Review of Jaws (1975) by Swati — 01 Feb 2014

Even when Spielberg is making an adrenaline-rushing film instead of ones about topics that are universally considered serious, he does it in his own style. Jaws is filled with close calls, gruesome deaths and general bloodshed, yet the build-up is everything. He makes us wait for the shark, and only shows us bits of its work to whet our appetite. But just when you think you've seen it all, he shows his hand. The shark is truly a force of nature. Hideous, scary, deadly.

A suspected shark kill is dismissed as a boating accident. The Mayor, having the city's best interests at heart, persuades the chief of police, Brody, to keep the beaches open for tourists. He reasons that this is their main source of income and they should not endanger that by scaring away the tourists. Even after another death, the townspeople are still adamant in keeping the beaches open. Their livelihood is attached to the sea. The mayor is a delusional man who thinks if he ignores the problem long enough, it will go away on its own. This precipitates in a lot of trouble. The shark's presence is only hinted at for the first hour, in a classic whodunit style. But when it finally arrives on camera, it is overwhelmingly cringing to see it do what it does live.

A seasoned seaman offers to catch the fish for a price. The minute all illusion flies about the cause of the deaths, a bounty goes up which brings inexperienced seafarers into the fray to claim the prize. They think of it as a sport. Someone catches a shark and everyone thinks this is the one that made the kills. The third main character, Hooper, wants to be sure and advises on cutting open the belly and investigating the items within. When things get way out of control, the mayor relents and agrees to hire Quint to kill the shark. He is accompanied by Brody and Hooper on this voyage, which takes up most of the second half of the film. The three men lure and assault and do everything they can to kill it. This endeavour makes up for plenty of scares and surprises.

Brody is an outsider. We can see his confusion and helplessness as it slowly dawns upon him the enormity of the task that falls on his shoulders. He does his best to convince everyone to do the sane thing, but runs into a wall every time he tries to close the beaches. Hooper is a college boy with a fancy degree. He is Brody's only support for a long time. For some reason he decides to stick around and help out the chief, probably because he has seen how the rest are taking the issue. Quint is the tough guy with a mysterious past. He's the most experienced in the field of fishing. But he names a price the city has to come up with to catch the monster and remove the taint from the island's reputation, so the tourists continue to pour in and keep the economy flourishing.

Spielberg doesn't shy from depicting barbarity. The deaths shown are disturbing and bloody, none more than the last one. But where he differs from the typical gory movies is how he handles characterization. We see these people as real men and not archetype characters in service of the story. Spielberg knows the importance of this and that is why he dedicates the majority of the first hour in establishing two of the main characters, and using a portion of the second to develop the third.

The score was riveting and foreboding. It established the mood fairly well yet was quiet and unobtrusive. The mechanical shark was very convincing. I went to research it immediately after I finished watching because I was sure they used a real shark. They only included real sharks in scenes where it was just minding its own business and just swimming about.

The film never drags for a second. The first half is a set up but has its own scares and special moments involving the animal and the characters. The second half stole the show and completely transformed the movie. We follow only three characters after the mid point. The characterization was fun and felt genuine. Quint shone out especially in one memorable monologue.

Spielberg has demonstrated how a summer blockbuster aiming for big bucks should be made. By merging scares and thrills with absorbing characters and narrative, he started a trend which has since been followed every summer after the year the film came out in.