Jaws

Year: 1975 Director: Steven Spielberg

Of course its safe to go back in the water.

The plot surrounds a great white shark that is terrorising Amity, New England. The local Police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) is so concerned that he wants the beaches closed down until they can be assured of it being safe again. The mayor who is mindful of the business implications for the area refuses to close the beaches, and the shark attacks continue. To allay fears the mayor hires marine expert Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) to work alongside Brody, and together they set out with maverick fisherman Quint (Robert Shaw) to hunt down the shark.

Jaws was the highest grossing movie of all time (prior to Star Wars) and was the movie that started the "Summer Blockbuster" tradition in the cinema industry. Peter Benchley's adapted screenplay of his own novel was directed by Steven Spielberg - seemingly an ideal choice after his superb work on 1971's minimalist epic the road movie / horror / thriller Duel. In a similar way to Duel, Steven Spielberg wrings every ounce of suspense out of the story, together with plenty of moments to make you jump (particularly the head floating out of the bottom of the boat). For its time the special effects were cutting edge and even today the mechanical shark (named Bruce) looks much more realistic than many recent CGI attempts at sharks (i.e. Deep Blue Sea - awful shark, awful film). Special mention should go to John Williams for the soundtrack and especially the Jaws theme tuba riff that has now passed into legend. Charlton Heston desperately wanted to play the part of Chief Brody. Luckily Steven Spielberg didn't want to cast Heston (possibly the hammiest actor in movie history) in the role and instead wisely cast Roy Scheider for which we are all truly grateful. We must mention the sequels Jaws 2, Jaws 3 and Jaws : The Revenge which, despite being written again by Peter Benchley, were all astonishingly poor with the plots becoming more ludicrous with each subsequent movie (by the end the sharks were singling out the entire Brody family! perhaps the family should just have moved a few miles inland - problem solved). Despite its franchise becoming farcical, the original Jaws stands proud as a truly great film.

Jaws is featured in our Interactive Haunted House of Horror guide to horror films and scary movies.

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