Review No. 100: Jaws

Ah Jaws, how I wished I could’ve seen you all those years ago when you were still young and people still shat themselves whenever they saw you. You’re a near masterpiece but you’re not as scary as you were back then, although you are still as great.

Jaws is a film with two halves and two plots, the first half revolves around the town of Amity, a beach community that thrives on the summer crowds coming in. However new sheriff Brody is convinced that some recent deaths are the result of a shark attack, something that the mayor doesn’t care for.

The second half is the hunt for the shark with three men on a boat searching for this massive killer. The first half of this film is a typical ‘Big sheriff in small town’ storyline, the cop believes there’s something going on, the man in charge doesn’t believe him, it’s well-done and some of the death scenes are brutal but it is pretty predictable. The second half is what makes the film though, these three men, all from different backgrounds and different approaches go on a hunt sharing drinks and fists and stories all in equal measures, it’s where the acting is the highest and the tension is the strongest.

The acting is good all around, the mayor is a douche-bag but he’s acting in the town’s best interest, Brody’s family, especially his kids, are all great and sweet, that scene with him and Sean mirroring each other was great. However the best roles are the three main characters;

Martin Brody is a New York cop that’s moved down to the island community to get away from the trouble New York brings. While he does like the quiet it seems like he’s still getting used to it, therefore when the first victim turns up and Brody hears Shark he’s immediately concerned, even when others are not. When it comes time to hunt the shark Brody joins the boat despite hating the water because after a child is killed he wants to prove to the town - and to himself - that he has what it takes to look after them all.

Matt Hooper, the oceanographer, is something of a loner. Yes he’s incredibly smart and he’s friendly enough but his privileged background and lonely job has made it difficult for him to work with people, he gets angry quickly and he’s sarcastic a lot of the time. He joins the hunt almost through sheer perverse admiration for this perfectly evolved killing machine. And then there’s Quint, one of the best things about this film, Quint has two moods, eccentric to the point of near insanity when things are calm but once the shit hit’s the fan he immediately turns into cold and dangerous psycho, a take no shit, take no prisoners attitude that almost destroys the group, the boat and him. Watching Quint deliver that Indianapolis speech was chilling to say the least.

All three of these men worked well together, feeding off their shared, outsider nature and equal measures of companionship and hate.

Spielberg is at one of his best with this film, the opening scene delivers a false sense of calm before the first kill, the killing of the child starts with tension building slowly up while Brody keeps look-out before it’s hit with a sudden splurge of blood. Some of the moments on the boat range from light-hearted and heroic to chilling and threatening. The jarring change from the loud splashing above water to the dull noise below water with the shark’s P.O.V. And then a good few jump scares to really make you shit yourself.

Some of the shots of the ocean are gorgeous to look at and the camera glides through the water, echoing the shark movements incredibly well, it’s definitely early Spielberg and you can see how it started out before moving onto bigger blockbusters but it’s still a great film to watch, especially the shark itself, it may look cheap at points but the fact that it’s a real, physical item is nothing to be laughed at.

And of course John Williams score is fantastic, I don’t really need to say much else, even if you haven’t seen Jaws you know the Jaws theme.

Overall, a great film with a trio of great acting from the three leads, brilliant direction that includes tension, chills and some fantastic scares and a timeless score. This is one of those films you HAVE to see, film fan or not.

9.5/10