Steven Spielberg's second feature film (and one of his most challenging projects), Jaws was THE blockbuster event of 1975. Based on Peter Benchley's novel, this very effective thriller set box office records higher than any previous film....and made beachgoers ask themselves if that dip in the ocean was really necessary.

Screenwriters Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb (who also have roles in the movie) wisely jettison the melodramatic aspects of the source novel and focus on the core of the story.

It's summer in Amity, a sleepy Long Island town that depends on "summer dollars" from thousands of tourists who come to stay in seaside cottages (the summer dinks, they are called). When a young girl goes skinny dipping in the nearby sea and is fatally attacked by a shark, Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) is coerced by the mayor and town council to keep the incident under wraps. He reluctantly does so, though he will regret it, for a few days later, the shark claims another victim, a young boy named Alex Kintner.

Finally convinced that there is a shark out there, Amity's politicians and citizens take action...but not wisely. When shark hunter Quint (Robert Shaw) bids for a contract to catch and kill the shark, the town elders "take it under advisement" and the shark hunt becomes a wild free-for-all seagoing circus.

When shark expert Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), called in by Chief Brody to help in the investigation and shark hunt, arrives and sees the shark (which he identifies as a tiger shark) caught by local fishermen, he examines the remains of the first victim. What he deduces is chilling: the deadly creature prowling out to sea is a great white shark.

Jaws is one of those rare movie adaptations that is better than its source novel. The screenplay is crisp and taut, yet with enough light moments and scenes of sometimes wry humor that ease the ever increasing tension, particular when Brody, Hooper and Quint set out to hunt the great white shark....becoming the hunted in the process. Spielberg, only 27 at the time, overcame the difficulties of shooting a movie on the water and dealing with a balky mechanical shark (nicknamed "Bruce"). Jaws also put composer John Williams on the map with movie audiences with his now-famous "shark motif" and would earn him his second Oscar for Best Score.

What I find particularly effective is the bond that develops between Brody, Hooper, and Quint. Yes, we've seen it before in countless movies, most of them war films -- three guys from different strata of society and apparently with nothing in common are thrown together into a dangerous situation -- but the scenes aboard the Orca, particularly when Quint tells the story of the USS Indianapolis, are the true heart of this picture.

The only downside to Jaws -- and it's not something in the film itself -- was its own success. Not only did it inspire three sequels that proved once and for all that Hollywood truly is ruled by the Law of Diminishing Returns, but a whole menagerie of Nature Strikes Back films was let loose on unsuspecting audiences. I was only 12 when Jaws was released in 1975, but I still vividly remember such knock-offs as Shark's Treasure, Day of the Animals, and a variety of other creature features about snakes, bears, and even -- some nine years later, a rabid dog named Cujo. Spielberg himself didn't touch the horror/man vs. toothy beast genre until 1993's Jurassic Park, but he was blamed (unfairly) for Jaws 2, a film which he had wisely turned down.

The 25th Anniversary Edition DVD is excellent. The movie is presented in letterbox format, and the sound and image are above average. The documentary on the making of the film is also first-rate. All in all, a must-get for Spielberg (and action film) fans.



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older