Jaws
1975  PG  HORROR  2h 4min
CAST— Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton
MUSIC— John Williams  DIRECTOR— Steven Spielberg  BASED ON— Jaws (novel), by Peter Benchley

     A favorite from the '70s, one which helped to define the term "blockbuster". Amity, a small seaside hamlet in New England, is the setting for chaos and mass panic. The new chief of police is called to the scene of a girl found dead on the beach. The medical examiner notes that she most likely died from a shark attack. The chief decides to close the beaches until the matter is resolved. But wait. Amity's tourist season is fast approaching; if the beaches close where will the tourists go? The mayor of Amity overturns the chief's order, even goes so far as to alter the records of the girl's death. The tourists pour into town and, wouldn't you know it, they should have trusted the chief. The chief teams with a book smart marine biologist and a world weary fisherman to track down and kill the shark that is menacing swimmers. Setting out on the fisherman's boat the three soon see what a formidable opponent they face: a great white, at least 25 feet long, weighing thousands of pounds. They may need a bigger boat. The first half of the film focuses more on the red tape involved in closing down a tourist town on the weekend of July 4th. But the real reason to watch is for its excellent, suspenseful second half, in which the chief and his crew search for and ultimately face off against Bruce (a nickname given the shark by the film's crew members on set). Ultimately a good thriller, despite its less than remarkable beginning. And as for the novel it's based on, yuck. Oscar-winner for Best Film Editing, Best Original Dramatic Score, Best Sound. Deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress National Film Registry.
OUR RATING— ** ½
FOLLOWED BY— Jaws 2 (1978), Jaws 3-D (1983), Jaws: The Revenge (1987)