Jaws (1975)

CLASSIC CINEMA 101: STEVEN SPIELBERG'S JAWS
A review excerpt by Joe Barlow
(c) Copyright 1999 - All Rights Reserved

STARRING: Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfess, Robert Shaw, Lorraine Gray DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg WRITERS: Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb RELEASED: 1975

"You yell 'Barracuda!' and everyone says, 'Huh? What?'; You yell 'Shark!' and we've got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July." --Larry Vaughn, Mayor of Amity, Jaws

In 1975, a young director named Steven Spielberg single-handedly created a new movie genre--the summer blockbuster. The twenty-five year-old moviemaker's third film, Jaws, shook the industry with such force that its effects are still being felt today. It forever shattered Hollywood's belief that people don't watch movies during the summer; for this reason alone, every action extravaganza that followed it, from Star Wars to Independence Day to Spielberg's own Jurassic Park and The Lost World, owes a debt of gratitude to this tale of terror. Jaws continues to serve as a benchmark of suspense cinema, and still retains its visceral power nearly a quarter-century after its initial release.

Moonlight sparkles on the ocean. A nude swimmer plunges into the cool water, splitting the waves with a splash. She swims. She floats. She laughs. She dies.

Martin Brody (Roy Schieder), the chief of police in the idyllic seaside town of Amity, is quick to react to the news of the shark attack. He sensibly believes the beaches should be closed until the leviathan can be vanquished. The townsfolk, however, are less certain: Amity is a summer town which depends on tourist dollars for its survival. Every day the beaches are closed, the town grows poorer; although Brody believes that safety is the more important concern, he is overruled by Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton). Soon the beaches are open once again... with disastrous results.

Brody calls for help from the Oceanographic Institute, and a young shark expert named Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) is sent to assist. The duo teams up with a crusty local salt named Quint (Robert Shaw), who offers to kill the shark--for a fee, of course.

The story at the heart of Steven Spielberg's Jaws revolves not so much around the creature which has taken up residence in the waters of Amity, but around the townsfolk who are forced to deal with the consequences of its presence. It's a subtle distinction, but it makes all the difference. Jaws is not a monster flick; it's the story of three men facing a seemingly insurmountable force of nature. In keeping the emphasis on the characters rather than the shark, as the film's three wretched sequels did, Spielberg crafted a cinematic work that still fascinates and mesmerizes. Human moments dominate the tale--take a look at the oft-parodied "injury comparison" scene aboard Quint's boat, the Ocra, and tell me whether you saw anything so clever or affecting in, say, Independence Day.

(The rest of this review can be found at: http://www.ipass.net/~jaws.htm )

(c) Copyright 1999 by Joe Barlow. All rights reserved.