Jaws

Reviewed by PCottraux

*Spoiler Warning:  This review was written under the assumption that the reader has seen the movie.  If that’s not the case, consider yourself warned.* 

Da-dum. Da-dum. Da-dum.

      I don’t think there’s a movie out there with more quotable lines, is more often quoted, or has a more recognizable theme than Steven Spielberg’s Jaws.  The movie became engrained in our public conscience and is instantly recognizable as a pop culture icon, but it did much more than that; together with George Lucas’s Star Wars, it helped launch the modern era of film that we are still in—an era which shows no signs of slowing any time soon.  Jaws brought the early ‘70s period of dark, gritty filmmaking, which included Chinatown and The Godfather, to an abrupt end.  Before this film, the summertime was essentially a movie dumpster for forgotten B-pictures; after this film, it was the primary movie season. 

      Getting to the heart of the matter, however, it becomes clear that the acclamation is well-deserved.  Jaws is simply a great film, with classic suspense and thrills topped off with an epic sea adventure reminiscent of Hemingway and Melville.  Much is made of how much it terrified audiences, but the final act of the movie is as enthralling as it is scary, and the (literally) explosive climax ties up everything quite satisfyingly.  Many peoples’ fear of water can probably be attributed to Jaws as well.  Even as a 6 year-old boy, I recall going to the local YMCA for a swim to be a somewhat harrowing experience.  The rec center had a gigantic indoor pool where the deep end reached 14 feet, and I rarely ventured away from the shallow end due to the certain promise that sharks had to be lurking somewhere in the blue murky depths of the other side of the pool. 

      The story has humble beginnings.  Author Peter Benchley was an avid diver fascinated with marine life.  However, he originally envisioned his novel as being a sort of dark comedy…his editors quickly convinced him that the material would work much better as pathological horror.  The title was a throwaway; one popular misconception about the story is that “Jaws” is actually the shark’s name.  The shark was in fact never given a name; in the novel he’s breathlessly referred to as “the great fish.”  Benchley and his editors were pouring over a title for the book but couldn’t seem to settle on one that didn’t sound pretentious—Jaws Rising, Jaws of Leviathon, Jaws of Death, etc.  Eventually they decided on simply the word Jaws because it seemed to be the only single word they could actually agree on. 

      Spielberg found a manuscript of the novel before it was even finished and was already planning his movie.  He even ambitiously wrote his own full-sized script that was never used just so that he could “find out what kind of movie” he wanted to make.  By the time the novel was released—and became a best-seller—production on the film was already under way. 

      It is often debated which is better, the movie or the book.  Having seen and read both, I can assure you that the movie is much better.  Benchley’s novel is mostly dreary and depressing, yet it still manages to find time for messy, over-the-top melodrama.  There are silly subplots involving the mafia as well as a particularly nasty affair between Brody’s wife and Matt Hooper (the Richard Dreyfuss character).  Although the early screenplay was much more complicated, Spielberg and writer Carl Gottlieb made the wise decision to cut through the excess subplots and go straight for the action and excitement. 

      It is well publicized what a disaster filming was from the very beginning.  The movie was filmed on location in Martha’s Vineyard.  To be fair, in real life, Ted Kennedy has probably terrorized that place more than any shark. 

      Even casting was not an easy process for Spielberg.  Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss both turned him down initially.  At one time, Charleton Heston was seeking the role of Brody and Timothy Bottoms was considered for Hooper.  Spielberg’s original choice for Quint was Lee Marvin, who just simply wasn’t interested.  In retrospect, while it’s fun to picture what other actors could have done, it’s fortunate things turned out as they did.  One would have difficulty picturing actors doing a better job than the trio of Scheider, Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw. 

      Filming was a disaster from beginning to end.  Even during the easier moments of shooting on-land had difficulties; Martha’s Vineyard locals were complaining nonstop over the dead tiger shark stinking up the town (the shark was captured days before it was filmed).  Throughout the entire process, Spielberg found himself keeping the studio in the dark for fear of being shut down.  His problems tripled when the shooting began at sea.  The salt water damaged the mechanical shark and practically rendered it useless.  The thing never worked right.  Spielberg would spend hours setting up a certain shot…and then the shark wouldn’t work.  And by the time the problem was fixed, it was too late in the day and the lighting was wrong, and they would have to wait until the next day to try again. 

      In the end, it turned out to be a blessing.  Had the mechanical shark worked, and had the sea been more forgiving, we would have seen the creature in the movie a lot more (practically in the opening credits) and most of the subtle power of Jaws would have been lost. 

      The movie truly terrified audiences when it was finally released, and to find out why is to understand the film’s brilliance.  It taps into our deepest elemental fears as human beings.  Our fear of sharks is largely unfounded—despite media hype, sharks really do not pose a real significant threat to humans—but perhaps we can’t help but fear them.  They are sleek, stealthy, effective predators.  They have cold black eyes, “like a doll’s eyes.”  They lurk in the dark depths of the ocean, quietly stalking their prey from below.  And in their territory, the water, we are pretty much helpless.  And let’s face it; humans are most afraid when they’re not in control.  The genius of the movie is that it understands that the only thing more frightening than seeing a shark is knowing that a shark’s there but not knowing where it is. 

      The movie’s first scene may be its most infamous.  At a party on the beach in the early hours of the morning, a young girl meets up with a young guy and she recruits him to accompany for some skinny dipping.  Fortunately for him, he passes out at the shoreline, while she unwisely ventures out into the water alone.  The fear of this first attack is so intense because the woman’s teasing laughter turns to horror very quickly, and she comes to the realization that she’s out here, alone, where no one can help her as she’s being pulled under.  There’s a legend that the actress is screaming because she broke her ribs in this scene, but it’s not true, although the freezing cold water probably did enhance her performance. 

      We’re then introduced to Police Chief Brody (Roy Scheider), a tough New York cop who ironically moved to Amity Island to get away from the dangerous city streets.  Brody is a good relatable hero because of his fear of water as well as his unfamiliarity with boats.  Watching him in the last act of the movie, he looks very much out of place on The Orca but is clearly trying his best. 

      Obviously, in light of a shark attack, the beaches need to be closed, but like a good movie villain, the town mayor (Murray Hamilton) refuses to let something happen that may potentially hurt business.  Amity, after all, does feed off the money of summer vacationers, and a shark problem couldn’t happen at a worse time.  This villainous idea has been done to death, but in Jaws, it was new, and is probably handled better than in any other future incarnation. 

      The results are unsurprising as more and more people are eaten by the shark (I think my favorite is the guy whose severed leg we see sinking to the bottom of the ocean).  This sends the town into a panic and we get a plethora of “bozo fisherman” with bounties on their minds out searching for the shark. 

      And here we meet the movie’s next main character, Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss).  This is an inspired performance by Dreyfuss.  Hooper is vastly different from his character in the book; Benchley presented us with a tall, athletic, clean-shaven jerk who callously has an affair with Brody’s wife.  The movie version of the character is short, bearded, and all-around likeable.  He is a stereotypically nerdy scientist; note how he wears a tie while cutting open the tiger shark to remove its last meals.  Hooper’s most important job for the movie is to breathlessly provide us with information on why we should consider the shark so scary. 

      In the novel, it isn’t Quint who meets a gruesome death in the shark’s jaws at the end (though Quint does die), but Hooper, in the famous shark cage scene.  This was originally preserved for the movie as well.  It was a twist of fate that saved Hooper.  The footage of gigantic sharks encircling the cage was filmed in Australia by legendary shark experts Ron and Valerie Taylor.  They had a miniature cage next to regular-sized great whites, and a dwarf in a diver’s suit (and a stunt dummy) was supposed to occupy the cage.  However, before the little person could get into his cage, which was already lowered into the water, a great white managed to get stuck in the thing and managed to attack and destroy it completely.  Underwater, Ron Taylor had the camera running and the footage he captured was so dramatic, they simply had to use it in the film.  But since the cage was unoccupied at the moment, the script had to be rewritten and the idea of Hooper escaping from the cage was employed.  It was another fortunate irony; Hooper’s character is too well-intentioned to deserve any kind of terrible fate. 

Which brings us to the third major character of the movie, Quint.  This is one of Robert Shaw’s greatest performances as he creates a grizzly, salty old sea dog with a real reason for his hatred of sharks.  Quint is an experienced shark hunter (although I’m not sure why he’d live in Amity when they claim to have never had a shark problem before).  It’s a colorful and energetic performance.  Robert Shaw himself, however, was a bad alcoholic who created more than a few problems on the set (he was known on occasion to make fun of Richard Dreyfuss for being Jewish).  Nevertheless, he is invaluable to the film; his moody nighttime monologue in the cabin of The Orca is not just the best moment in this movie, but one of the greatest movie moments ever. 

      It’s often said in film that less is more (a concept modern-day Hollywood seems to have forgotten), and never is that principle more true than when it’s applied here.  All throughout the first two acts, we never see the shark, except through his own point-of-view.  It’s both funny and scary how the swimmer’s legs dangling above him almost look like little appetizers.  Thanks to the uncooperative robotic shark, Spielberg was forced to keep us from actually seeing the creature, and the result is a visual masterstroke. Before actually showing us the creature, Spielberg does everything he can to build him up in our minds.  One of my favorite scenes shows Brody quietly flipping through a shark book, looking at pictures of frightening teeth and ripped apart flesh, and we get a lovely reflective shot of flipping pages in his glasses.  The bottom line is that the creature is not so much scary in the special effects, but in our own imaginations. 

      Some say that the shark doesn’t look real when it finally does appear, but I tend to disagree.  The creature’s first appearance is late in the second act, when we see a ghostly image of it just below the surface approaching its prey (the aforementioned severed leg attack).  You can’t argue that it looks genuinely terrifying here.  All throughout the third act, the shark appears only a few times, and mostly it’s being substituted by the famous yellow barrels. 

      The movie’s famous “big scream” moment is the final unveiling of the creature.  Brody is throwing chum in the water, and angrily uses a profanity.  This is a good moment on Spielberg’s part, because swearing was not very common in movies during that time.  Brody’s use of the word “sh*t” caused chuckles in the audiences, brilliantly followed by a genuine scream as the shark lunges up out of the water. 

      Shortly thereafter, Brody utters the most famous line in Jaws: “You’re going to need a bigger boat.”  The advice is good.  Quint’s boat, The Orca, is woefully impractical.  It’s old and leaky, with black smoke pouring out of its exhausts.  The deck is small and slippery, and it looks like one easy slip would send a man into the water.  The harpoon deck sticks out from the ship in an almost comically dangerous fashion.  The gigantic mast makes the boat look top-heavy.  One would almost be hesitant to hunt guppies in The Orca; let alone a 25-foot long great white shark. 

      The original ending for Jaws was painfully anti-climactic.  Following along with the novel, we were supposed to see Quint hacking the shark to death with his machete with The Orca sinking all around him.  After the shark dies, it sinks to the bottom, but Quint goes down with it and drowns.  If you look closely, you’ll see a lot of buildups toward this ending that never happened.  Quint’s refusal to wear a life jacket, as well as the consistent shots of the machete, were all supposed to lead to this dud of a conclusion.  Fortunately, Spielberg rewrote the ending at the last minute, deciding it should be a more exciting climax.  Quint dies a gruesome death in the shark’s jaws, and Brody kills the creature by throwing an air tank in its mouth and shooting it.  Peter Benchley protested this ending at first, writing it off as “preposterous.”  He was right; in reality, compressed air doesn’t explode, but has more of a rocket effect.  It doesn’t matter.  Spielberg has taken us so far by the ending, we’ll except anything he gives us.  So as silly as it is, the ending is very exciting and works well. 

      I would say, in the end, the trials and tribulations were worth it all.  Spielberg unwittingly crafted a masterpiece that launched his career, and led to some of the most wondrous movies ever.  Had it not been for Jaws, there may never have been any Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan…you get my drift.  And the first movie was enough. Three abysmal sequels to Jaws were made; I’ve seen them all and never care to see any of them again.  Upon its release, Jaws literally ate the competition and became the highest grossing movie up until that time.  And deservedly so.  In my personal top-10 list, it comes at number 5, and earns its place in the realms where classic movies exist.