Jaws (Full Review)

Classic. Timeless. Suspenseful.

Those are three of the first words to pop into my mind when I reminisce about the 1975 film, Jaws. Yeah it's 38 years old. Yeah it's special effects nowhere near rival that of today. But it's a classic. You can overlook those things as you look back at yester-year. So I put on my hypothetical 1975 movie glasses to help me and looked into a world that was. I found myself more engrossed than expected.

So it begins how most later horror films do (I mean, copy). There are two good-looking young people running off on their own. Except the setting is a beach and not the woods. Movies like Jaws and Halloween (1978) were writing horror movie rules before anyone fathomed the idea. And the big one being broken here, and I'm paraphrasing, is DON'T BE STUPID. The young girl, Chrissie, wants to go skinny-dipping with her boyfriend. Nothing can go wrong right? Well if you're in JAWS, then yes something will go horribly wrong. Before you know it, that now well-known suspenseful and unrelenting musical score bombards your senses as something draws nearer and nearer to Chrissie. Meanwhile the guy is, well I'm not exactly sure what he's doing as there was a lot of heavy breathing and innuendos with "I'm coming! I'm coming!", still on the beach freaking out over going skinny dipping with the hot-and-soon-to-be-ripped-to-shreds girl. And OMG, something comes up out of the dark water and starts twirling Chrissie around like a bloody rag doll. It's gruesome, terrifying and a cold open that ultimately does its job. With that Chrissie is gone and the guy that came with her is still on the beach, oblivious. 

Enter Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider). He later finds Chrissie' s remains and it is discovered she was killed by a shark. If anyone watching is surprised by this, refer back to the title and all the movie posters. Anyways, Chief Brody wants to have the beaches closed because of the shark threat. But it's the summer and of course greedy lawmakers and the like only see money and not impending danger and doom. The beaches stay open and Brody keeps a watchful eye over the beach. When a young boy is killed, everyone goes on a frenzy as a bounty is put on the shark. Unfortunately, the townspeople are idiots and again reach the wrong conclusion. How in the world would a little old tiger shark be able to kill three people? I mean really. The town returns to normal and it becomes a case of "the boy who cried wolf." But at least Speilberg and team really executed that tired trope well. And this is where I leave the summary stage: can Brody convince the town that there's a blood-thirsty shark on the loose still? Can they stop it? Maybe, but I can't and won't tell you.

As Steven Speilberg's first huge film as a director, you can tell he's going places. And hey, he did. And went. And went. The suspense he was able to create, the terror he was able to capture was great. You really get a sense of the horror in the opening scene with Chrissie and later when the young boy is killed among the mass of tourists. The editing in these scenes was great. And don't even get me started on that score. John Williams was incredible as always. The dark, menacing and of course unrelenting dread his musical talents created in a rather simple tune help encapsulate this movie into what it has become. Everyone knows the Jaws theme because it was masterfully created and put to terrifying use. You know something bad is coming, you know Jaws is coming once that music begins. You know the scene won't end well. That music is just as horrifying and haunting today as it was then. Granted, everyone hears it and knows it, but it works. End of story. The movie would've been really good without this music, but it would not be anywhere near as great without it. I mentioned Halloween earlier, and I'm going to mention it again. Without films like Jaws and Halloween, I don't think the horror genre would have been anything like it was and is without them. They set the standards and they set the bar very high. And Jaws is up with the greats in film history.

Do I really want to do my scoring thing on this film as well? No. You can't do Jaws justice in a few short sentences and number grades. It is what it is and it is great. No doubt about it, this film is a timeless classic that is still scaring 38 years later.