Film and American Culture Series: "Jaws" Review

 

     This week I am reviewing Jaws, based on the novel of the same name by Peter Benchley, directed by Steven Spielberg. It was produced by Zanuck/Brown Company and Universal Pictures and was released June 20, 1975. The cinematography was done by Bill Butler and the musical score was written by John Williams. The film won three Academy Awards for Best Film Editing, Best Original Dramatic Score, and Best Sound. John Williams's score won a Grammy, a BAFTA Award for Best Film Music, an Oscar, and a Golden Globe Award. At the People's Choice Awards Jaws received Favorite Movie.

     Martin (Roy Scheider) the local police chief of Amity Island discovers there is a great white shark lurking, terrorizing, and attacking swimmers in the ocean around the start of the town’s busiest beach season. Together with the help of Matt (Richard Dreyfuss), an oceanographer, and Quint (Robert Shaw), a fisherman, they set off in a boat to catch the shark. While struggling to kill the massive shark Quint is killed and the boat is sunk. Martin is able to kill the shark as the boat is sinking by throwing an oxygen tank at it and shooting it while it is in the shark’s mouth causing the tank to explode. The movie ends with Martin and Matt using empty barrels that were used to try to catch the shark to make a floating device and swim safely back to shore.   

Does this film have specific meaning to the time it was released? Or does it have a universal them we can apply to today? One theme you could point out is that of the greedy Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton). He cared more about keeping the beaches open to receive revenue from the tourists that the beach brought in rather than close them due to safety concerns. This is a character type you still find today and can learn from that money is never as important as a human life. If he closed the beach like asked at least one life, that of a little boy, would not have been lost from direct result of his greed.

     Although I did not care much for this film personally I can understand why the cult following it has with so many fans. The recognizable score John Williams brilliantly wrote still can bring that feeling of dread even from someone who has not seen the film. This film created a culture shock when released impacting so many people into fearing going into the water themselves or falsely seeing sharks in the water around them. Jaws paved the way for other horror shark films to hit the big screen. To this day it is still a classical summer film and continues to live on through periodical mentions in other media.