Review: Jaws Takes a Bite Out of the Competition, Even 40 Years After it’s Release.
- Jan 13, 2017
- 2 min read
Spielberg’s original masterpiece and the first blockbuster, Jaws is a giant among creature films and rightly holds the title as the best of the best, even if the shark does look a little goofy.
Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) is the newly appointed sheriff of Amity Island, a town which relies on summertime beach goers for most of its income. Add a monster shark with a taste for people and you’ve got a disaster waiting to happen. But Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) refuses to close the beaches. And so the wait begins and, when over a tonne of shark strikes, it’s up to a small team to hunt it down, and take it out.
While Jaws wasn’t Steven Spielberg’s first film, it was the one that put him on the map and set the standard for creature films to come, as well as starting a long line of copy cats and knockoffs. Tales of its troubled development, namely with the animatronic shark, are the stuff of legend, and without these issues, it wouldn’t become the film it has.
Jaws is famous for it’s use, or lack thereof, of the shark and the concept of keeping the monster hidden just out of sight has become commonplace. But this is more of a blessing than a curse as, 40 years on, the shark does look a little goofy as it flops around awkwardly. But it’s not the monster that makes Jaws great, it’s the characters.
From Chief Brody and Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) desperately trying to convince the mayor and city council of the danger to Lorraine Gary as the chief’s wife, standing by him through thick and thin. And it would be a crime not to mention Quint, magnificently portrayed by Robert Shaw, as he chews through scenery and regales his companions of stories abroad. The characters feel as real as the situation they’re in.
Without the excellent characters and superb acting, Jaws would have been forgotten long ago as, at its heart, it is little more than a monster movie. But, thanks to Spielberg’s solid directing and the actors dedication to their roles, along with John Williams iconic score, Jaws has stood the test of time, and will continue to do so.
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