happens  well, I wasn't born at that time, I had the luck to hide under a table when I was 10, but I can imagine the effect of these bloody outbursts, high-pitched screams or disturbing gurgles in the movie theaters. I can see people jumping out of their seats, their hearts guided by the film's iconic score.
**** "Jaws", #6 in AFI's Top 25 Scores ***
Each death is memorable in its own way, and as we get more familiar with the shark, the level of graphicness gets more and more gruesome. The dosage between the 'seen' and 'unseen', is so skillfully handled that the parts without the shark are sometimes more terrifying because we know the surprise is to come. As Spielberg said, half of the film's success is due to John William's score. Basically, they are only two simple notes repeated over and over again, with dramatic variations, adapted to the situation but these notes form a music that efficiently conducts the anguish in our blood till our hearts, like whispering, "he comes – he comes – he comes" or "danger – danger –danger". Like "Psycho"'s screeching violins, the Oscar winning score conveys the perfect feeling of an approaching, and yes, imminent danger: the shark coming straight, from the bottom, the mouth open-wide to welcome you.
**** The Shark, #17 in AFI's Top Villains ***
Spielberg broke every rule regarding the deaths. My mention of two disaster films earlier isn't fortuitous since one of the genre's most stupid yet respected codes is to spare the beautiful scared girl, the kid (generally annoying), and the pet animal. Well, in "Jaws", they are the first three victims, like the hell with conventions. The shark in an animal killer, who doesn't select his victims on a demographical basis, and this is the scariest aspect of the film, no one can be spared, the simplicity of the film presents the shark as a villain, while it's just an animal who eats for its survival. But when a shark kills such innocent creatures, how can you perceive it differently? The horrific poster alone embodies this traumatic vision of an animal ferocious and big enough to erase you from the face of the sea in one bite.
*** "You're gonna need a bigger boat", #35 in AFI's Top 100 Quotes ***
The sentence describes a particularly insurmountable situation or an unbeatable enemy. But is the boat too big or the humans too small? It's the eternal fight between Men and Nature, Nature that affirms its God-like strength and human their right to colonize every space in the world, even the ocean. And the three characters, the first top billed actors embody the three different faces of this eternal fight. The Chief of Police Martin Brody (Roy Sheider) is responsible of the security, Matt Hopper (Richard Dreyfuss) is the oceanographer, who respects nature and dedicated his passionated life to sharks and Quint is the colorful and scene-stealing veteran sea captain (Robert Shaw) the man who learned from nature the way the animals should be treated. The protector, the observer, the fighter, each one feels involved with that fight, until they unite their forces for an exhilarating adventure: to kill the shark.
*** I mentioned many times "Jaws"'s recognition by the American Film Institute, but what works so well is that the film is extremely well-acted, involves endearing characters, inspiring our sympathy. It's indeed about survival instinct, and a reminder that sometimes courage is about dominating one fear. This is the noblest purpose of horror films, and "Jaws" succeeds more than any other