Jaws

I grew up in a world where "Jaws" and especially its musical score were in the public's consciousness, even though I live far from the ocean. Finally in my late teens, I saw the movie for the first time. I have come to enjoy the movie even more upon multiple viewings. Today, it is my favorite movie from 1975. The story is entertaining and the music makes the movie even more impacting. The legacy of this movie should never be forgotten. Had it failed in theaters, it would have seriously delayed the career of a young & new director named Steven Spielberg as well as that of an Oscar-winning musical composer. Other films may have also been indirectly affected in a negative way. Because the movie is based off a novel, I will try to direct my review on Spielberg's take on the story.

The opening credit sequence immediately causes you to sit up thanks to the music. We later meet an "average joe" police chief in the lead role. We meet his family and this is important because we have to hope that Brody will survive the ending. If you are paying attention, Michael gets cut on the swings and then wants to go swimming. There are suspenseful moments throughout the film. I like the shot after Chrissie's remains are discovered. Brody looks out on the ocean, knowing that something is out there. I also like how the town is concerned with mirror crimes while Brody is out on a mission to close the beaches because great contrast is achieved. Even though Mayor Larry Vaughan pressures Brody to downplay Chrissie's death, this doesn't change his mind about a shark hunting off the island. The subsequent scene on the beach therefore is full of tension and is contrasted with all the beach goers having fun. We get some great wipe cuts by way of swimmers walking past the camera. Then, when we realize that the dog is missing, the music cues up and we get a terrifying underwater shot. Spielberg here utilizes a fearful thing about sharks: we can't see them from above the surface unless their fin is showing. In this impressive underwater shot, we still don't see the shark. When Brody realizes what is going on, we get a "Vertigo"-type shot as the background moves farther away and Brody in the foreground moves closer. The intro of Quint is very good. He comes across well as a modern day Ahab. He is also supercilious. Brody can sense the madness in Quint but at the same time, Brody feels that Quint may be the best way to go in order to get rid of the shark. We sympathize with Brody because it is more Larry's fault that the shark killed the boy but yet Brody takes the blame. Brody is still responsible however because he didn't stand up to Larry and close the beaches anyway. We get some great dialogue scenes that help portray this. Brody needs a friend on his side to help him do his job and this is where Hooper comes in. He is my favorite character because of his sense of humor. Richard Dreyfuss does a great job. The chemistry between him and Roy Scheider is very good. I like the scenes they have together. I love the scenes when Hooper lays out the current situation to everyone. We have the dialogue on the dock when Hooper vocalizes that more than likely, the tiger shark is not the culprit. Even though the tiger shark is rare for that area and is a man-eater, its bite radius is the largest red flag. Then there is the scene when Hooper tells the mayor that either they have to kill the shark or cut off its food supply. This is great writing by the screenwriters and great acting from Dreyfuss.

I love the teaming of Brody, Hooper and Quint because of the contrast. The casting helped bring this out. You have the everyman, the good-natured, intelligent expert and the slightly crazy, obsessed captain. One my favorite lines in the movie that I say to myself all the time is, "I don't have to take this abuse much longer." Then we have Scheider's improvised line, "You're gonna need a bigger boat." I understand the impact of the line but it doesn't have much impact on myself personally because I saw "Godzilla" first. There is a similar line on that movie and I get a bigger kick out of that one. Robert Shaw, who plays Quint, helped write the USS Indianapolis monologue and that is a neat scene. I like the songs the men sing on the boat. They get stuck in my head. I really like the shot when the barrel appears moving towards the boat as the men sing inside. I find it funny more than scary. The shooting stars a few minutes later seem quite out of place. If you ask me, I think the first one is real and was accidentally captured on film during the scene while the second one is special effects. I can't be certain though. The real sharks we see in the film were shot in Australia. One shark got caught in the cables holding the underwater cage onto the boat and the footage from that incident was impressive. The problem was that no one was in the cage during that accident and so the script was re-written so that Hooper would escape the cage and hide. The reason why Hooper survives at the end of the film is because of the Australian shark that accidentally got tangled in the cables. The foreshadowing of the scuba tank being used to kill the shark is well done. We first see a picture of a shark with a scuba tank in its mouth in Brody's book towards the start of "Jaws" and then there is the scene on the Orca where Hooper & Quint give us a hint about what is going to happen at the end of the movie. This part of the story was Spielberg's idea and I like this sense of climax. Another element that makes the end of the movie exciting is that the captain is dead and the intelligent shark expert can't attract attention. It is up to the average man who is afraid of the water. He comes through and the whole audience shares his triumphant laugh. I like the last shot during the end credits as Hooper and Brody, far in the distance, come ashore. When I first saw the movie, there were four moments that genuinely frightened me. The first is when the fishermen accidentally fall in the water trying to catch the shark with the roast. The shark is pulling part of the dock out to sea but then slowly the dock turns around and starts heading towards the one fisherman. The second is Gardner's head. The timing of that shot was perfect and it was a reshot during post-production in the editor's pool. Thirdly, as Hooper and Quint pull the barrel into the Orca, the shark suddenly appears. Finally, when Hooper is in the shark cage and he looks far off in the distance, he can see the shark. The reason why all these moments still gives me the creeps is the musical cues.

Spielberg was quite young and new to filmmaking when he decided to make this movie. He did it because of the similarities to an earlier TV movie of his, "Duel". He had only done one theatrical film previous to this, "The Sugarland Express", and so the producers were gambling a little bit when they chose this perfectionist director. After Spielberg signed on to direct, he was afraid that he would become typecast in directing films like "Duel" and "Jaws". Producer David Brown convinced him to stay saying, "after 'Jaws', you can make all the films you want." The phrase was prophetic. Spielberg insisted that the movie be shot on the Atlantic. This had never been done before and the reasons became apparent. The battle with tides, wind and weather was a hard one. Also, because the mechanical shark was not working for most of the production, Spielberg had to employ similar tactics that Alfred Hitchcock did on his films. He used music and POV shots of the shark to create suspense. This fortuitously contributed to the success of "Jaws". The filming of this show ran into so many problems that it was a miracle that the movie became what it is. Spielberg described the process as both nightmarish and as a "baptism". He learned things that helped him create future masterpieces. "Jaws" is one of those projects that overcame overwhelming adversity and went on to change the world. Other Hollywood examples of this include "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", "The Godfather" and of course "Star Wars". Spielberg cast known actors in the major roles but did not want to cast superstars in order that the characters would be more relatable. For example, Charlton Heston wanted the role of Brody but Spielberg felt he was too famous. Lee Marvin was considered to play Quint and that would have been neat. The filmmakers also used local talent and extras to cast the film, which added to its appeal. The minor cast members did they best work understandably by adlibbing. Some of my favorite lines are adlibs from both the actors and non-actors. The local fisherman that plays Ben Gardner was the inspiration for Robert Shaw in his performance by the way. Now we come to the man who took a well created film and made it practically immortal: John Williams. No version of the musical score compares with his original version from 1975 because it wasn't until I heard that music in the context of the actual movie that it gave me the creeps. I have already mentioned so much about how the music works in the movie but I would like to mention one funny fact. In Australia, they play the music when beaches close at night to get people out of the ocean faster. Probably the best thing that happened to John Williams after the release of this movie came when George Lucas was looking for a composer for "Star Wars". He first went to Spielberg for suggestions and the director had the perfect composer in mind for him.

Just as merchandizing is a big part of the story of the success of "Star Wars", advertizing and marketing was a big part of this movie. "Jaws" was successful because of the posters and trailers that were made to advertize it. Another smart decision was not to release the movie on 900 theater screens as was planned. The preview screenings of the film were widely successful but the studio heads planned to open "Jaws" on just 400 screens so that the public would have to go more out of their way than usual to see the film. This gamble paid off. "Jaws" broke a lot of box office records as the biggest summer movie of 1975. People had not seen a movie get this much attention from general moviegoers. As a result of this movie, the public began to be both fascinated by sharks and scared of them. Evidence of this is Discovery Channel's annual "Shark Week" on television. I had multiple reasons not to go into the ocean before I saw "Jaws" like jellyfish or stingrays but after this movie, I had a big reason. This movie is scary enough that people who don't live near the ocean are frightened by "Jaws". The reason for this is that a shark, as mentioned earlier, is something we can't see past the surface of the water and people all over the world are scared of things they can't see. When the Oscar nominations came in for that year and "Jaws" was nominated for Best Picture, Spielberg wasn't nominated for directing and it became understandably scandalous in Hollywood. When you consider the fact that to date he has seven Best Director nominations (two of which he won), it is probably one of the most ironic moments in Oscar history. "Jaws" kicked off what is known today as the blockbuster era & changed movie making while its director was snubbed in the Academy Award nominations for Best Director. This was John Williams' first Oscar win for a score that was completely original and "Jaws" also won Best Sound and Best Editing.

The Blu-ray restoration of this film in honor of Universal's 100th anniversary was very impressive. I loved how well the movie looked and sounded. I got to see this restored version on the big screen one time as part of a digital film festival and that was neat. The restored quality looked great at the theater as well. The American Film Institute has recognized "Jaws" numerous times. On the list of the best movies, it is #56. The Shark itself is #18 on the list of best villains and the line "You're gonna need a bigger boat" is #35 for movie quotes. It is #6 for movie scores and most impressive of all, it is second only to "Psycho" on the AFI list of most thrilling movies. Both "Jaws" and "Psycho" have iconic musical scores and that says something about the best horror films. In my opinion "Jaws" is not a horror film but actually in the thriller genre. The primary purpose of a horror film is to scare you by any means necessary while a thriller has an entertaining story and keeps you on the edge of your seat. "Jaws" does scare you but it doesn't sacrifice the story for screams. I feel that without Spielberg or Williams, this movie wouldn't have been as successful. You can see Spielberg's potential throughout the movie. "Jaws" may have started the blockbuster era but two years later, another movie set in "a galaxy far, far away" guaranteed that movie making would never be the same.

4 Stars out of 5