Two-thirds of one of the greatest horror films ever made.

Rating: Null/10 (12 July 2007)

Starring: Roy Scheider as Police Chief Martin Brody Robert Shaw as Quint Richard Dreyfuss as Matt Hooper
Plot: There's something out in the waters of Amity Island killing people and eating them alive. Police Chief Martin Brody fears it may be sharks but is told to keep his mouth shut. Soon the creature strikes again, and now he decides to take matters into his own hands and go find and kill what may be the largest shark the world has ever seen.
Let's get the problems out of the way first, because I feel as though Jaws, while very decent, isn't as scary as people say it is. Jaws genuinely made people afraid to go out in the water..in 1975. The movie itself does not age well and doesn't hold up to a more modern audience of today, although it still manages to send a chill or two down the spine.
Besides not holding up well over time, this movie tends to go too long. Running at a span over a little over two hours, there's a lot that could have been cut out to make it a smooth shark movie. Some of it was character development, and I understand that, but some of it were scenes that felt stapled on or just felt out of place. The scene where the three men sing together comes to mind. Not to mention some of them were repeats of scenes produced earlier. Mainly most of the flaws were in that second half, once Brody and crew go to find the shark.
But the first half is one hell of a ride from the quiet opening scene of a teenage girl being attacked while swimming, to the less subtle but more terrifying scene of a boy being swallowed completely while on a raft in broad daylight. Plus the shot of everyone running and screaming out of the water is historic, among other things. Jason or Freddy can't make THAT many people run away from them. Well, Jason did, but it was a bunch of kids. And you could feel sympathy for the creature, it's just doing what comes natural. But they won't let you. This shark will eat you if you go into the water, it's an eating machine!
This movie also made me feel for the characters involved. Whether it was the main star, who just wanted to help everyone but didn't have the respect or the support, or the shark expert, or even crazy man Quint. All characters had something about them to make you genuinely care whether or not Jaws had them for lunch or not. It built them all up solidly, even Quint who before he went after the shark didn't have much screen time. This movie, even though it was PG, managed to throw in some gore. It's a killer shark, he's not going to be clean. Gushing blood, severed arm, severed head and a guy gets chewed up. Pretty good for a PG, and quite surprising given the MPAA's strict standards, which were even stricter to horror back then.
I would go as far as to say that Jaws is 2/3 of one of the greatest horror films ever made. There are some genuinely terrifying moments, a pretty good adventure story thrown in, but there is 1/3 that could have been cut and just feels unneeded. However, I strongly recommend Jaws, because it's still quite good and this is a historically important film. If you haven't seen it, crawl out from the rock you've been living under and watch it.
Rating: **** of *****