The Movie: Jaws (1975)
What Is It?:
Steven Spielberg employed special effects to thrill audiences
and drew record-breaking revenue, but its thrills do not make Jaws any less thoughtful or its characters
any less complex. And after the kills have lost their shock value with repeated
viewings and sophisticated contemporary special effects have rendered “Bruce”
the Shark somewhat less realistic, Jaws
continues to work wonderfully as a character piece. And what characters it has!
Roy Scheider as the conflicted police chief; Richard Dreyfuss as the smart but
inexperienced rich kid with an arsenal of shark-finding technology; Robert Shaw
as the salty, glib sea captain who has seen more than his share of horror. His
account of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the feeding frenzy that
followed may be cinema’s most spellbinding monologue.
Why Today?: The 4th
of July is when the shark goes on an all-out frenzy.
