April Blindspot: Jaws

Jaws, 1975
Directed by Steven Spielberg

Wow, the last post that I did was my March blindspot! Sorry it's been so long, but my husband and I spent 2 weeks of April in Italy, so that was most of our month. Hopefully over the next week or so I'll be able to catch up on some quick reviews. But most of all, I needed to post my April blindspot! I know it's already May 1st, but I did watch this in April (two days ago) and have finally gotten time to sit down and share my thoughts.

Again, Jaws feels like a movie that's pretty self-explanatory and most people already know what the film is about. Amity is a small New England beach town that, right before the 4th of July, sees a young girl attacked by a shark and killed. The new police chief, Martin Brody, wants to close the beaches, but with the 4th of July coming up, the Mayor of Amity doesn't want to lose any business or tourism by closing the beaches. However, after a little boy is killed by the shark in the middle of the day, with dozens and dozens of family witnessing it, a call is sent out for the shark to be killed.

Honestly, Jaws is kind of cheesy. I mean, it's a story about a mayor who doesn't want to close his beaches because he's scared of losing tourism money, even though half the town just saw a little kid get eaten by a shark? However, at the same time, it's still an effective thriller! I mean, there's tons of shots in the first half of the film that are from the sharks point of view, with that menacing John Williams score playing, with the shark weaving in and out of people legs and you're wondering who is going to be attacked next. Or we know the shark is coming and people pull their legs out of the water just in time. Stuff like that. Honestly, it stressed me out a little bit and it was great! I'm glad that this still holds up as a decent thriller, even if the actual story is a bit cheesy. But does anyone really watch this movie for the plot though?

As well, I felt the effects of the shark held up decently for being 40 years old. However, the fact that there actually wasn't tons of footage of the actual shark made the movie much more effective. Even so, the shark jumping up on the boat at the end of the movie, while obviously not amazing looking, is not as bad as it could've been for being 40 years old. Similar to the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park that looked much more amazing when it originally came out, but they still are pretty decent robotics now.

While I didn't love Jaws nearly as much as I enjoyed last months Blindspot (Die Hard!), it was fun finally, finally, finally catching up with such a classic. It amazes me that Spielberg was a mere 26 years old when he filmed this (only 2 years older than I am now!) and that this essentially got him his career. While it doesn't nearly have the engaging plot or character nuances of many of Spielbergs other films, it's still an exceedingly fine entry into his filmography and remains a classic thriller for a reason!

8/10