Jaws (1975) * * * *

Directed by:  Steven Spielberg

Starring:  Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton

The fact that the shark in Jaws is unseen for the first hour happened by accident, but also greatly increased the film's effectiveness.    The story goes that the mechanical shark built for the movie kept malfunctioning and needed constant repair during the first weeks of shooting, so Steven Spielberg needed to convey the shark's presence through underwater camera angles and other creative means.     Jaws morphs from quasi-slasher film to a suspenseful thriller and a classic is born.   Is the story true?  Depends on the source, but it doesn't matter.   

Jaws centers its action around Amity Island, a New England beach resort where a great white shark begins feasting on swimmers.    The initial attack is on a young woman who is torn to shreds.    When her remains are washed ashore, the coroner initially rules her death was caused by a shark, but then changes it to boating accident at the behest of  Mayor Larry Vaughn (Hamilton).   Vaughn's desire to keep the shark attack quiet is financially-driven; believing correctly vacationers will stay away from Amity if word of a deadly shark attack became known.    

The town is policed by Chief Martin Brody (Scheider), a former New York cop who took the Amity job as a change of scenery, but is afraid of going in the water and even more afraid of sharks.   He wants the beaches closed until the shark can be killed.   Vaughn wants them open, even after a second attack results in the death of a young boy.   Brody hires oceanographer Matt Hooper (Dreyfuss) to assist him in his efforts to rid Amity of the shark.   Hooper is fascinated by sharks, but knows all too well how deadly they are.   ("A shark is an eating machine.  All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks and that's it.")    When local fishermen catch what they think is the shark responsible for the recent deaths, Hooper cuts the fish open to reveal indeed the great white is still out there.  ("You have a hell of a fish out there, with a mouth about this big.")

A third attack on local youngsters forces Vaughn to hire another local fisherman, the mysterious, eccentric Quint (Shaw), to kill the shark.    Brody and Hooper accompany Quint on the boat, although he doesn't really want their assistance.     Quint is a survivor of the deadly shark attacks which occurred during World War II when the USS Indianapolis sank from a torpedo strike.     Quint and Hooper are both able, in their own terms, to convey the destructive nature of sharks to viewers, which lends more suspense even when the shark isn't present.    Quint, however, is on a mad, obsessive quest to hunt the shark, much like Captain Ahab was with Moby Dick.   

Brody represents the average Jaws viewer which fears sharks based on stories and myths, but never had to come face to face with one like Quint or Hooper have.   Seeing how large the shark is up close, he says, "You're going to need a bigger boat."   A bigger boat likely wouldn't have helped, especially since killing the shark proves to be a bigger task than initially expected.     

Reportedly, Shaw and Dreyfuss didn't get along during the filming of Jaws, which adds an extra layer of authenticity to their onscreen conflict.     Quint is a salt-of-the-earth fisherman who doubts Hooper's abilities, since he comes from a rich family and owns all of his own shark-tracking equipment.    Is Brody exorcising his fear of the water by going on the journey to kill the shark?    Hooper jabs at Brody with the remark: "It doesn't make much sense for a guy who's afraid of water to live on an island."   

Jaws is full of suspense, but also nice character touches which makes its people unique.     Chief Brody is a family man who gets more than he bargained for when he encounters not only the shark, but local politicians who want the beaches to stay open at all costs.    "We depend on summer dollars for our very lives,"  Mayor Vaughn none-too-subtly explains to Brody.    The local police force consists of just him and a goofy deputy (Jeffrey Kramer).   Before the shark came along, the biggest issue they had to deal with was local martial arts students performing karate chops on some poor guy's fence.   As played by Scheider, Brody is smart and resourceful, but may be a little out of his depth when dealing with the "eating machine."   Shaw's Quint is clearly off his rocker and gains the attention of people during a meeting by scratching his fingernails on a blackboard.    Behind Quint's eyes is an obsessive lunacy which fuels him.   Dreyfuss exudes intelligence, a sense of humor, and an even greater awe of the power of his quarry.    He provides Hooper with the typical exuberance he brought to later films such as The Goodbye Girl and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.

Jaws inspired three lesser sequels and a bunch of rip-offs.   (Anyone remember Piranha and Up From The Depths?)    This was the first of many blockbusters Spielberg has given us.     Jaws shows us a director with a gift for powerful storytelling and technical expertise.    He would show us a lot more in the coming years, proving to be the most financially successful director in movie history.     Jaws could've been a simple, B-movie gorefest.   Spielberg did all the right things to make it special.