Jaws [1975] Movie Reviews on CinemaClock

I think this movie might have won Best Picture instead of Cuckoo’s Nest, I don’t remember, I was born in 1975 and was too busy breastfeeding to watch the Oscars the following Spring. My co-worker, Nick, who is as avid a movie-lover as I am (if not more) thinks I’m insane for putting this as one of the best pictures ever (it's my 3rd favourite movie of all time) He thinks it’s just a basic horror movie. I feel sad for him that he couldn’t enjoy the film above and beyond that basic scare level of the flick. I really think there was much more depth to this film that what simply appears on the surface. What my friend Nick doesn’t understand is the difference between a Horror and a Thriller. And Jaws, my friends, remains THE most effective thriller of all time. Nothing has even come close after 30 years. In fact, I’m almost positive that I can track my bathyphobia (fear of deep water) to watching Jaws, Jaws II and Jaws 3-D with my dad in a drive thru in the early 80’s. I’ve gone snorkeling with sharks in Florida and California and I still can’t get over this stupid fear. It’s so annoying. Anyway, the fear that I and many others felt while watching Jaws was Spielberg playing us like instruments. Every scene, every sound was so deliberately polished. It’s really just a phenomenal film in those respects. The acting is really top notch (especially that handsome Richard Dreyfuss, my oh my) although that woman who slaps Brody (“My son is dead! ”) was um... not so hot. If I looked like that, I'd wish I were dead! I’m sure everyone has seen this picture and we’ve all grown up knowing the dum-dum-dum music of the shark approaching. I guess it’ll be lost on most of us younglings, but try to imagine for a brief second, watching this movie in 1975 and not expecting everything that we all expected when we saw Jaws for the first time. Nothing like it had been done before and it must have been terrifying to be sitting there in so much suspense for so long. The same way that watching the original Alien in the late 70’s must have been a nightmare when the creature erupts from Hurt’s chest. I bet they didn’t see that one coming. And by the same token, I bet movie studios didn’t see this shark thriller become the first ever summer blockbuster movie.