Franchises: Jaws. Jaws (1975)

You know how I first became aware of Jaws? When I was a very little kid, I saw an ad for Universal Studios in Orlando. It was a painted ad in some magazine and it had a picture of King Kong and the shark on it. Obviously, I knew King Kong but I asked my Mom, "What's that shark?" She said, "That's Jaws." She then proceeded to tell me a little bit about the film and the infamous, "Da-dum, da-dum" that accompanies the shark whenever he's stalking his prey. From that point on, I went through life knowing the basic story of the film and seeing bits of it on TV every now and then, even seeing a Dateline show about the real USS Indianapolis but I never actually saw Jaws until my sister got me the two-tape special edition of the movie as a Christmas present in 2000. The first tape had the movie whereas the second one had a 75-minute documentary along with deleted scenes and outtakes (not having a DVD player at that time, I didn't know what this was) as well as some trailers.

That set also made me aware of something that I didn't comprehend beforehand: how beloved and influential a film Jaws is. I knew that it was well known, obviously, but I had no idea that it was the highest grossing movie ever at the time of its release and is regarded as a classic not just in its genre but among movies period. I soon found out, however. Everyone knows this film and many also know of its influence. It created the summer movie season and gave Steven Spielberg his career. It also ruined beach-owners' business for years, as well as cemented sharks' reputation as terrifying animals. You ask anybody who's afraid of the ocean and sharks in particular why that's so and they'll usually blame Jaws. Also, anybody who's read about the making of the film knows that it almost never came to be because of the ridiculous amounts of production problems, particularly how the large mechanical shark they built was a major pain and almost never worked (so much so that Spielberg says that he often called it "the Great White Turd"). But that's neither here nor there. I'm here to give you my impressions of the film. The question is: do I think the movie is good and does it deserve its reputation. Well, I can't really answer the second part of the question because I wasn't around to personally experience the phenomenon the film was when it was released but as for the first part, yes, I do think this is a good movie. Damn good, in fact.

Everyone knows the story: after a young woman is found mutilated after she disappeared while swimming, the small island community of Amity discovers that there's an enormous great white shark prowling the nearby ocean. Police Chief Martin Brody is determined to keep the townspeople and the beaches safe but is undermined by the greedy mayor, who wants to keep the beaches open for the profitable Fourth of July weekend. After more people are killed, Brody joins up with shark expert Matt Hooper and eccentric captain Quint to hunt down the shark. But what starts out as a simple hunt turns into a fight for survival as the enormous shark proves to be a formidable enemy and puts the team's lives in danger.

Jaws is actually kind of like two movies in one. The first hour is a slow-paced thriller involving Brody having to deal with the mayor and his attempts to keep the public safe, which end up failing. It's here that we're introduced to Matt Hooper and he and Brody quickly become friends. Quint is also introduced here but he remains mainly in the background for most of this half. It's also here that Brody and Hooper learn just what they're up against when the body of the first victim is examined and they find the remains of a boat that the shark attacked. After a devastating attack on the beach on the Fourth of July, the mayor agrees to hire Quint to kill the shark. Brody and Hooper join Quint on his small boat the Orca in their hunt for the shark, beginning the second hour and where things really get good. From there on, the movie is a rousing action-adventure film, with a lot of great character moments and skillful suspense thrown in. To sum it up: the first half is a movie that I like and the second half is a movie that I love.

Chief Martin Brody, played by Roy Scheider, has to be one of my favorite heroic characters in horror and suspense films. From the moment you first see him, he's a likable, funny character who's devoted to his duty of keeping the townspeople safe but is forced not to say anything or he could possibly lose his job. When Mrs. Kitner, the mother of a kid who's killed by the shark, slaps Brody and then blames him for her son's death, it cuts to a scene of Brody sitting at his dinner table and you can tell he's really hurt by what happened, perhaps feeling guilty that he didn't stand up to the mayor and therefore, could have kept the little boy from being killed. He's also afraid of the water, which makes both for a sense of him having to overcome his fears when he goes out to kill the shark and for some comedy. I like the scene where he, his wife Ellen, and Hooper are talking and Ellen talks about his fear of water. When she asks if there's a scientific term for his condition, he simply says, "Drowning." The way he says that is so deadpan that, even to this day, it makes me smirk. He also, of course, has the famous line, "You're going to need a bigger boat" when he gets a good look at how big the shark is, a line that I think was a brilliant improv! Another thing about Brody is, despite his good intentions, he's kind of out of his depth, both being police chief in Amity as well as aboard the Orca. As police chief, when he's preoccupied with the idea that there's a shark in the nearby ocean, he's ignoring the trivial problems that the townspeople and has to be sort of wishy-washy with them. And when he's helping hunt the shark aboard the Orca, he's tying ropes the wrong way, pulling the wrong knot and causing compressed air bottles to spill all over the deck, and is clearly getting seasick when he has to throw chum out in the water. But what I like most about him is when he's come through as a real hero at the end of the film, putting himself right in the path of the shark as he tries to shoot the compressed air tank in its mouth. His line, "Smile, you son of a bitch!" and the way he says it is the epitome of badass in my opinion.

Matt Hooper, played by Richard Dreyfuss, is another instantly likable character. Dreyfuss plays him with a very gee-whiz quality, giving the impression of a young and dedicated shark expert who gets in over his head when it comes to the politics of the town and when he realizes the size of the animal he's trying to kill. If you've read the original Peter Benchley novel, as I have, you'd know that he's much more likable here than he was there, coming off as a slimy, unlikable character in the book. I really enjoy the relationship between him and Brody. The chemistry between Scheider and Dreyfuss is great. It's obvious that while both men have respect for each other, they're not above some good-natured ribbing, even though they've only known each other for a couple of days or so. One exchange between them that I like is, while searching for the shark one night, Brody finds out that Hooper is quite wealthy and he says, "It doesn't make any sense that they'd pay someone like you to watch sharks." Hooper says, "Well, it's also odd for someone who hates water to live on an island." Brody: "It's only an island if you look at from the water." Hooper looks at him and sarcastically says, "That make a lot of sense." Hooper, despite being likable, does have his limits and he becomes very irritated with the mayor when he's refusing to accept the fact that he has a major shark problem. When Brody almost blows the Orca up by untying a bunch of compressed air tanks, Hooper angrily yells, "Damn it, Martin!" By the end of the film, when their situation is becoming more and more dire, Hooper becomes very serious and high strung, snapping at Brody when he was just going to ask him a simple question. Hooper's terrifying battle with the shark in the underwater cage is another iconic moment and you can see the terror in his eyes. Finally, when he and Brody swim to shore together at the end of the film, it's made everything the two have gone through together worthwhile.

Rounding out the three main cast members is Robert Shaw as Quint, the grizzled shark hunter. His motivation is clear: he doesn't care anything about the town or the people but will kill the shark for them... for a price. He doesn't think much of the other fishermen on the island, scoffing when a bunch of them catch and kill a shark that couldn't possibly be the one they're after, and when Brody and Hooper offer to join him in the hunt, he makes it obvious that he doesn't respect Hooper, accusing him of being a pampered city boy who hasn't worked a day in his life. He also tells them that he's captain on his boat and they'll do whatever he says. He continues to refuse to listen to Hooper while pursuing the shark. And yet, there's a great scene between all three men when they're more than a little drunk after a hard day of hunting. I like how it starts off really funny and casual, with Hooper and Quint comparing injuries, Quint telling a funny anecdote about how a big Chinese arm-wrestler about broke his arm, but when Brody notices the scar of a removed tattoo on Quint's arm, that's when he tells them about the USS Indianapolis. This is when we find out about the source of Quint's eccentricities and his hatred of sharks, as he tells of the ordeal he and the other survivors went through stuck in the middle of the ocean with sharks threatening to kill them at every turn. He says that when a rescue helicopter eventually showed up to pick them up, that was when he was the most scared because he was sure a shark was going to kill him right before he could be rescued. This is hinted at later when the Orca is so badly damaged that it begins to sink and Quint glances at the life-jackets, calling back to when he said he'd never put one on again. He gives them both to Brody and Hooper, not putting one on himself. Quint's obsession to kill the shark apparently drives him temporarily mad (although some could argue that he wasn't quite right to begin with, judging from his peculiar actions and from what happened to him), as he pushes the engine of the Orca too far, causing it to blow out and making them sitting ducks for the shark. Ironically, his obsession is what ultimately leads to him experiencing exactly what he was afraid of: being eaten alive by the shark. I'm glad they changed his death from the novel (where he's simply pulled overboard by a harpoon rope) because this is much dramatic and ironic. It's also the goriest scene in the film and it's amazing this movie didn't get an R-rating for it.

The movie also benefits from a very good supporting cast. Lorraine Gary plays Brody's wife, Ellen. While she's not in the film that much, she comes across as a loving wife who supports her husband every step of the way and even becomes concerned when he starts to become obsessed with finding out everything he can about sharks. My favorite moment with her is when Brody is telling their kids to get out of the small sailboat they're sitting in on the water. Ellen at first tries to assure her husband that nothing is going to happen to them when they're sitting in shallow water... and then she sees a drawing in a book showing a shark biting through the bottom of a boat. She immediately pulls a 180 and yells at her kids to get out of the water, just as her husband was doing a few minutes ago. The look Brody gives her is priceless. Also on hand is Jeffrey Kramer as Brody's deputy, Leonard Hendricks. Again, this character doesn't have much screentime but he seems like a nice enough guy who dutifully follows Brody's directions (he would get much more to do in Jaws 2).

The most despicable character in the film is Mayor Vaughn, played by Murray Hamilton. This guy is an absolutely greedy asshole who's willing to risk the lives of the townspeople just so he can make a lot of money. He tells Brody after the major attack on the beach that he was acting in the town's best interest but I honestly believe he was just thinking about filling his own pockets. I just hate how smarmy he is towards Brody when he's telling him to keep quiet about the possibility that there's a dangerous shark roaming the waters off the island. You get the impression that he influenced a coroner to say that the first victim was possibly killed by a boat propeller, even though Brody says that's not what he first told him. He's the one responsible for young Alex Kintner getting killed and when his mother takes it out on Brody, that selfish jerk just stands by and doesn't say anything. Before that, even after the first beach attack, when Brody says that the beaches are going to be closed, Vaughn overrules him again and says they'll only be closed for twenty-four hours. It's also disgusting how he acts toward Hooper when he's trying to warn him about how enormous and dangerous the shark is, ending it by saying, "Love to prove that, wouldn't you? Get your name in the National Geographic?" Vaughn's the real villain of the movie, not the shark.

Steven Spielberg has said that his intention was for the shark to be the real star of the film. He intended to have the shark appear fully on camera for most of the movie, chomping on people left and right. However, when it became clear that the mechanical shark that they built wasn't going to work hardly at all, Spielberg had to severely overhaul his vision of the film, keeping the shark off-camera until the last third of the movie. Ironically, many people, like me, feel that this made the movie even better than it would have been had the shark worked well enough to show on-camera as much as he originally intended. Granted, there would have been nothing wrong with the shark appearing in every scene and, for someone like me who loves monster flicks, it would have been exciting and awesome but not showing the shark gave the film a Hitchcock-like class that it wouldn't have had otherwise. Because of that, Jaws became a great example of the less is more approach to horror films. For instance, the opening scene with Chrissie Watkins (Susan Backlinie) was supposed to show the shark actually come out of the water and swallow her whole. While that would have been undoubtedly cool, it's unlikely that the scene would have been as iconic as it is if it weren't for the fact that you don't see the shark but with her being dragged around and screaming, you get an idea of the shark's strength and can imagine him ripping her apart below the water. Scenes like the death of the Kintner boy or the two men who almost become food for the shark when they try to catch him may not have been as suspenseful had the shark just come out of the water and bitten them in half and the movie itself might not have been as well remembered.

In these types of horror flicks, not showing the monster for a good portion of the movie is a great build-up to when you finally do see it in all its glory. However, I feel that this is one instance where Jaws drops the ball a little bit. Everyone comments that the first time you see the shark is during that classic scene where Brody is chumming, makes a joke, and then the shark suddenly sticks his head out of the water. That's a great, classic moment no doubt but it's not the first time you get a good look at the shark. You actually see the shark for the first time when he attacks Brody's son Michael in an estuary and kills a man in a rowboat. Because it's not as classic as the chumming scene may be why many don't remember it but you very clearly see the shark chomping on the man and it's on the surface of the water no less. Now, the chumming scene is still classic, no doubt, but it just kind of puzzles me when everyone says that's the first time you really see the shark when it's not. As a result, I feel the power of the chumming scene is sort of diminished when you put it into that context, but it's still a great shock moment and classic nonetheless.

As for the shark himself, does the look still hold up nowadays? For the most part, when you see the shark, the effects do still hold up. The main reason for that is because Spielberg doesn't let the camera linger too long on the shark and you see just enough of him to convince you that he's real (something that the sequels did not do, as we'll see later). For me, the only parts where the shark looks fake is near the end of the film after Quint has been killed and Brody is left to fend for himself. When the shark smashes through the sunken inside of the boat to attack Brody, I feel that the shark does look a little hokey right there and also when Brody climbs up into the crow's nest and stabs the shark repeatedly in the head with a spear, you can see little patches where the paint has fallen off the mechanical shark's head. Still, these are just instances of nitpicking and they don't ruin the movie at all. The believability of the shark is also helped by the real shark footage shot by Ron and Valerie Taylor that appears during the attack on Hooper in the underwater cage. The best part of the real footage is an instance where a shark got its nose caught in the cage and went crazy, thrashing around in an attempt to get loose. Because the cage they used was small, it's totally believable that this real shark is the enormous one we've been seeing throughout and scenes like this just make the illusion all the more believable.

One skill that I think Spielberg is underrated for is his ability to create suspense. If you've seen his made for TV thriller Duel, you'd know that when he wants to, Spielberg has a Hitchock-like ability to make you tense and he would use that in later films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jurassic Park. Jaws in particular is a great showcase of his skill. As I said, the mechanical shark's refusal to work when needed forced Spielberg to resort to the "less is more" style and he makes great use of it. The underwater POV shots of the shark watching his victims are very well done, as well as when he closes in for the kill, like when he rushes toward the Kintner boy. Or take the scene before that when Brody is sitting on the beach, watching the water and sees a dark shape that he thinks may be a shark but turns out to be a dark diving cap on a man's head or when a swimming girl suddenly screams but it turns out that her boyfriend (at least I'm assuming it's her boyfriend) came up between her legs and picked her up on his shoulders. That's great use of suspense. But the scene that really nails it for me is the first scene where the men are on the Orca, hunting the shark. There's a closeup of Quint with his big fishing rod in the foreground that's completely casual with him taking a bite of a cracker and Brody is off-camera, trying to figure out how to tie a good knot... and suddenly, the rod moves with a soft clicking. Quint calmly glances down at it as it moves and clicks again. The music, as well, is menacing but is very soft and calm as Quint prepares to try to reel in whatever has grabbed the line. Brody and Hooper, all this time, are completely unaware until the reel starts going out like crazy with a loud screech and the scene is on. Great suspense.

One scene that never fails to scare my mom is the scene where Brody and Hooper discover Ben Gardner's wrecked boat in the middle of the ocean and Hooper investigates the hull in his scuba gear. While he's investigating a large hole in the hull, the head of Gardner suddenly floats down into view and the music does a long sting that is effectively startling. Mom always jumps at that, even when she knows it's coming. I also must admit that that scared me to death when I first saw it. It has to be the best shock moment in Spielberg's filmography. I think Spielberg kind of regrets putting that in to this day because he felt it diminished the scare of the chumming scene but I personally think both scenes still work very well.

You can't talk about Jaws without even mentioning John Williams' iconic score. That "da-dum, da-dum" has become forever tied to when you're swimming out in the middle of the ocean (or any body of water for that matter) and you wonder what might be lurking below you out of sight. Also, you can't swim with anyone else without that inevitable person acting like he or she is stalking you and humming that music. It's part of our culture and how could it not? It's the first thing you hear at the beginning of the film. You hear some odd sounds when the Universal logo comes up and after a few seconds, you hear that theme start slowly and build up. It's even ironic that it's the first thing you hear in the movie because when you bring up Jaws to anyone, the first thing they'll do more than likely is imitate the theme. It has a lot of variations to it in the ways it's used throughout the film. When the shark is swimming amongst the swimmers in the first beach scene, it starts off kind of serene but becomes tense and ever faster as he closes in on the Kintner boy. Or there are times where you don't hear the music at all and it suddenly comes out of nowhere, like when Hooper and Quint are trying to tie the rope attached to the shark to a cleat and the shark suddenly comes out of the water. Also, the theme is never used for a false alarm. During the scene where two boys cause a panic by swimming amongst some swimmers with a fake fin, you may notice that the theme doesn't play, which should be a hint that it's not the shark.

The shark theme is so famous that I feel that other parts of the score get overlooked as a result. My favorite part of the score is actually not even the theme but the music that plays when Quint tells the USS Indianapolis story. That is a very eerie piece of music and accentuates this man's fear and hatred of sharks. It's made all the more eerie because you hear a whale singing off in the distance afterward but at first, like Brody, you wonder, "What was that?" I also really like the soft parts of the score, like the slightly sad melody that plays during the scene where Brody is sitting at the dinner table, thinking about what Mrs. Kintner said to him, and notices that his young son Sean is imitating him. It's a nice piece of music. Also notable is the exciting crescendo in the finale as the shark races toward Brody as he tries to shoot the compressed air tank in its mouth, as well as the serene ending music as Brody and Hooper swim to shore together. It's a great closure to the film: the nightmare is over, the monster that terrorized Amity Island and killed many people has been destroyed, and the two heroes standing are going home for a much needed rest. You can't ask for a better closure to such an awesome flick.

I know it's typical for someone to say this but honestly, Jaws really is one of these rare movies where, despite some minor flaws here and there, everything comes together perfectly for me. The acting and characters are spot on all around, the suspense and real terror is palpable, the music is iconic and goes perfectly with the visuals, the special effects for the shark still hold up today for the most part, and the film, all told, is a fun and exciting two hours. My dad likes to tell the story of how he and his brothers saw the film when they were on vacation in Florida back in 1975 and afterward, his brothers constantly came up behind him and grabbed him in their attempts to scare him. The fact that this film had an effect on a member of my family who's not too keen on those types of movies for the most part should tell you how iconic it is. So, to answer the question I posed at the beginning of this review, to me Jaws deserves every pit of its enduring popularity and is in my top fifty (at least) favorite movies of all time.