Jaws (1975):
Favourite Films Series

That’s
the power Jaws has. Just the mere
mention of the title triggers very specific thoughts (one of the most-famous
pieces of movie music, one of the most-terrifying movie monsters) and equally specific emotions
(undeniable feelings of terror, excitement, and maybe even joy).
It’s
tough to find anything new to say about Jaws.
I’ve seen it every summer for the past eight years, and many more times before
that. Every time I watch it, a new aspect of the movie stands out, whether it’s
the brilliant and often subtle acting from Roy Scheider or Richard Dreyfuss or
Robert Shaw, or a specific shot, or sound/music queue, or joke (I find it
interesting how it’s remembered as being terrifying, yet no one seems to remember
that, while indeed terrifying, it’s also purposefully funny and filled with
witty dialogue). There are endless things to love about it.

For
one thing, it’s considered the prototype of the modern-day “blockbuster”, even
though the original Star Wars is
closer to what the atypical blockbuster of today looks like, but Jaws was the first. It had a simple
premise, mass appeal, and everyone went out to the cinema to see it. That
happens all the time nowadays, but back then, this was the first time it
happened on such a huge scale.
I
think the reason Jaws appealed to so
many people when it was released over forty years ago (and continues to appeal
to new viewers) is it combines a few different genres—it isn’t just pure
horror. Horror evolved to new extremes in the 70’s, with films like Black Christmas and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (both in 1974), but the most horrific
and game-changing was 1973’s The Exorcist,
still considered a benchmark for the horror genre as a whole.
Though
Jaws was marketed as a “scary movie”,
and opens with the infamous scene of Chrissy Watkins taking a dip in the sea at
night and being killed, it isn’t purely about horror. The first half of the
movie is like a mystery-thriller, with Chief Brody and Matt Hooper trying to
figure out their killer’s modus operandi. In a way, Jaws is also like a slasher movie: it’s about a killer with a body
count, we frequently get the killer’s POV, and it terrorizes a specific group
of people (in this case, swimmers). The future slasher sub-genre owed a great
deal to Jaws.
When
the shark almost eats one of Brody’s kids, that’s the turning point of the
movie (always indicated, for me, by that haunting shot of the ocean where the
camera moves in between the pilings toward the horizon), when they decide to
team up with shark fisherman Quint and hunt down the great white. At that
point, it becomes less a combo of horror and mystery and more like an adventure
movie (still with horror entwined), with the three of them traversing the sea,
pursuing (and being pursued by) the shark, and that adventurous feel is in no
small part thanks to the music by John Williams.


Not
everyone realizes that Jaws was
supposed to turn out completely differently than it did. Spielberg wanted to show the shark as much as he could,
but when the mechanical shark wouldn’t work, he had to improvise, so as a
result, the shark wasn’t shown as much. In the hands of another director, I’m
sure the movie wouldn’t have turned out nearly as interesting or tension-filled.
Even though the shark isn’t on-screen all that much, you feel its presence—lurking,
waiting to strike—and then when it does
strike, it’s even more effective.
I
have but one criticism of Jaws, and
it’s not anything that could’ve been avoided or fixed. Jaws made an entire generation afraid to go in the water, which is
an amazing feat, but unfortunately, it also made sharks out to be the ultimate
villains (a species that, back then, was still highly mysterious and not well
understood). Sharks are real, they really are out in the ocean, right now,
and they are the dominant predators when
we go into their environment. Maybe that’s why Jaws is often called the scariest movie ever, even over The Exorcist. Theoretically, you really could be killed by a shark.
Jaws
did not depict a true-life great white shark, but rather a movie monster version
of one. Most audiences didn’t comprehend the difference. They saw it as
a true animal, and as a result, sharks became even more misunderstood, and
their populations suffered. Suddenly everyone wanted to see sharks
killed. But I suppose on the flipside of this, the misunderstanding Jaws created about sharks also spawned
one of the best ongoing TV events ever: Shark
Week.
I
don’t think Shark Week would've existed without Jaws. Shark Week has been running every summer on Discovery Channel
since 1988, and has served to expand our knowledge of these incredible animals,
as well as depict them in their natural habitat and show what they are really
like. Sure, some years have been more lackluster than others and focused on
sensationalized shark specials instead of proper science, but for the most
part, the series has done a world of good for these animals, and righted some
of the wrongs Jaws brought about all
the way back in 1975.

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