Jaws (1975)

“You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

Martin Brody

My introduction to Jaws was kind of weird, as a kid I was always intrigued by the box but was never allowed to actually watch the film, so I didn’t get around to it until I was older. The first Jaws film I experienced was Jaws 3-D due to almost the entire movie was filmed at SeaWorld Orlando. I’ve been there several times and even worked there for a couple of years later on, it was fascinating to see all these locations that I knew so well suddenly be on screen. I hated Jaws 3-D however and moved on to Jaws: The Revenge, which is much much worse and potentially the worst movie I’ve ever seen in my life. At the time only the sequels were accessible to me so I moved onto Jaws 2, which still wasn’t great but it was a significant step up from the two other sequels I had seen prior, and it was kind of a fun movie. Finally in 2012, Universal released a remastered blu-ray version of the original for Universal Pictures 100th Anniversary, and I was finally able to experience the original for the first time. I had done nothing but trash on the Jaws films for years for generating a mass fear of sharks, a creature that I’ve loved almost my whole life, and also spoke poorly of it’s visual effects mostly due to Jaws 3-D. However, once I actually saw the movie I was blown away. I was surprisingly scared during several scenes after the lack of scares from the sequel, and one scene in particular even had me on my feet my first viewing. I took back everything I had ever said about Jaws, and how the shark was super fake and unbelievable, and how I didn’t think it was going to be good, and it immediately landed in my top 5 films of all time! There are spoilers such as specific character deaths in this review so if you’ve never seen Jaws and want to experience it spoiler free, I recommend watching it before continuing from this point.

Jaws is a record breaking film that defined the term “blockbuster” and set a new standard for movie performances. Based on the novel by Peter Benchley, a young up-and-coming Steven Spielberg in the directors chair, a masterful score by John Williams, and one of the greatest trio’s of cast in cinema history all contributed to it’s massive success. It was a powerful enough of a film that it actually altered the amount of people that visited beaches in the years after its release. I’m almost glad I wasn’t able to see it at a young age and think I experienced it at the perfect time. If I was too young I might’ve either been overly horrified or thought it was boring because it is a very slow burning film that I wouldn’t have appreciated when I was younger.

Martin Brody (Roy Scheider), Sam Quint (Robert Shaw), and Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) make up what I think is one of the greatest film trio’s of all time, all three characters bounce off each other in ways unique to each character. Brody feels like he belongs at all in the situation and feels helpless at the beginning of the film, having a fear of water and being the chief of police on an island surrounded by it, while also being caught in the middle of the frequent clashes of Quint and Hooper. Hooper and Quint’s interactions I particularly love because they’re both shark experts, but they come from extremely different backgrounds and have different methods of approach to the matter and are constantly trying to one up each other and are both afraid to admit when they’re wrong which unfortunately leads to Quint’s demise. Even aside from the main three antagonists, several of the secondary characters and even the extras are extremely well cast and put up amazing performances. Several of the citizens of Amity are locals from Martha’s Vineyard where Jaws was filmed so it makes Amity feel genuine and lived in by the people, because it is! I find myself quoting Ben Gardener’s “Hello back!” when people say “hello” and I also quote the “A whaaaaat?” when Hooper tells the man it’s a Tiger Shark.

Of course the biggest character in the film is the shark itself, which unfortunately caused the films production to be a nightmare. However, the shark constantly malfunctioning is what lead to the films strongest point, utilizing “less is more” approach for the shark. We don’t physically see the shark itself until the halfway point of the movie, but prior to that and even several times after that we know its there. How? Steven Spielberg being the cinema mastermind that he is, brings the shark to life even without the audience seeing it. He uses several POV (point-of-view) shots from underwater as the shark approaches, the dock being towed by the shark across the water, and barrels later on in the film show that the shark is active and moving. One element above all warns viewers about the shark and is still as scary today as it was in 1975, the score.

John Williams Oscar winning score for Jaws gives the film much of its character, sets the tone, and is still hummed by beach go-ers 45 years later. The simplicity of the Jaws Theme is part of what makes it scary, two repeating notes getting faster and faster as the danger lurks closer. I of course noticed the score plays whenever the shark is present on my first viewing, but a detail I didn’t pick up on is that it doesn’t play when the shark is not present such as the moment when the two boys use the fake dorsal fin to create panic on the beach. I figured the lack of music was to create more tension such as in Jurassic Park when the T-Rex is attacking the tour vehicles, rather than subconsciously letting you know the shark is not present in that particular moment. No music = no shark. The score is so much more than the famous “dun dun dun dun” that it’s known for, other pieces from the film that I absolutely love play when the tourists are all arriving at Amity and Brody and Hooper are doing their best to try to keep the public safe despite what the Mayor has ordered, and my other favorite that I find myself whistling often plays when they leave with Quint out to sea as well as the barrel chase. It’s such a perfect score and there’s absolutely nothing I would change about it.

Sound Mixing is another Oscar awarded to Jaws and for good reason and I didn’t fully catch onto it until my most recent re-watch. As we follow Brody through his stress and paranoia about the shark, there’s heavy background noise such as arguments, marching band, or traffic whenever he’s trying to get his thoughts together or set things right with the mayor, which helps the audience feel the stress that Brody is going through.

My favorite reason Jaws is scary is something I picked up right away on my first viewing. Jaws seems to break the “movie rules” right off the bat when it comes to deaths. Usually, or at least it’s the case in most films I’ve watched, when it comes to deaths, women and children are generally safe. There’s always tension with them, but in the case of other films such as Jurassic Park there’s a part of you that seems to know that the kids are most likely going to make it out due to them surviving other circumstances and the fact that they’re children in a movie. Jaws however breaks this rule not once, not twice, but four times throughout the movie. We start with Chrissie’s death at the beginning to set the stage. The very next death in the film is Pippin the dog, his death takes place off screen but there’s enough evidence that he didn’t make it, and seconds later a little boy named Alex Kintner is killed by the shark. These events, especially so close together had me on the edge of my seat the entire film, and even very late in the film when we get down to our three main characters where you know deep down inside all three are safe because they’re the main characters, one of them takes the fall and I was scared even more so for our remaining characters aboard “The Orca”. I love that this film isn’t afraid to do this because I think it adds tremendous tension to the film, and how the boy’s death burdens Brody later on as he feels it is his personal responsibility to get rid of the shark.

Jaws redefined film as a whole and what it could accomplish and how much it could succeed. Several elements including some negative elements during production with the shark malfunctioning, came together to make Jaws one of the greatest blockbusters of all time. Even though the shark doesn’t look the best when we do get to see it, we see it so little and it’s mixed in with underwater footage of real sharks it has little to no effect on the film as a whole. Unfortunately Jaws did put an almost permanently negative view on sharks, and me loving sharks as much as I do, am happy to see that finally beginning to turn around for the better. This film will be around potentially forever, and I think it’s just as iconic now as it was in 1975. Jaws gets a 9.5/10 from me, and I watch it almost every year for the 4th of July. This was the first “scary” movie that I liked growing up, and I’m glad to have finally gotten around to it even after I had to push through the terrible sequels first. What are your thoughts on Jaws? Where would you place it on your film list?