Jaws (1975)

STAY OUT OF THE WATER YOU FOOLS!

Starring: Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfus.

What a classic, in my personal opinion it has to be Spielbergs best! So what if he called the shark a weighty turd, apparently it kept sinking whilst filming, but I bet you everyone who has ever watched a film in their life has heard of Jaws if not seen it and can probably quote lines from it...'Smile you son of a b@*ch!' Classic, classic, classic.

So, if you have lived under a rock or you are not old enough to have yet heard of the awesome film that is Jaws, I will tell you in brief what all the fuss is about.

Basically, this is your classic (sorry, I am wearing that word out a little), horror film. You have your monster, here it is a 25 foot great white shark, or in Latin Carcharadon carcharias ( just showing off...I like sharks!). Then you have all the vulnerable people who are prey for the monster, here it is all the stupid, stupid people who just keep going into the water when they know there is a shark cruising for its lunch.

Jaws is set on Amity island, which up until now was a very quiet and peaceful island that made most of it's income from the summer tourism. But ha ha, there is a rogue shark stalking the waters to shake things up a bit, it has already killed one drunk hippie which Chief Brody (Schieder) is going to have the pleasure of finding washed up in pieces on the beach.

Get this, Brody and his family moved to this island away from New York for the peaceful life and because Brody is afraid of water! We watch as Brody goes about his duties whilst trying to sound the alarm that there might be a giant predator in the waters eating the summer income and towns folk. It is only until a little boy is killed, and a dog called Pippin, but nobody cares about that, that people start to take notice. Oh, and Chief Brody gets a slap off the boys mother! Ouch.

So, a professional fisherman by the name of Quint is hired to catch the shark for $10.000. (cover your ears when he scrapes his nails down the blackboard!) Meanwhile a swimming instructor gets eaten, Chief Brody's son has a close encounter and people try to catch the shark to claim the reward that has been put on its head, or fins, for themselves.

An expert is called, que Hooper (Dreyfus), a marine biologist who specialises in sharks. He tries in vain to help Brody close the beaches, cuts open a tiger shark carcass...yuck, has a scare at night whilst looking for the rogue shark...nutter, until finally he decides to join Quint out on the Aurora (a boat) to catch the blighter. Somehow they persuade the Chief to tag along with them.

This is where the film really picks up pace. Out on the Aurora they find the shark, which for some reason decided to follow them rather than eating the towns folk, though I suppose no body is going in the water now. It follows them relentlessly, they tag it with barrels, to stop it from diving, they throw chum at it to attract its attention, they watch it from a metal cage and they sing to it...No they don't, but they might as well, because everything they do has no real effect, because the end shows the boat sinking and one of the characters dies...Gets eaten of course.

Que the classic (there's that word again), line from Brody 'Smile you son of a b@*ch!' and all is safe and well again.

This film is brilliant for the seventies, ok the shark looks a little bit plastic at times, ok all the time, but it still had a scare factor. The film did spark a number of phobias for water in many people around the world, although on a downside it also sparked an increase in shark hunting. Yet I am not going to ramble about that as that is another story, the film is awesome!!!

If you hear that dreaded music you know exactly what film it came from instantly...great!