Jaws

"You're gonna need a bigger boat." 

I remember as a young boy being sat down by my Dad and him telling me I needed to see the movie Jaws. I watched the film from beginning to end, completely enraptured by it and setting off a life long love of the film. I had a copy of the film taped off cable TV that I damn near wore out. I then bought the 20th anniversary VHS copy, presented to me for the first time in widescreen. I knew the film so well at that point I could immediately tell what I had previously been missing from every shot. Once it came out on DVD I picked that up, as well as the Special Edition DVD as that had the full uncut behind the scenes documentary from the film's Laserdisc (the original DVD had a severely cut down version). Once the Blu-Ray came out, I picked that up too (and it was worth it too. They really cleaned it up and the film looks brand new!). I've seen it at least a couple hundred times and it remains one of my all time favorite films. 

The film takes place on a small island off the coast of Massachusetts named Amity Island. We open on a small group of friends partying on the beach. A young man goes off to flirt with a girl named Chrissie (played by Susan Backlinie). Chrissie runs off and the young man follows. Chrissie announces she's going skinny dipping and runs into the surf. The young man, who has had a couple too many beers, passes out on the beach. Before long, Chrissie is violently attacked by something under the water and pulled under. It's a harrowing scene that had an entire generation thinking twice about getting in a pool, let alone the ocean.

The following morning, we are introduced to the new Chief of Police, Martin Brody (played by Roy Scheider). He has only had the post for a few months now, having moved from New York City with his wife Ellen (played by Lorraine Gary) and two sons. Brody is called in to help search for the missing girl, Chrissie, and it's not long before the find her few remains washed ashore with the tide. Initially told by the Medical Examiner that she was the victim of a shark attack, Brody leaps into action to try and close the beaches when he is stopped by the Mayor (played by Murray Hamilton) and the Medical Examiner who on second thought thinks it may have just been a tragic boating accident. Brody is unconvinced but goes along with their wishes. This proves to mistake when a second victim, a young boy, is taken by the shark right in front of Brody. It's a bloody scene that remains as horrifying today as it was 40 years ago.

Now that it's confirmed there is a shark and with a bounty offered by the boy's mother, every fisherman in the New England area descends on the island to try and catch the shark. The island's own shark hunter, Quint (played by Robert Shaw), offers to catch it and kill it as well, for a far heftier sum that the boy's mother is offering. Also showing up is Marine Biologist Matt Hooper (played by Richard Dreyfuss), to help Brody figure out what they are dealing with. It's not long before the hunters return with a large tiger shark but both Quint, watching the circus and laughing from his boat, and Matt examining the shark are unconvinced it's the right shark. Their fears are confirmed when a third victim is killed during the Fourth of July celebrations. Fed up with the bureaucracy, Brody demands the Mayor allow him to hire Quint to kill the shark. From there, Brody, Quint and Hooper depart in Quint's boat for a final showdown with the shark.

Jaws had a famously troubled shoot where everything that could go wrong seemed to but yet, by some miracle, the film became stronger because of it. Most of the production problems had to do with the fact that the mechanical sharks didn't work when introduced to the brutal and unforgiving sea water. This forced director Steven Spielberg to think on his feet and improvise ways of not showing the shark but still let the audience know where it is. This in turn actually made the film scarier, as the audience was left to imagine what was going on under the water. If things had gone to plan and Spielberg was able to show the shark as much as he initially wanted to would the film be as effective and as fondly remembered? 

Of course, a lot of the credit also goes to John Williams who created such a visceral and iconic score for the film. I'm not sure of another two notes that when played together are quite as iconic as the beginning of the Jaws theme. Spielberg is quite right when he said the score really helped save the film. While that's not entirely true, it is still a big part of why the film remains so effective. 

Credit also has to go to the three main actors as well. Robert Shaw manages to create such a memorable character as alpha male Quint who runs a strict ship and as time goes on reveals he may be a bit deranged as well. Richard Dreyfuss does well as Matt Hooper, who carries a certain level of entitlement that carries over from his upper class upbringing, but also has a lot of charm and charisma as well. Hooper and Quint butting heads throughout the second half of the film provides some much needed humor that nicely offsets the growing tension of the film. But it's Roy Scheider's performance as Brody that is the most deceptively successful. Brody, despite his background as the town's sheriff, is the ultimate everyman character and Scheider portrays this perfectly. The film flips his character in the second half. On land, he had a certain level of control but when he goes out to sea with Quint and Hooper, he is completely out of his element and everything about Scheider's performance captures that perfectly. This makes it the perfect character for the audience to relate to because we know we'd be just as clueless in that environment.  

The film also does a fantastic job adapting the novel it's based on by Peter Benchley and in fact improves upon it. The original novel, while following the same basic plot as the original, is a far more unpleasant experience. Nearly all of the characters are unlikable and it has several extraneous plot lines, such as Ellen Brody having an affair with Hooper and the ending is nowhere near as memorable either. It's a rare example, but I freely admit the movie is way better than the book.

Over the past 40 years, the legacy of Jaws has only grown. It spawned three sequels that perfectly illustrate the law of diminishing returns, but yet none have tarnished the reputation of the original film. The film also went on to have a distinct impact on a generation of filmmakers that followed, in particular Bryan Singer who named his production company "Bad Hat Harry" after a throwaway line in this movie. Writer/Director Kevin Smith is another huge fan of the film and memorably paid tribute to the film in his film Chasing Amy, with a scene where two characters compare scars they received while making love, referencing the famous scar comparison scene in Jaws.

It's impressive to think that a film like Jaws, which basically invented the summer blockbuster, continues to endure as a shining example of what that type of film can do. Before that, the summer movie season wasn't well regarded as a good time to release films. But the gangbusters admissions it accrued during it's release changed everything. Now, every summer Hollywood trots out it's biggest blockbuster movies, each one trying to outdo the last but yet the original still stands tall among them almost timeless.