Jaws (1975)

Besides being the film that basically launched Steven Spielberg's career, Jaws is also generally recognized as the film that inaugurated the now ubiquitous tradition of the summer blockbuster. Universal didn't have a ton of confidence in this film and elected to basically dump it in mid June (official resale date was June 20, 1975, exactly forty years ago last Saturday) with summer then considered by the industry the time of year when people were least likely to go to the movies. Well they were wrong, Jaws through a quark of timing and talent, and even technical problems (the mechanical sharks used in the film routinely broke down, forcing young Spielberg to film scenes from the sharks point of view to save both time and money, thus unintentionally resulting in some of the most iconic shots in film history), would quickly become the most money making movie of all time, not to be surpassed until the equally unexpected mega success of Star Wars two years later. For good or for ill  or a little of both 'the summer blockbuster' has been a staple of movie production and release scheduling ever since.

Based on the 1974 novel of the same name by Peter Benchley, Jaws is the story of a Massachusetts island community best by a people hungry great white during the height of the summer vacation season, and efforts of principally three men, the local sheriff (Roy Scheider) an expert shark hunter (Robert Shaw) and a young oceanographer (Richard Dreyfuss) to find and kill the beast. The film can most easily be divided into those two parts, the first part focusing on the gradually increasing incidents of shark attacks near the town of Amity and the reactions of both locals and visitors, and the second half the three leads on a small boat hunting down, and then doing prolonged battle with the deadly great white. There is dryish humor and even a little poignancy throughout, and a goodly number of jump in your seat scares. I had never seen this movie in its entirety so when a good opportunity to see the film in the theater came up I took it, it was well worth it, the big screen with an audience is really the best medium for this movie, so if you ever have a chance I highly recommend that you see it this way.

Jaws is one of those rare films that is also a legitimate turning point in cinema history, Before Jaws and After Jaws would be as good a system as any to provide world cinema with a historic axis. Jaws truly lives up to the hype that's grown around it and is an absolute must see for the self respecting movie lover. ****