289, Jaws; movie review

JAWS

Cert 12A

124 mins

BBFC advice: Contains moderate threat and occasional gory moments

I see it almost every year but the best praise I can give to Jaws is that, despite the rubbery shark, it never gets old.

I reprise a 2012 review to go with its 2022 re-release because

"To understand (my relationship with) Jaws, you have to be transported back to the year 1975. I was 12 years old and I wasn't the bravest. Jaws was at the cinema and people were frightened. 

Now I know this sounds unlikely, especially if, like us, you've seen the big old shark in its rubbery glory at Universal Studios in Florida or Los Angeles, but this, at the time, was the scariest movie ever made. 

My mates queued around the block to see what all the fuss was about and came back from the pictures a sickly shade of green. 

There was talk of people passing out or puking in the cinema. I didn't go. It seems lily-livered but I just knew I would have been one of the kids who were throwing up. 

Move to the present day and Jaws is back on the big screen - and do you know what? It is still brilliant. And that is the magic of Steven Spielberg. 

The films he has directed have the uncanny knack of passing the test of time. Look at ET, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Saving Private Ryan or Schindler's List - only Scorsese comes close to having a back catalogue which feels as fresh now as when it was made. 

I'm convinced that if you saw Jaws for the first time now you would be leaping from your seat (despite, having seen it at least five times, I still jumped at one scene). 

As with most horror films, the more you see the less effective it is - so the scenes with the shark itself aren't as dramatic as the building of the fear which comes before it.

And again, that is typical of Spielberg. He is far from just a special effects director in the way that someone like George Lucas is. He knew Jaws needed a proper story and a top cast. 

Thus, we have a fraught police chief ( played so expertly by Roy Scheider), a frazzled know-it-all ocean expert (Richard Dreyfuss) and the wizened old sea dog (Robert Shaw). 

The exploration of their characters adds a depth to the movie (I didn't realise until today that Shaw's monologue about the Second World War ship Indianapolis being torpedoed and many of the crew being eaten by sharks was true). 

Jaws also needed the over-the-top villain (I'm not talking about the shark, I'm referring to the mad mayor (Murray Hamilton) in his jacket festooned with anchor logos). 

And, of course, a Spielberg film would not be a Spielberg film without a magnificent John Williams classic soundtrack. Isn't it amazing that, after all these years, we can all hum the Jaws tune and those from Indiana Jones and ET? 

I could go on and on and on. Jaws is a sensational movie - as much now as it was in 1975."

Reasons to watch: A Spielberg classic

Reasons to avoid: Gory scenes

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: very briefly

Overall rating: 10/10

Did you know? Jaws by author Peter Benchley was inspired by a lifelong interest in sharks, especially a 1964 story about a fisherman named Frank Mundus who caught a two-ton great white shark off the shore of Montauk, New York. The book was on the bestseller list for 44 weeks, making it an obvious choice for a movie adaptation.

The final word. Richard Dreyfuss: "It only took a few weeks into production to realise that Steven was a genius and he was going to change the world.” 

 

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