JAWS (1975)

‘Jaws’ begins with a girl leaving a party at the beach on New England’s Amity Island. With a boy, they travel to an area of the beach where they proceed to go skinny-dipping. While in the water the girl is dragged down into the water from something below. With the coroner examining the remains that washed ashore and identifying it as a shark attack, the chief of police Mark Brody decides to close the beaches. The Mayor disagrees with Brody and keeps the beaches open to not scare away tourists. The shark kills a young boy and the mother places a bounty for the shark. This ignites an amateur shark hunting competition; in which some fisherman catch a tiger shark. Brody and a marine biologist, named Hooper, secretly open the sharks stomach to find no human remains. More tourists arrive for the Fourth of July and a man is killed again by the shark, allowing Brody to persuade Vaughan to hire Quint (who offered to kill the shark initially for ten grand), to hunt the shark down. Brody and Hooper join Quint. Eventually, they find the shark, but the shark is so large and powerful the normal techniques don’t work. The shark damages the boat to where it cannot move and starts to sink.  Having scuba gear on the boat, Brody jams in the shark’s mouth a tank of oxygen. Brody takes Quint’s rifle and fires upon the tank blowing up the shark.

            Notorious for the shark not working, this created a lack of an actual visual on the shark for most of the movie. Although this occurrence has led to many say it is brilliant in suspension. Personally I didn’t feel suspense at all while watching this film, but that could be from two factors; one being I’ve heard of the film and two I knew what eventually happens. The only shot that stands out in my mind is where they truck forward while zooming out to create a trippy background effect. Otherwise, I would say the film is shot fine. On an unrelated note, the film runs 124 minutes and that I feel is too long. Lastly, most of the scene involving Brody, Quint and Hooper talking in the cabin be done without.

            Lastly, this is what really made Spielberg – Spielberg. The shark not working worked to his advantage, and for going way over budget it certainly made the money back through the box office. All in all, the direction of this movie I would say is slightly about decent. As a consequence of its drawn out storyline and a lack of suspense to me leaves me to give the film four out of five stars.