It is easy to overlook the significance of this film, some 36 years after its original release in the Summer of 1975, given the numerous sequels and poor imitations that have come in its wake and the body of work that has been been created by its director,
Steven Spielberg, perhaps the most famous director of al time, if not the most talented. This is where it all began for Spielberg, sure it wasn't his first feature but this was the film that set him on the path to greatness. This is also where it all began for another Hollywood behemoth, the Summer Event Movie.
Amazing though it may seem to those who have grown up in the era of co-ordinated worldwide releases, that there was a time, before Jaws, when film's opened gradually, starting in a few theatres in New York and Los Angeles before gradually spreading their wings across America, before being released in Europe and then further afield. The film opened simultaneously in hundreds of screens backed by a marketing campaign, something unheard of hitherto. A massive hit, it's box office gross is equivalent to $1.9bn in today's money, it was also one of the first times Hollywood released a major film in Summer. Previously, Summer was where studios dumped pictures that they otherwise couldn't get rid of, because hey, who went to the cinema in the Summer other then kids? And who cares what kids watch?
Based on the best-seller by Peter Benchley, Jaws told the tale of the small town of Amity Island, a resort town in the mould of Martha's Vineyard or Cape Cod. Late one night at a beach party, a drunken couple go swimming. The man falls asleep on the shoreline while the girl swims out to a buoy. That's when the first attack comes. It is terrifying yet you see nothing other then a girl being pulled beneath the waves. In one scene, Spielberg has captured the audience's attention and doesn't let go for the rest of the film. We are introduced to the local police chief, Brody, played with world weary resignation by
Roy Scheider. When the body of the first girl washes up on the shore, his first instinct is to close the beaches in the name of public safety. However, the slimy Mayor Vaughan, brilliantly played by
Murray Hamilton, hoves into view and decrees that the beaches must remain open for the height of the Summer Season. Of course, before long the body count begins to pile up and the town has no choice but to do something. Hooper, an oceanographer played with wit and charm by
Richard Dreyfuss believes he can track the shark and a local fisherman, Quint, played by
Robert Shaw in a performance that is at times crazed and at times soulful but always mesmerising, offers to catch and kill the shark for a reward in a great speech at a town meeting.
"Y'all know me. Know how I earn a livin'. I'll catch this bird for you, but it ain't gonna be easy. Bad fish. Not like going down the pond chasin' bluegills and tommycods. This shark, swallow you whole. Little shakin', little tenderizin', an' down you go. And we gotta do it quick, that'll bring back your tourists, put all your businesses on a payin' basis. But it's not gonna be pleasant. I value my neck a lot more than three thousand bucks, chief. I'll find him for three, but I'll catch him, and kill him, for ten. But you've gotta make up your minds. If you want to stay alive, then ante up. If you want to play it cheap, be on welfare the whole winter. I don't want no volunteers, I don't want no mates, there's just too many captains on this island. Ten thousand dollars for me by myself. For that you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing."
So of the three men set in a boat, to catch and kill the mythic beast. It becomes this epic fight between Quint and the Shark, each trying to get the better of each other. Perhaps the strongest aspect of the film is that you don't see it for so long, for as always the mind is the best breeding ground for fear. When the shark puppet does appear on screen, it is too big to be realistic, but by that point you are in too deep. Spielberg chose to keep the mechanical Shark's screen time to a minimum as it was so unreliable. It turned into a masterstroke. The film is anchored by some fine performances from the three leads but particularly Robert Shaw. He created the character of Quint, giving it a back story all of his own creation. In a famous scene, he recounts a tale from his time in the Navy.
"Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte... just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that when you're in the water, Chief? You tell by looking from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know, was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin', so we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, it was kinda like old squares in the battle like you see in the calendar named "The Battle of Waterloo" and the idea was: shark comes to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin' and hollerin' and screamin' and sometimes the shark go away... but sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. 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'. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I know how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday morning, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boatswain's mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up, down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon, the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us. He swung in low and he saw us... he was a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper. Anyway, he saw us and he come in low and three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and starts to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened... waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water; 316 men come out and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb"
Spielberg was 27 when he completed Jaws, the film had gone way over its schedule and its budget had ballooned to $10m. Indeed the studio was afraid it had a big flop on its ends. In the end, aided by a great story,some fine performances and a brilliant score from John Williams, he created his first masterpiece.
The film tapped into people's fear of the unknown and the late '70s paranoia about corrupt officials bureaucrats. You really did believe that Amity could be your town. Indeed, the film is credited with a fall off in beach visitors in the Summer of 1975. Perhaps its biggest and most dubious achievement, was showing the Hollywood studios that there was money to be made from Summer cinema goers, something confirmed by the success of a little film called Star Wars in 1977. This has led to each summer since being littered with some of the worst Hollywood homogenised crap ever since. It is almost impossible to visit your local multiplex during May and September without being bombarded with ads for the latest sequel or event picture. Each year, there are more sequels then originality being churned out. It is now almost the case that if you want to see intelligent cinema, you go independent. Sure there are exceptions, but they are that. That's not a great legacy for Jaws but its something that should detract from a very fine film, one of the best.
, there is the theme of a broken family. Roy's wife leaves him and takes the children, unable to deal with his obsession. The children unable to understand what has happened to their hard working father. Barry's mother, a single mother it should be noted has her child abducted. It is this sadness, this sense of family that endears Spielberg as a film-maker so much. He has often been criticised for being overly sentimental but this sentimentality is at the core of his talent. He makes the audience empathise. Who can ever forget the little girl in red in Schindler's List
? 
