"And, you know, the thing about a shark, he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes- like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living . . . until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then, ah, then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin' . . . "
After the mangled remains of Chrissie Watkins are discovered washed up on the beach of the summer resort town of Amity Island, apparently having been attacked by an extremely large shark, police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) attempts to close the beaches- only to be overruled by the town's mayor (Murray Hamilton), who is concerned that an unsubstantiated report of a shark attack might hurt the town's summer tourist revenue. Soon thereafter a young boy is literally devoured in front of a beach full of witnesses.
In response to this marine biologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) arrives in Amity, and correctly identifies the culprit as a great white shark, a super predator that can grow to an alarming size- but even this won't move the mayor to close the beaches, and the murders continue despite the best efforts of the coast guard and an armada of shark hunters.
There's only one man who might be able to catch the great white: the irascible professional shark hunter Quint (Robert Shaw). Brody and Hooper insist on accompanying him on the hunt, even though Hooper and Quint don't get along, and Brody is terrified of water . . .
Jaws is an all around good time- it's just a great film. So great, in fact, that I always list it as one of my top ten films. Why then isn't it my number one horror film? Basically, it's because it hardly feels like a horror film to me anymore. Sure, it's a movie about a man-eating shark, but it's also a classic adventure story in vein of Moby Dick (And given the ending, I kind of have to assume that Melville's novel greatly influenced the author of the novel Jaws: Peter Benchley.) In a way, I think of Jaws as being two films: the first one a suspense filled murder mystery in which we slowly learn more about the mostly unseen killer, and the second a buddy flick about three men overcoming their differences to achieve their goal.
It's interesting to note that this film has two antagonists, the first being the actual shark, who is more a force of nature than anything else, and second being the townspeople of Amity- personified by the mayor- who are willing to let four people die before admitting that the beaches aren't safe. It's a clear condemnation of greed that I can't help but find somewhat ironic given that this film essentially spawned (see what I did there?) the concept of the summer blockbuster, making it the great-grand daddy of films like Armageddon or 2012- films which, in my opinion, are made purely out of a desire for money, rather than the desire to tell a good story.
But Jaws is definitely more than a money-maker- it's a genuinely compelling piece of art, with realistic characters, excellent dialogue, and outstanding performances, especially from its three leads, each of whom is incredibly likable in their own way. Their characters are so good, in fact, that I often forget that they're played by actors, a phenomenon that I find rather rare in our current era.
Similarly rare today is the film's incredibly restrained use of the shark itself- we hardly ever see it until the end of the film. It's interesting to note that this was not entirely intentional, as the mechanical shark puppet that they used during filming was constantly breaking down. The brilliant result of this technical catastrophe is that Jaws relies more on the build up of suspense than flashy effects or gore to scare us and, as I've said before, often it's what we can't see that frightens us the most.
Check back tomorrow for #4!
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