Sometimes a movie is more than just a movie. Sometimes a movie takes you to another place, takes you back to memories and feelings, just makes you happy. For me, Jaws is one of those movies. Whenever I think about it, or watch it, I go back to high school, to the late nights of sitting in front of my computer trying to make Adobe Premier edit the way I wanted it to. Laughing with my friend and watching Jaws over and over again because for some reason whenever we were together editing TNT would decide to air it multiple times in the same evening. And we always missed that one line “We’re going to need a bigger boat” because we either tuned in too late, turned it off too soon, had the TV on mute to hear something in our film, or some other random event.

I love Jaws because I have watched it countless times at 3 am. I love it for its fun, I love it for its camp, and I love it because I can relate to it as a filmmaker. It makes me think of a young Spielberg, a guy just trying to make his movie and trying to explore the medium. Unlike a lot of his more recent works, big budget Hollywood films that do the same boring thing over and over again, you can see in Jaws the work of someone who was still willing to explore, still trying new things. You can see the work of a young guy who still made mistakes. I love Jaws for all of the things that went wrong.

Jaws is about that giant great white shark swimming off of Amity Island’s beaches, eating up the hapless tourists and the occasional unlucky local. Three men, the sheriff, the scientist, and the fisherman, band together to hunt the menace. The film starts out building the tension, we know the water isn’t safe and watching the people continue to enter it makes us nervous and afraid. You never know when the shark will bite. And once the chase begins the action and pacing steadily increases until we reach the exciting climax and final confrontation.

The heroes of the film make an unlikely trio and Jaws makes an unlikely buddy flick. Really, for an action flick there’s a lot going on. There’s personal trauma, family drama, criticism of weak politicians. And there is actually a satisfying amount of character development. We get to know all of the main characters well. For Brody, the sheriff, we get a real sense of his relationship with his family and his sense of duty to the town. Hooper, the scientist, is the quintessential idealistic young scientist. He’s excited, he’s respectful of nature, and he’s utterly adorable. Quint, the fisherman, is the perfect crazy loner. If Hooper respects nature, Quint understands it.

There’s also blood. It’s really not horribly gory but there is enough for me. I actually really love the effects for this movie and I think it holds up perfectly well. I mean, sure Bruce is obviously a giant, fake, mechanical shark. But dude. Jar Jar Binks is obviously a giant, fake, CGI annoyance. I like Bruce better. Honestly, I’ll take puppets, animatronics, whatever, over bad CGI any day. A bit of suspension of disbelief is required but I think that by the time we actually see a significant amount of the shark, we’re so drawn in that the fakeness doesn’t really matter.

Sometimes mistakes are miracles. If Bruce had actually worked, hadn’t been constantly breaking down, Jaws wouldn’t be the masterpiece of suspense that it is. What makes it so perfect is how little we actually see that shark. Our minds are usually more effective than special effects in creating terror. Give us a hint and we’ll run with it. Give us the entire thing and there’s nothing left for us to do.

One thing I really don’t understand though, what’s up with the new DVD? They just released a Special Anniversary Edition five years ago. Was it really necessary to do a 30th Anniversary one as well? I don’t really think so… But I guess I’m not the one making the money off of it so there is always that. Can we say greed?

Okay, deep breathe, I will not allow greediness to spoil my love of this great, innovative film. And it really is innovative. Watch the camera work, pay attention to the pacing, listen to the music. Spielberg is able to find the perfect formula for the entertaining yet not completely intellectually devoid action and suspense film. There’s clever writing, there’s excellent acting, and there’s solid camera work. See, this film proves that a certain amount of depth is possible in this genre.

So what’s my favorite part of this movie? Ha, there’s no one. I love anything to do with Hooper. I love the fountain of blood with the pin-wheeling raft. I love the drunken singing. I love Quint. Hell, it’s even one of the times that Spielberg’s sappy ending doesn’t bother me. Maybe because it’s not completely happy. And maybe because it’s also not completely predictable.

Another memory. 2 am, summer after I graduated from high school, a group of friends sitting on the beach, someone starts to sing.

“Show me the way to go home, I’m tired and I wanna go to bed, I had a little drink about an hour ago and it went straight to my head, where ever I may roam, bum bum, by land or sea or foam, wherever I go I’ll be singing this song, show me the way to go home…”

Jaws: One of the best American Summer Cinema has to offer.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening