It's a hot summer on Amity Island, a small community whose main business is its beaches. When new Sheriff Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) discovers the remains of a shark attack victim, his first inclination is to close the beaches to swimmers. This doesn't sit well with Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) and several of the local businessmen. Brody reluctantly acquiesces to his regret as that weekend a small boy is killed by the predator. The dead boy's mother, Mrs. Kintner (Lee Fierro) confronts Brody and then they put out a bounty on the shark, and Amity is soon swamped with amateur hunters and fishermen hoping to cash in on the reward. A local fisherman with much experience hunting sharks, Quint (Robert Shaw), offers to hunt down the creature for a hefty fee. Soon Quint, Brody and Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) from the Oceanigraphic Institute are at sea hunting the Great White shark. As Brody succinctly surmises after their first encounter with the creature, he then so eloquently pulls out the iconic line, "You're gonna need a bigger boat".
Others to round out the cast are Lorraine Gary as Ellen Brody, Martin's wife, Carl Gottlieb as Meadows, Jeffrey Kramer as Deputy Hendricks, Susan Blacklinie as Chrissie, Jonathan Filley as Cassidy, Chris Rebello as Michael Brody, Martin and Ellen's son and Jay Mello as Sean Brody, Martin and Ellen's other son.
This was delineated extremely well by director Steven Spielberg ("Duel" (TV movie) '71, "The Sugarland Express" '74, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" '77, "1941" '79, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" '81, "E.T. the Extra-Terrestial" '82, "The Color Purple" '85, "Hook" '91, "Jurassic Park" '93, "Schindler's List" '93, "Amistad" '97, "Saving Private Ryan" '98, "Minority Report" '02, "The Terminal" '94, "Munich" '05, "War Horse" '11, "Lincoln" '12, "The BPG" '16, "Ready Player One" '18, "West Side Story" '21) plus many others, TV and shorts. Ever since "Jaws" was released, this filmmaker cannot be stopped. He has helmed one hit after another with consistency that simply amazes. He knows every nuance of filmmaking and what it takes to encourage his actors to emit a certain emotion that makes that character come to life. If you can appreciate this director's talent, and who can't, his "The Fabelmans" has been completed for a 2022 release. It was deftly written by Peter Benchley ("Jeremiah of Jacob's Neck" (TV movie) '76, "The Deep" '77, "The Island" '80) plus TV and shorts and Carl Gottlieb ("Pat Paulsen for President" (TV movie) '68, "A Session with the Committee" (documentary) '69, "Which Way Is Up?" '77, "Jaws 2" '78, "The Jerk" '79, "Caveman" '81, "Doctor Detroit" '83, "Jaws 3-D" '83) plus TV, other TV movies and shorts, based on the novel by Peter Benchley. Even though these writers have more TV and shorts experience, it truly helps to have the novelist as a screenwriter as well, especially when so many novelists are not screenwriters and visa versa. The build up of this story of a small island community being terrorized by this predator was pure genius, and that iconic score by the consummate John Williams made one want to jump out of their seats. This is the quintessential summer flick if there ever was one. The entire production team was strategically put together including Williams' score, Verna Fields' amazing editing, Bill Butler's definitive cinematography, and the three lead actors, Scheider, Shaw and Dreyfuss. This film had it all!
As mentioned earlier, this was presented in either Real 3-D or IMAX, and even though I saw in the 3D, I'm sure IMAX would've been killer. Either, way, if you haven't seen this on the large screen recently or especially not at all, go see this gem before it's yanked, because it won't be around very much longer. Grab the popcorn--it's a nail-biter!
Out of 4 Stars: 4 Rated: PG 124mins.
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