Review of Jaws (1975) by Ethan J — 29 May 2017

Jaws is considered to be one of the greatest movies ever made and it is easy to see why. When it came out to be a horror movie in 1975 it is surprising to think that after watching it, there was more to this film than you could have expected from the title and poster of the movie. There are many examples to why this was as great as it came out to be one being that it is considered to be the first ever "summer blockbuster" making way for other films to come and rack up the big bucks during the summer seasons. Second is it's impacted on pop culture, as you can see countless references to the movie in your favorite TV shows, radio stations, and other movies as well. But probably the most impactful is the fact it scared people into thinking there is a shark in the water, after seeing this film you can admit you feel a little skeptical about taking one step into the ocean. The movie has remained a spectacle today and holds up as well and here is why.

When the script was first bought by Universal Studios in 1973, the producers didn't know what to make of it. It was a script that was ready to go into production but they couldn't find the right director or cast for the picture. Once the producers landed on a young director, Steven Spielberg, they were 100% ready for production and had the leading cast of Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss ready to go. The film was finished and production was considered hell. Many script changes, malfunctions with the mechanical sharks, and actors having fights with each other. Many of the film crew were surprised by how the film came out including Steven Spielberg. Spielberg said, "I thought this was the beginning of the end of my career, this production continues to haunt me today." But once Jaws hit theater in 1975 people were waiting in lines out of the theatre to go in see it, it became a worldwide phenomenon making $470,653,000 worldwide. Viewers were hooked by this film and it easy to see why.

The reason why Jaws is so great is the well development of layered characters that are not just plain 1 dimensional characters, the filming which made it so frightening as putting the point of view toward the shark and letting the human imagination determine what is doing the damage to the victim, and lastly the pace of the movie, this film did such a great job telling this story and it has the work of Spielberg's taste for adventure all over it. This film keeps viewers hooked from beginning to the end.

When this film ended I wondered whether or not is ok to swim in the ocean. But everytime I step foot in that water and have doubts about what is under the surface of the water, I have this film to thank. Not only that, for this is considered as my favorite movie I have ever seen.