Jaws

Plot

On the small coastal town of Amity, New York – the new Sherriff of the town discovers a series of shark attacks. Wanting to close down the beaches, he is hampered by the politics of the townspeople and the mayor.

An oceanographer and local shark hunter join him in trying to find, and stop the beast from killing more people.

Direction

The quintessential monster horror film is flawless in the direction from master filmmaker Steven Spielberg. From the opening kill with tense underwater camera angles from the POV of the shark – to the fact you don’t see it until the one-hour mark.

There are brilliant uses behind the camera, with frequent use of deep focus while two characters interact – to one of the most famous uses of the dolly zoom in cinema history – second to Alfred Hitchock.

Cast/Characters

The primary trio of cast are Roy Scheider as Sherriff Martin Brody – who leads the film.

Richard Dreyfuss adds humour to the film as the youthful Hooper, the oceanographer called in by Brody.

Robert Shaw plays the role of the local shark hunter, who agrees to kill the shark for a fee.

Lorrain Gary plays Brody’s wife Ellen, and Murray Hamilton plays what is the ‘human antagonist’ Mayor Vaughn.

Screenplay/Setting/Themes

There is a perfect blend of character and action, with superb dialogue from characters, and moments between them.

Two key examples of this are Quint’s haunting story of his time on the Indianapolis submarine in WW2 – and the scene between Martin and his son when the youngster mimics his dad’s movements. It is a beautiful scene between father and son, and adds the family element to the film.

Hooper’s youthful addition also is a tension breaker, as he adds humour to some scenes he is in, primarily his interactions with Quint early in their time together. As they grow to accept each other, this is done well too – especially in their comparing scars scenes (which is done in other films like Lethal Weapon and its comedy counterparts… was this the first scar comparison scene in film?

Score/Soundtrack

John Williams perfect score is one of the easiest recognisable in cinema history, and the Jaws theme has been used in pop culture dozens of times. It is brilliant all the way through, with tense moments during the action scenes, and sweet and soft especially through the aforementioned mimic scene.

Overall

This is the epitome of how to tell a story, how to introduce characters (Quint’s scratching on the chalkboard), how to introduce the monster.

A perfect film in every sense.

5/5