JAWS – Retrospect

Summer has started months ago. There is one tradition that I do this time of the year as a personal way of kicking off the best season of the year and that is, I watch the Classic film Jaws. When you think of the 1970′s, many things come to mind. Such as the Vietnam war, pet rocks, hot rods, cool music (well, some of it was), horrible fashions and hair. There was also some of the Best films we’ve ever made come out of the 70′s: The Godfather, The Exorcist, Star Wars, Satuday Night Fever, Grease and many others. However, there is one that started the trend of Summer Block Busters that was a little film about a big, big shark. That Classic film is Jaws.

When I think of Jaws I think of exactly where I was and when I first seen it. For some reason it sticks in my head better than when I’ve seen other films. It was my first film I ever seen. I was very little, at the Drive-In in Long Island, NY. I can remember eating Sweet Tarts candy & the song “Listen to what the man said” by Wings was on the radio. I don’t remember the film too much because I was so young, but I do remember the amazing ending. It would be years later before I knew the film like the back of my hand, but back then I had the Iron-on T-shirt and the Jaws game. It was the best game I ever owned because it was this big plastic shark with odd things like tires, lanterns, shoe and so forth & you had to use this long hook to get the objects out or the mouth slammed shut on you. I loved that game! I jumped every time the mouth slammed shut.

There are SO many great films in our lifetime, but to me, there are only a handfull of “Immaculate” films. Absolutely PERFECT, flawless, & untouchable. Not one single thing wrong with it. Jaws, to me, is one of those films. A young Steven Spielberg landed on the map of stardom with that summer hit & he’s never left. He broke the rules and had more headaches than any filmmaker at the time while shooting Jaws, but in the end it paid off … big time! Still concidered one of the Best films of all time, Jaws can be found on every Top 20 list of films as far as Best films of all time, Best Horror film, Meanest bad guy (or animal in this case) and many other Top Lists.

By now, we all know the classic story of a very large Great White shark terrorizing off shore of the little island of Amity. Once the body count starts to add up, Chief of Police, Chief Brody hires local bad-ass fisherman Quint to kill the shark. With Matt Hooper on board to help from the Oceanography Institute, they set out on Quint’s boat, the Orca and find themselves in a living nightmare. With powerful performances by all and an “explosive” ending, Jaws became an instant classic. Selling out theaters one show after another.

What Hitchcock did for showers in Psycho, Spielberg did for the ocean with sharks. With the Best tag line for any film “Just when you thought it was safe to go into the water…”, you can’t tell me that there is not anyone in the world that goes to the beach and not think of that film at least once. Sometimes more than that. The cast was top notch: Roy Sheider, Richard Dreyfuss and the amazing performance of Robert Shaw as Quint. That was my favorite character because he was just so bad-ass, he wasn’t afraid of nothing until he met his final match.

Some of the best lines of that film; “…For that you get the head, the tale, the whole damn thing..”, “..Smile you son-of-a-bitch!” and the ultimate line from any film “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.” Even though I’ve seen this film (literally) over 100 times easy, I still get scared or at least jump! when that head pop’s out of Ben Gardener’s boat. There are so many classic scenes in the film, but my favorite goes to the scene when Quint finally get’s eaten by the shark. It’s gross, terrirfying, & yet sad cause Quint was so tough during the whole film, he really looks scared and knows he’s done for as he get’s eaten. A scene that’s hard to watch, but powerful as well. And you can’t not mention the music of Jaws. John Williams has done so many classic pieces of music for some of the Best films in history (E.T., Jurassic Park, Star Wars, … ) and the classic theme to Jaws that just by those first few notes you know right away what it is & that trouble is coming.

Of course there were sequels. Jaws 2 was watchable, but they tried to capture lightning in a bottle twice. Jaws 3 and Jaws 4 were horrible. Not to mention laughable. There are rumors that there maybe a remake. All I can say is, that would be the worst idea in Hollywood history! In the meantime, if you get the chance, pop Jaws into your DVD player and remind yourself of why we love summer and movies so much!