Anyone who knows me personally is well aware of my love for the movie Jaws. Perhaps one of the first horror movies I saw at a young age that I was able to watch from beginning to end without covering my eyes, Jaws was a movie that inspired my love and interest in sharks up until I went to high school. At this point, I discovered that my propensity for sea sickness might get in the way of my desire to learn more about them in the field of marine biology—my struggle with biology in school was another nail in that coffin that helped propel me down a different career path. Regardless, Jaws was my favorite movie in 5th grade at the ripe age of 9-years old. It was rated PG since it came out before R & PG-13 were a thing, so I didn’t have trouble renting it from the video store, even though it wasn’t really a movie for kids. To be fair, there were worse movies I saw (or watched with my hands over my eyes) when I was even younger, but Jaws was the movie that probably confirmed my love for horror long before I realized I was a horror fan.

Since Jaws was released in 1975, there have been countless shark-based horror movies, not to mention ripoffs of a similar formula and fashion that include other animal attacks. There’s a very good chance you have seen a shark film that pulls much inspiration from Jaws. If not, you have also very likely seen a movie that follows the formula of Jaws in which our hero recognizes a problem, and tries to solve it but is blocked by bureaucracy, until the climax occurs and finally the problem is resolved. That’s a reductive view, but you get the idea. I lay this all out before I get into the meat of the article because of a couple of reasons.

I still really like this movie, despite being 25 years older than I was when I first saw it
I once heard someone call this move a “cliche” and that upsets me a bit

Having watched this movie once more this 4th of July, I wanted to pay tribute to one of my favorite movies of all time and defend it from ignorant haters who would be so bold as to call it “cliche.”

Plot

Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) is a simple man with a mild phobia of the ocean who is just trying to do his job as chief of police on a small island in New York. The remains of a young girl wash up on the beach and it seems quite apparent that she was killed by a shark. Despite his desire to warn the public about the danger, the mayor (Murray Hamilton) convinces him to stay silent for the sake of the local economy. That is until another victim is attacked. After a few more dramatic moments, some more victims, and the panic in the community grows to a fever, Brody manages to get the help he needs to kill the man-eating machine in the form of the volatile fisherman Quinn (Robert Shaw) and the sarcastic marine biologist Hooper (Richard Dreyfus). He’ll just need to brave the waters with them to kill the beast.

It’s a simple plot. It’s simple enough for a child to understand it. Obviously, I didn’t get all the nuances of the characters and their interactions as a child. I didn’t understand why Quinn was so mean to Hooper all the time. I didn’t understand why Brody didn’t just close the beaches despite what the mayor said. I didn’t understand what makes the scene where the three heroes show their scars so brilliant. I just knew that it was a good movie that sticks with you and never gets old.

What Works & What Works

Pacing

Jaws isn’t an overly long movie, but it also manages to feel like you’ve gone on a real journey by the end of it. It starts off relatively slow-paced after the initial scene, with a majority of what’s taking place just occurring via dialogue. You get to know the characters so you become invested in their concerns and issues. The first half of the film mostly just follows Chief Brody around as he does his best to learn more about sharks, try to keep the public safe, and try to abide by the demands of the mayor who cares more about the island’s economy than the safety of its citizens. It’s a simple character conflict and you see the struggle that Brody has to go through to do the thing that he knows has to be done, before we even get to the part of the movie that everyone remembers.

After you spend time getting to know Brody, as well as Hooper, the movie takes its drama to the open water and that’s where Jaws really gets exciting and fun. The drama only increases as the three men who can barely get along with each other have to cooperate on a tiny boat to take down a humongous great white. Since the rest of the movie takes place here, you can easily slice Jaws into two halves. While the first half may be slower and more driven around dialogue among characters, trying to figure out what needs to be done, the second half is all about the action of hunting this shark down. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a great deal of character depth or drama in these moments, because it’s the half that also contains one of the best scenes Spielberg has ever directed.

Acting

If you’ve ever watched any of the low-budget shark movies or animal-attack rip-off films, there’s a good chance you’ve seen some atrocious acting from the cast. Part of what makes Jaws the best out of that whole sub-genre is that the casting and acting are top-notch. Roy Scheider does a fantastic job playing the part of the police chief who is trying to do the right thing but isn’t ready to risk his job or his family’s livelihood until it gets directly challenged by the shark. Part of what makes Scheider so good for the role of the main hero is the fact that he’s not some over-the-top-action hero like Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Charlton Heston, who was the equivalent in those days. Scheider is relatively unassuming looking, which makes his overcoming of his fear of the water and the shark that much more triumphant and exciting.

Richard Dreyfus easily manages to evoke the plucky, somewhat overconfident, college-educated nerd who is really into sharks. He is extremely good at coming across as a friendly guy who thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room. He often is, but it’s the fact that he knows it that makes his character more flawed and real. It’s also part of why when you put a character like him next to Quinn, you expect there to be conflict. Robert Shaw’s propensity for being particularly mean to Dreyfus off-screen only added to that conflict in the film, but the drama works exceptionally well as the two egotistical characters of completely different worlds constantly flex in their own ways to intimidate the other. In some ways, Brody takes a back seat during the latter half because of how much these two characters duke it out on-screen.

If Jaws was just a movie with only these three characters, it would still be a fantastic film with great acting, but the side characters all do their part as well. Even the more inconsequential characters do their part to channel the sense of fear and sadness in the community. Just the acting of the young swimmer (Susan Backlinie) in the first scene is incredible enough to make it memorable and terrifying.

Music & Direction

I don’t have to list all the reasons or examples why John Williams is one of the best film composers of all time. Even if you’ve never seen any Jaws movie, you know its theme. It’s simple, but it’s effective and incredibly memorable. However, there’s more to Williams’ score than just the main theme. Part of what makes his score so good in this is that it matches Spielberg’s direction. It’s ominous when it needs to be, but can quickly shift to exciting or even whimsical in certain moments. When they’re on the boat and the three heroes first encounter the shark, you hear the main theme with a lot more backing music behind it to build the tension and rhythm. The strings and drums pick up the pace as the tension builds and they get ready to attach the first barrel to the shark. It matches the tension of the moment with how intimidated they all are but also adds some happier notes to match Hooper’s excitement at such a specimen. When it reaches the fever pitch of the scene and they finally shoot the first barrel, the music shifts into a flurry of whimsical notes. This movie would not be nearly as good as it is without Williams.

When it comes to direction, Jaws was the movie that skyrocketed Steven Spielberg’s career, despite the numerous production setbacks. The way everything is shot is extremely important to the experience—you don’t even see the shark’s fin until almost halfway into the movie. All the shots in the deep water looking up at swimmers with the perspective of the animal, the numerous shots of “characters looking at something” in the right moments, and his ability to play with the emotion of the scene and move the focus around work really well. His direction is part of the reason you haven’t seen an animal-attack horror movie as good as Jaws since.

Drama & Horror

There are three particular scenes that immediately come to mind when I think of Jaws. There’s the “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” scene, in which the shark’s face is revealed for the first time in a terrific jump-scare moment. I tend to hate on jump-scares because they can be overused and just poorly implemented. Jaws keeps this moment mostly silent, without any build-up to it like most horror movies. It comes out of nowhere and barely has any high-pitch music to accompany it when it does happen, then the music settles into more ominous tones as Brody backs away in shock. And, of course, it has an extremely memorable line that was ad-libbed and probably what anyone would say in that situation.

Next, the opening scene with the first victim. Aside from the more visceral ends to other victims in the movie, it is probably the most horrific scene. It sets the tone for a horror movie immediately, even though the majority of Jaws does not match that tone again. It shocks you and prepares you for a dark and horrible experience, putting you on edge, but the rest of the movie does a lot to gently ease back into the horror moments. Even today when I watch it, it still sets me on edge a bit just because of how effective the scene is, seeing the girl get thrashed about, and the sudden silence that follows when she disappears below the water. I’d argue that it was this scene alone that was enough to terrify people of sharks and motivate the real-life shark murder spree that followed the success of the film's release.

The last scene that immediately comes to mind is the one I’ve been hinting at the whole time. It’s where the three heroes are all sitting together in the cabin area of the small ship, drinking and showing off their scars to each other. After the excitement of hunting the shark during the day, this scene slows things down to focus on the characters again. Part of why I think it’s such an amazing scene that demonstrates the quality of the acting and direction, as well as elevates Jaws’ quality as a film, is how well everything comes together and how the tone shifts so naturally. It starts with the three of them tired, somewhat irritated that the shark is still out there, and still being somewhat aloof towards one another. As the alcohol sets in, the three start talking more and showing off their scars and telling stories about them. They joke, bond, and have a good time until Hooper makes a comment about the tattoo that Quinn got removed. When Quinn reveals that his tattoo was a Navy tattoo for the USS Indianapolis—a WWII ship that sank and a majority of the survivors died waiting to be rescued—everyone sobers up. Robert Shaw delivers a dark and chilling story that silences the scene. As the three of them sit in silence, from the intensity of that moment, the alcohol picks back up again and they start singing together to lighten the mood until the shark interrupts it. Even if you don’t want to watch Jaws, watch this scene to see what I mean.

Why You’re Wrong if You Disagree

Everyone is entitled to their opinion about a movie, even if they’re wrong. However, if you think Jaws is a cliche movie, then you don’t really understand what a cliche is. Saying Jaws is cliche is like saying Hamlet is cliche when you love The Lion King. I’m not saying Jaws is Shakespeare. I’m saying that in order for you to call something a cliche, it probably shouldn’t be the piece of art that inspired so many other pieces of art, regardless of whether those copies were any good. If you’ve seen countless other horror movies over the years, or just movies in general, there’s a good chance you’ve seen something that was inspired by Jaws. Jaws isn’t a purely original movie, it takes plenty of things from Hitchcock films, like Vertigo and The Birds. However, to act as though this movie is as banal as the B-movie trash that wouldn’t exist without it is utterly absurd.

There are certainly movies that I like more than Jaws. However, it is still a fantastic film that I never get tired of watching. If you like horror, yet you don’t like Jaws, I have some questions. Not enough gore? No zombies? Acting too good? Too entertaining? What do you want out of a movie? Do you only like trash? Are you some weird creature from the sewer who has no taste?

This movie does so much more than many other movies in the genre. Find me a better shark movie. Find me a better horror movie that is able to balance humor, character drama, action, and horror in a way that doesn’t lose its tone or pacing. I suspect you’ll have a much harder time with the first option, but the second should still be a challenge.

How Tasty a Treat is it?

Having watched it again for the first time in some years, I still can say with a great deal of justification and confidence that Jaws is one of the best horror movies ever made, if not one of the best movies, in general. It’s still a horror movie, but there’s a fair amount here to satiate anyone who is just a simple fan of movies. The acting is convincing across the board. The plot is easy to follow. The pacing keeps things interesting to the point that you feel like you’ve gone on a long, great adventure without giving up too much of your time. The action is exciting and satisfying. The music is spectacular. Even if you’re not a huge fan of horror, Jaws comes highly recommended.

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