Tuesday, October 07, 2014

Jaws

(1975) ****1/2

The beach town of Amity is preparing for a busy and profitable summer. Unfortunately, a series of shark attacks threatens the safety of inhabitants and vacationers alike.  The chief of police and mayor disagree about whether to close the beaches, which leads to more attacks.  Unwilling to keep losing revenue, the town eventually agrees to hire someone to hunt down the killer.

Such a satisfying movie, I hadn't ever seen the whole thing before.  Loved the acting, loved the shots of Martha's Vineyard in the seventies, loved the epic ocean battle with the shark. I'm pretty sure if I had seen this in the theater as a kid, I would have been too afraid to go in the ocean for years. Others have written about how you don't see much of the shark at all, but I hadn't realized you don't see as much as a fin for that first hour, and the film is no less suspenseful and scary for that restraint.

5 comments:

Landshark said...

So good. Nice one to finally check off your list!

Catfreeek said...

Great film, excellent review.

Trevor said...

It's funny. The latest Godzilla movie took the same approach - don't show the monster to build up the suspense. And yet, what worked so well in Jaws was much less successful in Godzilla.

After seeing this as a kid, I even got nervous in swimming pools.

DKC said...

Yeah! I love, love this movie. Desroc had that exact reaction as a kid, AC. Saw the movie and was pretty freaked about swimming off the coast of MA.

Johnny Sweatpants said...

I love it too but every time I see it I get slightly more irritated with the mayor.

Malevolent

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