Image provided by movieramblings.com, trailer courtesy of youtube.com

Steven Spielberg’s film Jaws was proven successful in not only in scaring the hell out of its viewers, but also influencing another great horror flick,  Alien.

My Rating –
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss
Book  by Peter Benchley
Screenplay by Carl Gottlieb, Peter Benchley
Original Music by John Williams
Runtime – 124 mins.

Steven Spielberg’s film Jaws was proven successful in not only in scaring the hell out of its viewers, but also influencing another great horror flick,  Alien.

Similar to the style used by Martin Scorsese’s in “Taxi Driver,” Spielberg borrowed many of the horror film techniques from Alfred Hitchcock – the ominous music and props to indicate danger and unique camera angles to disorient the audience.

A prime example of the disorienting affect involves the camera angles used while looking at the shark; an exaggerated overhead view that suddenly cuts to an exaggerated close-up shot. This technique is seen in Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” when the main character Scottie (Jimmy Stewart) is stricken with his agoraphobic panic attacks.

Image provided by galemartin.me

The plot of this film, made obvious by the title, most likely has something to do with a large, monster-like shark that eats people; although it could have been much more complicated if Spielberg followed Peter Benchley’s novel more closely. The 26 year-old Spielberg decided to keep the film simple with believable characters and not a two-hour-long bloodbath.

Jaws shows the effects of shark attacks from three main perspectives; a shark hunter, Marine Biologist, and an average-Joe. The hunter, played by “The Sting’s” Robert Shaw is very similar to “Moby Dick’s” Captain Ahab. He has personal vendetta against sharks and with every attack his hatred keeps growing. His rusty old boat is even called Orca – the only enemy of a shark.

The marine biologist, played by the very young looking Richard Dreyfuss (“Mr. Holland’s Opus), proves that a college education is sometimes not enough for the real world. His character seems to clash the most with the rugged hunter. The last and most identifiable character is our average-Joe, played by Roy Schieder, whose water-fearing character, in an attempt to escape the anxiety of New York City, lands himself in even more danger.

What set this film on a higher level is its believability. I’m not just talking about how it was filmed in Martha’s Vineyard or the fact that Spielberg used actual shark footage, but how the characters don’t seem so scripted. They were not bogged down with scenes of motivational speeches nor were they ordinary. They showed actual fear.

The results of the exceptional acting, screenplay and the use of the $450,000 mechanical shark named Bruce was a $7 million masterpiece that became the world’s first summer blockbuster film. Not only was it hyper-successful in the box office, but it managed to scare the hell out of me.