George Lucas is often blamed for the great decline in the quality of American movies, because the success of his Star Wars in 1977 introduced the concept of blockbusters to Hollywood producers, and redirected most of the studios' capital towards utterly expensive, sometimes lucrative but usually artistically insufficient movie products. Lucas might be one of the people responsible for that, but the very first summer blockbuster was shot and distributed two years before his – Jaws by Steven Spielberg, one of the most successful and most influential films of all time.
At the time of production, Spielberg was still a young and relatively unknown director, far from being a critics' darling and successful crowd-pleaser. The producers, David Brown and Richard B. Zanuck, were actually quite sceptical towards him when they hired him to direct a movie adaptation of Peter Benchley's best-selling novel about a man-eating shark that terrorises a small town on the New England coast. Their suspicions proved almost correct, because the production of Jaws was plagued by a rising budget, huge technical difficulties associated with shooting at sea, problems with casting and, finally, rows between the screenwriter and director. In many ways, the production of Jaws resembled the production of the ill-fated Waterworld twenty years later. Many people actually questioned the producers' sanity, because the film needed almost impossibly high earnings to cover its expenses. But, unlike Waterworld, a miracle happened. Jaws was not just the first film to break the 100 million US$ mark in box-office totals; it turned out to be one of the top-grossing films of all time, where it remained for many years, alongside many other films created by Lucas and Spielberg. Its popularity among audiences, surprisingly in tune with the perception of critics, could be witnessed by endless references and homage, from disco versions of John Williams' musical score in the 1970s, to plenty of horror films still being inspired by it today, like Harlin's Deep Blue Sea.
The plot takes place in the small island town of Amity, off the coast of New England. Its beaches are very popular among tourists, including a group of young, carefree students who spend a pleasant evening there. One of them is Chrissie Watkins (played by Susan Backlinie), who flirts with a boy and goes skinny-dipping, only to never come out of the water again. The investigation is led by Martin Brody (played by Roy Scheider), a former New York cop who took the job of police chief in a small community only to evade the violence of large urban centres. When he finds the dismembered remains of a girl on the beach, he is almost certain that a large shark was the perpetrator. He wants to close the beaches, but the city administration, led by Mayor Larry Vaughn (played by Murray Hamilton), is against it, fearing for the precious tourism dollars. Brody reluctantly agrees to file the incident as a boating accident but later regrets his decision after a few more fatal incidents. The city fathers are still stubborn, even after marine biologist Matt Hooper (played by Richard Dreyfuss) warns them that they have a man-eating and very territorial great white shark in their waters. Brody is willing to take his advice and company, and decides to hire the services of Quint (played by Robert Shaw), an eccentric fisherman and local shark expert who would lead their little shark-hunting expedition.
Jaws is often called one of the best horror films of all time. It is quite understandable, since very few movies manage to cause such an intense feeling of anxiety and fear among the audience. The fear felt by the viewers is a reflection of a subconscious fear of the Unknown. And the deep, blue, and dark depths of the ocean are the perfect embodiment of the Unknown. People watching this film are more than aware that some unspeakable horrors lurk in those deeps and that any man entering the water runs the risk of being nothing more than a helpless victim. What makes this film even more effective than other horror films was the fact that it dealt with nothing supernatural or exotic; the audience knows that creatures like great white sharks actually exist in the oceans and that some very unfortunate people occasionally do indeed suffer the gruesome fate of the fictional victims in this movie. And here, unlike in many horror films and same as in real life, nobody is immune – children, pets, and even the protagonists can be killed. The element of realism, very rare in the horror genre, made this film very effective indeed, and it is quite understandable why many people, the author of this review included, can at times feel rather uneasy when they enter ocean water for a swim (although streets and roads are, judging by statistics, more life-threatening places). It is somewhat ironic that Jaws, as a very un-clichéd horror, still uses the very popular horror cliché of "sex equals death" in its opening.
The realism of the menace is just one part of the explanation for the success of Jaws. The other part of the answer lies in the way that Spielberg used to portray that menace. Faced with huge technical difficulties and accidents involving underwater equipment, together with relatively crude and still undeveloped special effects, Spielberg used many simple but ingenious and very effective ways to portray the fictional sea monster. He used unusual shooting angles, but the best and most effective method was simply not portraying the monster at all. We actually don't see the shark until late in the movie; before that we saw it only through its own POV or actions that very convincingly give away its huge size and incredible physical strength (one of the most memorable and effective scenes is an entire pier being pulled towards the ocean). When we finally see the monster, the result is fantastic, since the otherwise down-to-earth fish (relatively speaking, of course) had already been connected with the scariest images of our imagination.
The most important factor that contributed to the realism of the film are, naturally, the characters. And this film introduces them gradually, in an orderly but very effective fashion. First, the deadly but magnificent menace of the dark ocean deeps is contrasted with the quiet, everyday life of a semi-rural would-be utopia. Roy Scheider, one of the best Hollywood actors of the 1970s (and, unfortunately, almost forgotten now), plays the role of his life. His Brody is a dedicated family man, whose need to protect his wife and children led him to a small town where the biggest crime happened to be children vandalising picket fences. Every action or choice he makes in this film, even the wrong one, like leaving the beaches open, was motivated by the need to protect his job and the family bliss it provided. Then we are introduced to Richard Dreyfuss as a rich and arrogant, but at the same time very valuable, scientific expert. Dreyfuss played this role very well, in many ways trying to become Spielberg's alter ego, and he is often most remembered for this particular role. It is ironic that the actor himself forgot about it, according to the anecdote that later led to the movie trivia reference in the 1987 film Stakeout. But the most memorable performance comes from Robert Shaw. His Quint, a rude working-class eccentric whose rugged, easy-going personality hides a tragic secret from the past, is one of the most vivid characters in the history of cinema. The late actor's contribution to this film is even more important when we take into account that the credit for the most memorable words in the film – the legendary USS Indianapolis story (itself being based on real-life history, another element of realism in this film) – must go exclusively to him. All three actors had wonderful interaction, both in the scenes of male bonding and exciting but very realistic and believable action scenes.
Those three giants, of course, overshadowed other actors. Lorraine Gary was good as Brody's wife, but the script didn't give her much material. Murray Hamilton was wonderful as the mayor; at first he is a creep whose actions and mishandling of the crisis were motivated only by greed; at the end he reveals himself as a normal, caring human being. Lee Fierro as Mrs Kintner also delivered a few powerful scenes in a short space. The acting talent was accompanied by the talents of almost everyone else in this film, especially Verna Fields with her perfect editing and John Williams with his effective, Oscar-awarded and now all-too-familiar musical score. The talents of those two combined provided some of the scariest and most memorable scenes in the history of film.
Unfortunately, even the greatest of all films age through time and Jaws, the first film of the modern Hollywood era, didn't escape that fate. Compared with plenty of similar, more recent films with bigger budgets and modern special effects technology, it seems somewhat obsolete. It is especially so in some of the night scenes, with sometimes annoying use of "day for night" techniques that provide too dark a picture. On the other hand, such minor flaws were not the authors' fault and insistence on them would look like unnecessary nit-picking. All technical deficiencies of Jaws are still being, same as they always were, compensated for by an excellent story, atmosphere, and characters that work now as effectively as they worked a quarter of a century ago. Jaws is one of those rare films that really deserved its commercial success and its place among the best films of all time.
RATING: 9/10 (++++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on October 22nd 1999)
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Critic: AAA
