Jaws, A Review

Steven Spielberg, 1975

---

" Well, this is not a boat accident! It wasn't any propeller, it wasn't any coral reef, and it wasn't Jack the Ripper! It was a shark. "

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

---

As we were sitting in the car at the drive-in I asked my husband "do you think Jaws is a horror film?" and without hesitation, "no." But I thought about it for a little longer and I definitely think that it is. Not overt horror, it's more the kind of horror that can be sold as thriller for the sake of audience numbers and awards seasons. The themes of horror are there though. Suspense, dread, predatory enemy, scenarios of threat at the hands of an unrelenting enemy. It's all there. And, for added measure, moments of quiet terror where we lean in to listen to a scary story. "Lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes..."

I know Jaws. It's a classic film that everyone can quote, or mimic the classic theme tune of watery death. But it's one of those movies where I can reference it till my last breath, yet until recently had never seen from beginning to end. So when the opportunity to go the drive-in movie theatre, another first for me, I jumped at it.

The story around Jaws is interesting. Peter Benchley's novel, on which the film is based, is disliked by it's author. Rightly so, as the story is in part to blame for the fear of sharks and senseless killing of so many of these important ocean creatures. And I can't get into the whole Joe Hill and the Lady of the Dunes theory here, because this is a film review, not an unsolved mystery post.

I thought Jaws was really funny, in an appropriate way. The characters were all realistic and natural seeming, probably in part to the dialogue being exceptionally well written. Badly written dialogue is one of my pet peeves in a movie, so I notice good and bad examples straight away.

The plot, which everyone knows, is actually really sad. I was sad for the shark. "Poor Jaws", we kept saying every time he got harpooned. He's just a shark, doing his shark things. But where I can bring in my modern knowledge that sharks do not intentionally attack or feed on humans, I suppose this wasn't the way they were seen previously.

Definitely a recommendation from me, especially as it is a classic film. Just bulks up your pop culture knowledge to that extra level, from general to "unnecessarily in depth and kind of annoying".