A evenly witty trio must set out on the voyage of a lifetime to capture/kill a giant shark that is terrorizing the town of Amity! What ensues is the greatest 4th of July movie of all time (but The Sandlot is a close runner-up).
Review:
It is incredibly hard to start this review for JAWS without feeling like there is nothing that hasn't already been said about the film. Like Japan's Godzilla, or London's Jack the Ripper, Spielberg has given birth to a new American monster; the great white shark. While crafting such a perfect blend of drama, horror, comic relief, and adventure, Spielberg also created a name for himself in the homes of Americans nationwide; it was time to credit our directors.
While the premise of Jaws is incredibly well-known, the actual story-line is much deeper than the surface shows. We have a close-knit town experiencing something drastic and new; the killer is in the hands of nature. This setup is what gives JAWS such a one-up in the horror genre, because we aren't running away from a masked killer or a demonic vehicle, but instead, something we can find in our (as Florida citizens) own backyard. Our heroes, played wonderfully by Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw, come to the ultimate conclusion that the town will only be at rest if they get their hands dirty, so they set forth to slay the monster.
Being that my hometown is Palm Bay, Florida, the movie and scenery is all very familiar to me, regardless that is is set up north. The beach town that everyone flocks to, the familiar police faces, the townspeople all close friends, just makes the movie hit right at home. It must also be stated that my parents cite JAWS as the number one reason I began my love for movies, watching this movie day in and day out as a child. I have recently re-visited the film for a class, and am so happy that my undying love for the film continues to sail the ocean blue. The film's use of cinematography in the water, it's sound matching the character's movements seamlessly, and the tight-knit dialogue throughout the film has not aged a day, and for those wondering, the Blu-ray transfer is magnificent. I also just recently happened upon the shooting star in the film, which a quick Google search will tell you how incredible that scene is.
There are a numerous amount of movies that websites, magazines, critics and other writers call the best movie ever. It is an incredibly difficult task to judge this, because there is no possible way of ever truly knowing, or being able to prove it, but when I am in conversation with a person that is even the slightest bit intrigued by film as an art, the word "jaws" always finds a way into the conversation, and this speaks volumes about this movie. I am so incredibly happy that my parents let me watch this blood-soaked, danger-filled, heads-popping-out-of-boats shark hunt when I was just a tot of 5 years old, because I can say without a doubt that I would not be writing this review right now if it weren't for that. I still have a problem calling it the best movie of all time, just because it's impossible for me to know, but it is certainly the most influential to me.
