Horror Flicks: Jaws (1975)

By Jason Haskins

Duh-duh. Duh-duh. Duh duh duh duh duh duh--okay, you get my point. Almost everyone knows Jaws, even if they haven't seen it. It was the cultural phenomenon in 1975 that practically invented the summer blockbuster movie and jumpstarted Steven Spielberg into celebrity status. Imagine a film like Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, only in the cold, dark reaches of the ocean with a man-eating great white shark. Yeah, you see my point.

This movie is terrifying 35 years after the fact simply because of the conceived perception that one shark (be it man's fear of the unknown) will always be out there watching and waiting for us to wade into the water. This movie scared the dickens out of me when I was a kid and watching it again, it still does. There's clearly a correlation between my boyhood love of sharks and my adult phobia of open water and sharks in the depths. This all points back to Jaws.

Jaws takes place on fictional Amity Island where a mauled dead body washes up on the beach. Police Chief Martin Brody sets out to investigate this supposed "boating accident" when it becomes apparent it was, in fact, a shark that caused the harm. On the eve of a huge July 4th celebration that would cripple the small town's economy if word got out, the mayor doesn't want anything to do with this and doesn't believe Brody--until a little boy gets thrashed and the town is in an uproar.

A crazed mob go out on the water killing any shark in their path--in hopes of getting the one who's raising all the hell. Shark expert Matt Hooper comes into the picture with the largest grasp of this situation that's willing to help Brody any which way he can--including the hiring of lone (and sea-crazy) shark killer Sam Quint to help track down the shark to a fateful (and classic) showdown.

This movie does have some political intrigue to it--mainly about the psychology of fear shying the tourists away from spending their money and going into the water and human greed. But ultimately...it's about a huge muthaluvin' shark killing people and having three level-headed (or fairly so) men go out on a Moby Dick-like expedition to kill it. This is considered a horror movie by most regards of the word and I would say this movie is quite scary.

Jaws was revolutionary in the treatment of the horror picture, making it more frightening and less over-the-top (until the end of the course). There's a lot of blood, but no real gore to look out for and the body count isn't too high. This made a huge ruckus after it came out because people weren't going into the water that summer and it caused mass shark killings from scared individuals eventually making huge dents in populations of sea-life.

The special effects in this movie are still astounding and Spielberg really showed off his dramatic flair here--including a Hitchcockian forward zoom/reverse-tracking shot with Brody at the beach during an attack (similar to Vertigo and used countless times over the years). Spielberg also sticks close to the water giving you a true depth in each shot that's quite overwhelming at times. There's even a great part where the camera zooms close at water level (which would heavily inspire Sam Raimi's work years later). His style is fun and tidy and he keeps the shark hidden for a lot of the movie until near the end where the shark appears in all of its glory. Some may find it to be obviously animatronic, but it's realistic to me and more so than if they used CGI today.

The performances are also great all around. Brody is played perfectly by Roy Schneider (who would later return for the first sequel) as a police chief in over his head, but on pursuit of the shark for the good of the town and his kids. Lorraine Gary plays his wife in a great supporting role (she'd also return for the second and fourth sequels, which Spielberg had nothing to do with, rightly so) as well as Murray Hamilton as the scheming Mayor (ooh, I hated this guy). However, the two guys who take the cake are Robert Shaw as Quint, in an end-all performance of his career (in my opinion) as a nutty sort of character and Richard Dreyfuss as Hooper who gives us one of the most likable characters in all of cinema. Altogether these people create an interesting facet to the film that would be lacking without them.

Something that makes this film so powerful is the script and the atmosphere. It's shot so realistically that it makes you feel like you're on the coast. The whole movie feels real to me with a ton of natural lighting and location shooting and it makes it have more substance than if it were shot on a set. The script isn't cheap either (except for one scene with a corpse in a boat that doesn't work for me) and really plays on suspense and tension instead of outward ridiculousness (which the film's direction could have easily gone into). Not only that, but John Williams' horrifying score amps up the scariness with its dark tuba and string arrangements that sound like thrashing water. It's actually an intense score that always keeps you on your toes and leads to the presence of the shark and the movie wouldn't be as strong without it.

I have the 30th Anniversary Special Edition DVD and this little bastard is the only comprehensive way to experience this great movie (until the Blu-ray, of course). It's packed to the brim with content including a humongous two-hour documentary, which clearly lays out the trials and tribulations the filmmakers faced. Bruce, the shark, was an epic fail for a majority of the film and caused a lot of struggle and that is just one of the many interesting subjects in the documentary, which boasts a huge collection of great interviews with the cast and crew.

There are also a good load of deleted scenes to expand your experience, outtakes, and a huge section devoted to the production and marketing of this beast (pretty much archival fun stuff) and a featurette on the mass frenzy that started from the film's release. The box art is awesome with a cold and dark blue case and it definitely has a great audio/visual quality to it that makes it much more frightening and less grainy than the VHS.

Jaws was the lifting point in Spielberg's career, which started him on a path that would only get better from here (aside from a few turds). This movie never gets old to me for some reason--I could watch it a million times over and not get tired of it because of the great performances and intriguing story. This is one of the most well-known movies of all time and there's a reason for it. This pioneered on a mass scale the same tone that would lead to countless other "animals gone crazy" stories in our entertainment industry for better or for worse. This was a calculated picture that made a possible B-movie into a first rate smash that still lives on every summer when people go out to the beach and they flop into the water hearing John Williams' famous notes enter their heads. And there Jaws has won.

5 out of 5