Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Premise: A great white shark begins stalking the
beaches of a New England resort town. After repeated attacks, the local police
chief (Roy Scheider), a marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss), and a fisherman
(Robert Shaw) must hunt the animal and destroy it.
What Works: Some critics have tried to diminish Jaws because its blockbuster success signaled the decline of the New Hollywood period
and the beginning of corporate control over film production. That is not a fair
accusation to the filmmakers or to the film, which is one of Steven
Spielberg’s best works. This film is as well crafted as anything from the
period. The cinematography is comprised of perfectly composed shots, many of
which are handheld, and assembled through very skillful editing. The second
shark attack of the film, in which a boy
is attacked on an inflatable raft, is a sequence worth studying by anyone
interested in how cinema works. The scene uses subjective and objective angles,
wipes and cuts all with purpose to suggest the imminent threat and make the
perspective of the scene clear; it is ostensibly about the attack on the boy but
the subtext is about the paranoia of the police chief and his duty to the
citizens. Many scenes in Jaws show this kind of artistic complexity and that alone separates from so many
imitators. The sound design of Jaws is
also extremely impressive, using silence or just the gentle sound of water
lapping the side of the boat to suggest the danger just beneath the surface of
the water. John Williams provides one of the most iconic musical scores of his
career and what is very interesting about it is the way in which the music is
placed. The film uses a Pavlovian technique, associating the shark with the
musical motif and then using it to cause anticipation or fear. As a New
Hollywood film, Jaws is a picture that
puts a lot of focus on masculinity and finds some new angles on it. Roy Scheider
stars as Martin Brody, the chief of police, and in many ways Brody is the
essential modern hero. He is caught between his duties to public safety and the
public’s economic needs, and the tension between those two conflicting ideals
causes him considerable guilt. Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw are terrific as
well, one a rich scientist and the other a blue collar fisherman, and the
tension between them adds to the excitement and fear of the chase. Also relevant
to Jaws as a horror film of the New Hollywood movement is the conflict
between nature and man. Many of the horror films of this time such as The
Exorcist, Night
of the Living Dead, and The
Hills Have Eyes forced their heroes to deal with the irrational and the
bestial. Jaws does this as well, bringing man and animal closer and closer
together and constantly undermining the mankind’s ability to assert dominion
over the earth.
What Doesn’t: As a film of its time viewers do
need to recognize that Jaws was made before the advanced special effects
of today. Most of the special effects hold up just fine but viewers who are
expecting some grandiose visuals like Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong should be prepared to judge the film based on the context in which it was made.
DVD extras: The 30th Anniversary edition
contains a documentary, featurettes, image galleries, trailers, deleted scenes,
and outtakes.
Bottom Line: Jaws remains one of Steven Spielberg’s best films. Everything
about Jaws as a piece of cinema makes
this as perfect as a film can be and it manages to thrill and frighten decades
after its release.