Written By: Jase Marsiglia
Every so often, typically once a decade, when the waters of the horror genre are calm and placid, a filmmaker comes along to throw a stone in and cause a ripple. A young Steven Spielberg approached the shore in 1975, having mostly done television shows and caused a decent stir with his made-for-television thriller Duel in 1971, but this was a Universal Pictures, potentially, his big break. So, he cast his stone, in the shape of a big, gnashing shark.
And it sunk…right…to…the…bottom.
Nothing was working. The budget was out of control. The deadline continued to be pushed. Producers and financiers alike wrung their hands. By all accounts, "JAWS" was becoming a physical metaphor for this young director’s career – it was sinking fast.
Of course, we all know that every delay, every technical difficulty, every mechanical failure would only lead to a release so legendary that it single-handedly created the “Summer Blockbuster” as we know it and terrified audiences worldwide. So, what could possibly be left to say about a film as perfect as "JAWS"?
It's an indisputable classic in cinema, and despite the infamously troublesome shoot that wound up being a blessing in disguise, it displays many of the traits that would become Spielberg's trademarks: a Hitchcockian talent for building suspense, a population of colorful, realistically written characters, terrifying moments of horror, and unexpected moments of wonder, heart, and adventure.
Jaws (1975)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
For those new to the film, or simply the uninitiated taking their first real “bite” of this classic, "JAWS" was based on Peter Benchley's bestseller of the same name, which found an island community in turmoil just prior to their tourist boom of the Fourth of July weekend, when a Great White shark starts dining on swimmers. Despite the ocean running red, the island's greedy mayor (Murray Hamilton as a Class-A douche) throws the issue into the hands of new town police chief Martin Brody (The French Connection's Roy Scheider), marine biologist Matt Hooper (American Graffiti's Richard Dreyfuss), and the grizzled (and slightly insane) fisherman Quint (The Sting's Robert Shaw) to handle the problem and "keep those beaches open!"
So, the three men venture out and wage war on one of nature's most fearsome beasts in a modern-day "Moby Dick" adventure that will test the limits of their fear, their technology, and in one case, their sanity.
The USS Indianapolis.
John Williams' Academy Award-winning score.
"You're gonna need a bigger boat."
The discovery of Ben Gardner's boat (and the jolting discovery of his head).
It's impossible to fully encapsulate how pitch-perfect these moments are in a film so expertly acted, shot, and executed. Nor is it easy to sum up what kind of legacy it's left since it opened. We're talking about a $9 million film that earned $472 million at the box office and changed cinema as we know it. It's an undeniable testament to the performances of Scheider, Dreyfuss, and Shaw that we worry about an aquaphobic police chief literally being thrown into a "sink or swim" situation and finding the muster to face a massive shark eye-to-eye.
That we get a pang of panic when the assured comfort we felt with an educated marine biologist is met with a force he never expected, and his technology was ill-equipped for.
And I don't think anyone can deny the tingles on their arms or the back of their neck when the salty sea captain of this vessel regales his shipmates with a story of survival so horrifying, so harrowing, and yet with such a stark glimmer of madness that we realize shark fishing isn't just a job to keep the lights on, but a reckoning for an experience so terrifying that he was changed forever.
Benchley’s novel used the shark sparingly. It was a toothy metaphor for an economic disaster, and the book played heavier on a man's attempts to quell public outrage, preserve a community's livelihood, and find a solution that would appease the mayor, the business owners, and the mafia all at once. Spielberg's film wisely sidelines much of that economic subplot, and though the shark is used sparingly here as well, not for metaphorical purposes but sheer mechanical difficulty, it forced a creative mastermind to ply his craft and find ways to make its presence terrifying without showing it.
I think no scene better encapsulates this than the opening death of a young, naked swimmer being violently thrashed in its teeth beneath inky black waves, her scream a primal, earth-shattering cry for help that tells us everything we need to know about her pain, fear, and final moments.
Similarly, a pair of dim-bulb fishermen casting their "wife's holiday roast" off the dock to catch the shark themselves, only for the dock to be ripped from the shore by the shark's force... and the terrifying moment we see the dock turn back toward the men, seeking a bigger meal.
"Take my word for it," the shoreline fisherman screams. "Don't look back! Swim! Swim!"
There's not even a dorsal fin to be seen, and the panic is real nonetheless.
These moments are iconic individually, but as part of the whole, "JAWS" is as much a force of nature in cinema and storytelling as the beast beneath the waves is to the ocean. If one were to dare find fault with such perfection, it's that in its wake, it set a bar so high in the animal attack subgenre that nothing before or since could ever live up to its jump scares, suspense, character development, or lasting impression.
Sure, we love Piranha, Alligator, and The Birds as much as the next horror fan, but no one, NO ONE, can match the thrashing put on you in the open waves when you're in the nightmarish grip of "JAWS".
HOME VIDEO
"JAWS" has never, and WILL never, fall into home video obscurity, I can say with full confidence. Between its heyday on VHS, its groundbreaking LaserDisc release in 1995, and numerous other media since, you'll never have a difficult time finding this classic.
That said, for pure collectability, you might have your work cut out for you, as the Limited Edition Signature Collection LaserDisc alone will set you back about $150 minimum.
Celebrating its 50th Anniversary last year, a new 4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital bundle was released, and is top-of-the-line in terms of new and legacy bonus features, as well as a crisp 4K restoration of its 2.35:1 widescreen presentation, and it's widely available, thankfully.
But for the hardcore collectors among us, a Limited Edition Steelbook was released alongside it with beautiful new artwork by Paul Shipper, and SOLD OUT FAST!
Your wallet will whimper, but aside from the SteelBook packaging, the bonus material is the same as on the standard 50th Anniversary release, which includes:
• Deleted Scenes and Outtakes
• The Making of Jaws
• The Shark Is Still Working: The Impact and Legacy of Jaws
• Jaws: The Restoration
• From the Set: 1974 Featurette
• Theatrical Trailer
• Jaws Archives: Photo Galleries
• Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story
BITS 'N' PIECES
Traum-A-Meter:
3 out of 4.
Despite its PG rating, the shark attacks are very intense, and in a couple of instances, shockingly violent. The movie isn't heavy on gore, but severed limbs, geysers of blood, and much of the aftermath of the attacks can be frightening and disturbing.
Today's Jam: If Captain Quint is a bit too intense for your sea legs, just plug in and listen to Captain & Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together," which softly rocked your radio this weekend in 1975, like a breeze in a hammock.
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