Jaws (1975)
If you want to survive Fishing Season, don't go in the water.
Summer is here, and the heat’s come with it. It’s a bit early to be the 36 year anniversary mark, but I got to thinking about swimming pools the other day. Ask someone from my generation about swimming pools, and they’ll tell you about pools aren’t safe from impossibly large sharks. That’s right, another “how has he not done this” review, one that nobody even needs to read or hear because I don’t think there’s a person whose not seen it or heard of it. There’s blood in the water so you better scream shark! Tonight we look at Jaws.
I can’t believe this movie doesn’t bear the tag for horror - but maybe that’s just a sign of the time it came out much like the PG rating. Our story as anyone would remember it is very simple and one note - killer shark. The story after you’ve watched it numerous times and have grown old enough to get over the fear of a giant shark eating you in the pool, tub, or moderate sized puddle gains a few more facets to it. It’s summer time on a island town, and they are gearing up for money season - that is the fourth of July holiday where they make their most money from tourists looking to hit up those sweet, sweet beaches. Humans aren’t the only tourists, and the town is soon under the grips of fear from a predatory fish terrorizing their waters. The head policeman - our lead -wants to shut the beaches down, to him it’s a straightforward story of keeping people safe. The mayor and town board, on the other hand, are more worried about the town and the economical impact it would have should their main revenue stream dry up. As things slowly crescendo into a situation that cannot be ignored, a lone crew of would-be shark hunters sets out to free the town from it’s watery curse.
Now, right in that description you get what I mean about the story developing. As a kid, it was all about the shark - and to some extent, that’s still true as an adult, particularly with the shark’s progression throughout the film. What you don’t notice nearly as much is the power play of group ethics, financial burdens, and an almost “us or them” attitude. Everyone is the bad guy here to some degree - the mayor for risking lives of everyone to keep safe the financial lives of the inhabitants. The law for only thinking about the short term life-saving and danger. The shark hunter for being overly confident. The shark for being hungry. Really, each has it’s good sides too - the mayor is looking out for the livelihood of the entire town - if you don’t make money, then people can’t put bread on the table. The law wants folks to not get ate - which is the most obvious good guy thing around. The shark hunter want’s a sweat trophy and some reimbursement for putting his skills to good use even though nobody listened to him in the first place. The shark is a shark - it’s just doing it’s natural thing. At least, that is until the shark progresses from normal natural threat at the start of the movie to it’s more leveled up demon-mode variant at the end of the movie. Who knew eating rando swimmers and flotation devices carried so much experience with it?
Now, the actors do a lot to convey a lot of things here. Sometimes it’s not always the most Oscar-winning or straight-laced performance, but all the adults here do a good job at their role. You end up not liking the mayor, because he’s so stuck up on money. You feel for the stress the law is under, or the terror someone has when they realize just what they are dealing with. The kids… well, that’s not as good, but this is back before the heyday of child actors that we get these days. Also to be noted though - kid’s aren’t a huge main character focus in this, and are mostly just emotional fodder slapped around the screen, so the fact they aren’t walking home with little golden statues bigger then they are isn’t so much a big deal in context. The shark, when we finally get it, is actually a pretty horrible actor - but the thing is used more like a set piece then it is an actual character. It crops up for an attack here and there, mostly being obscured by water and giving you just the tip of visibility, but when it comes to the breadth of things it does it also isn’t really up to today’s animatronics or even CG creatures. Since I’m talking about it, we might as well transition into the effects.
You have the music in your head now. You are most welcome.
See, the shark doesn’t look bad. It actually looks quite fine most every time you see it, sometimes even being absolutely perfect for what the shot needs. The fact the shark was such a bad actor might actually be a blessing here - the darn thing constantly broke during production, so they had to do a lot of shooting around the inconsistent performance of the machine. What this ends up doing is making it feel like the only shots you really get of the shark are actually the best ones - and the rather lifeless feeling of the thing only furthers it’s demonization by the end of the movie. In fact, it did such a good job of this that it caused a lot of problems for real world sharks - and if people are so horrified of a good looking sock puppet, so much so that it causes the loss of plenty of shark lives - then I don’t think there’s any way I can spin that the shark didn’t do it’s job. Now, sure, some of the shots are live sharks - the particularly brutal barrel roll the shark is doing at one point while stuck on some wires must have been rather terrifying to be filming - and those are all convincingly real because, well, they are. The fact that the shark is a physical prop also means that the acting involved around it gets to feel that much more rooted because if they turn and react to a giant shark head that just popped up - said giant shark head is actually there. The other key to terrifying everyone is the more destructive aspects - plenty of blood to amp up the horror of dinner time, some absolute boat wreckage, some prop corpses or body parts that are convincing enough - especially for the time -and even some explosions.
And that’s not even to mention that the thing feels like an actual setting. Sure, by the time the shark is actively and consciously trying to outplay the hunters in some sadistic game of cat and mouse, you might not be feeling like this happened to your neighbors down the street - but even then it’ll hit hard those moments that are believable. The hunter’s story about about the military ship sinking and dealing with sharks is haunting enough, but then the similarities the movie’s shark attacks share with the real world Jersey Beach attacks only further kicks the spook in. I mean, let’s just lay it down here - there’s a lot of stuff in this movie that can be considered horrifying, even when the movie might be getting a bit cheesy or unbelievable. Throwing back to the acting, a good amount of it can be throw to the actors - when it feels like even the supposedly hardened characters are silently crapping their pants and doing a bad job of covering up the fact that’s what’s happening - well, it’s quite effective.
Wait, there’s more! Did you really think I could go this entire thing with mentioning the theme? We constantly have to put up with me making comments about how music doesn’t stick around in my head with most the movies I see. Well let me tell you what, I don’t remember a time I don’t know the jaws theme. Heck, I’d wager most people who haven’t even seen the movie probably know that theme and where it’s from. The music, in particular the main theme, is so much more effective then it’s simple notes would imply, and does wonderful at fueling tensions. Yes, the rest of the music does its job and fades away to me, but it just goes to show you how effective a simple song used at the right times with the right footage can be. You can’t hear those duns from an underwater perspective without knowing something bad is about to go down. That said, you’d be surprised to find how under-stated it’s played in the movie, never overshadowing the action and other sound on the screen, sitting at just the volume needed to be most effective.
Feed me Semour!
I shouldn’t have to tell you that it’s probably worth checking out the movie that made summer blockbusters a thing. Now that there’s a 4k release, it looks better than ever - at least on home formats. You might want to make sure it’s acceptable to your sensibilities before showing it to your kids unless you want to fight over bath time in the future though. Spielberg knows how to make a movie, even if it’s about a giant malfunctioning shark prop attacking a towns wallet and lives.