DVD Review: Jaws (1975)

Jaws
(DVD Jaws)

Based on the best-selling 1974 novel by Peter Benchley, I consider the 1975 film Jaws, directed by Stephen Spielberg and starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss to be one of the best films every made. Despite being a production nightmare, which ran more than 100 days over the proposed filming schedule, and featuring a physical special effects shark that broke down more often than it worked, Jaws still manages to be an intense character study against a backdrop of a community being terrorized by horrors beyond its understanding.

 

Personally, I believe Scheider, Dreyfuss and Shaw give the best performances of their respective careers. Jaws’ unexpected success — it became the first “summer blockbuster” — certainly set director Spielberg on the course for a lengthy and distinguished career. The Oscar-winning soundtrack by John Williams is also one of the most memorable in that composer’s lengthy career as well — everyone recognizes his shark music within just a few beats of music.

 

When a Great White Shark claims the waters around the New England tourist community of Amity as its feeding grounds, Sheriff Brody (a New York City transplant) is prepared to close the beaches, but the Mayor and town council members oppose these efforts, knowing tourism and visitors to their beaches are the town’s lifeblood. But additional shark attacks make their concerns moot. While local fishermen attempt to cash in on a bounty for the killer shark, grizzled seaman Quint (Shaw) is hired by Brody (Scheider), and reluctantly takes on oceanographer Hooper (Dreyfuss), to find and destroy the deadly killer. The second half of the film becomes a claustrophobic exploration of what these three men are willing to do to survive under extreme circumstances — as Brody says in one of the film’s most memorable lines — “You’re going to need a bigger boat!”

 

Three moments are forever branded in my memory from this film: (1) The first shark attack near the beginning of the film. (2) When Mrs. Kintner (Lee Fierro) confronts Sheriff Brody and slaps him, accusing him of knowing about the shark and keeping the beaches open…leading to her young son’s gruesome death. And (3) The late night discussion aboard The Orca, in which Quint shares the harrowing description of being a survivor of the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis in shark-infested waters during WWII. Any of these three scenes is movie magic, and then you’ve got an entire epic film layered on top of them.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try: I did enjoy Jaws 2, but the other sequels weren’t worth watching. I’d recommend watching any other films with Scheider, Shaw and Dreyfuss…but it’s hard to beat this one. Despite other later shark films having better effects, I don’t think any other shark movie beats Jaws for overall drama and acting performances.)

 

(Also available in traditional print format.)

 

( Internet Movie Database entry for this film )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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