Jaws (1975)

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Jaws (1975) – S. Spielberg

It has been a few decades since last I watched Jaws and although it isn’t always scary, it does get rather gruesome at times (vilifying sharks in the process).  The story pits commercialism against safety and, of course, man against nature -- although we are firmly on the side of man here.  Roy Scheider plays the new police captain of Amity Island (somewhere between Long Island and Cape Cod) who deals with a series of shark attacks just before the 4^th of July.  Although he wants to close the beach, the town’s mayor and council block this, leading to more fatalities.  Soon, an oceanographer played by Richard Dreyfuss is assisting Scheider, armed with a lot of shark knowledge.  Together they get the mayor to agree to hire salty old fisherman Quint (Robert Shaw) who promises to track down the shark, which turns out to be a giant Great White, for a large sum of money.  The second half of the film shows us the mission to kill the shark which is adventuresome (even if the shark doesn’t always look real).  Of course, John Williams’ memorable theme music plays at the appropriate moments -- although at other times it reminded me of Spielberg’s tendency toward heavy-handedness.  It’s an enjoyable summer movie – but potentially one of those blockbusters that tilted Hollywood production toward teenage boys and away from more substantive fare.