Jaws (My Favorite Movies)

Jaws is the Birth of a Nation of blockbuster movies, only slightly less racist. It started everything that was to come between May and August, for better and for worse. It paved the way for Star Wars, the Indiana Jones films, all the way up to Harry Potter and Transformers. It’s up to you to decide which ones you prefer, but the movie that started it all is probably the best blockbuster of all time.

Why does it stand so tall over everything else? Probably because the goal was not to be the highest grossing film of all time, unlike most modern day summer movies. At the end of the day, they were just trying to get the stupid thing made. It was a screenplay based on Peter Benchley’s novel, which was universally seen as unfilmable. It was being helmed by a young nobody by the name of Steven Spielberg, and how they were even going to create the shark was a problem. Even Richard Dreyfuss has said that when Spielberg approached him that he loved the material, but initially declined because “it is going to be a b---- to shoot!”

Once filming began Dreyfuss’ fears were shown to be justified. The biggest problem is encompassed in the now infamous line that traveled around the production: “The shark is not working”. While initially it seemed that would be the film’s undoing, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The lasting impact of the film is that you never see the shark until halfway through the film. It’s up to the viewer to create their own image as to what is going on underneath the surface. If we got the full view of the shark biting the woman’s leg off in the opening scene, we’d just be grossed out and not frightened. Name the last “torture porn” film you saw, and think if you were genuinely frightened or just felt like puking. You may have thought you were scared at the time, but it was really the latter.

The government of Amity Island is not so enthusiastic about closing the beaches after an early suspected shark attack because it is the weekend of July 4th, the big money weekend for any New England town. After the second attack, the town calls on all sailors to try and kill the shark. A shark is caught, yet there is reason to believe it is not the culprit of the previous attacks. The town officials want nothing to do with this, and the beaches are re-opened to the public. Spoiler alert: The shark returns.

Eventually the movie goes out to sea, and that’s when the production really got interesting. The crew would often have to wait hours just to get a single shot. It was important that the protagonists’ boat always be isolated. If there was land or another boat in the frame, the shot just would not work, because help could feasibly be a few minutes away.

Also terrific is the chemistry between Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider, and Robert Shaw aboard that boat. Shaw plays Quint, the salty sea captain who has been there, done that, and knows he should always be in charge of the boat. Dreyfuss’ Matt Hooper is your typical liberal scientist, and his methods don’t exactly mesh with Quint’s idea of good ol’ fashioned shark wrangling. Roy Scheider as Chief Brody acts as the Super-ego to Quint’s id and Hooper’s ego. All he cares about is that is town is no longer harmed by this shark, and the methods don’t matter.

One cannot talk about this film without bringing up the iconic theme music. John Williams uses it as a heartbeat during the shark scenes, reflecting the intended effect on the audience. The music is often used as a prop, as well. There is a notable sequence in the middle of the film when the audience is supposed to believe there is a shark among the swimmers of the Amity beaches, yet the theme is not playing. Whether or not music is playing can hint the audience as to whether there is imminent danger.

Spielberg has said several times this is not a film he could make in his older age. Back in the seventies he was, in his words, “stupid and brave at the same time.” In a way he is right. You’d have to be stupid to make this film in the pre-CGI age. Nowadays, it’d be easy. Throw a computer-generated shark on the screen, and have it move at 70 miles per hour through the water in a cartoonish fashion. That movie would be terrible. The best movie monsters are deliberate in their movements, and most of all, REAL. I have yet to be genuinely frightened by a CGI creature. Jaws is something that can only happen once, it did, and for all the awful movies it may have influenced, we need to be thankful we have this film.