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Jaws
Der Weisse Hai / Stillness in the Water
USA 1975
produced by David Brown, Richard D. Zanuck for Zanuck/Brown Productions, Universal
directed by Steven Spielberg
starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Carl Gottlieb, Jeffrey Kramer, Susan Backlinie, Jonathan Filley, Ted Grossman, Chris Rebello, Jay Mello, Lee Fierro, Jeffrey Voorhees, Craig Kingsbury, Robert Nevin, Peter Benchley
screenplay by Peter Benchley, Carl Gottlieb, based on the novel by Peter Benchley, music by John Williams, special effects by Robert A. Mattey
Jaws
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Sheriff Brody (Roy Scheider) has only recently moved from New York City
to Amityville, a tourist island off the Florida coast, with his family
(Lorraine Gary, Chris Rebello, Jay Mello) to get away from all the dangers
of big city life - but then on the beach a mutilated corpse of a girl is
found, rather obviously the victim of a shark attack. Brody wants to close
up all the beaches until the beast is caught, but the greedy mayor (Murray
Hamilton) fearing for the tourist Dollar in the wake of the island's 4th
of July celebrations talks him out of it. And then a boy is devoured by a
shark in the middle of the day, not far from the beach and in everyone's
sight. Again, Brody wants to close all the beaches, but the mayor is
having none of it, but organizes a big shark search offering a reward. And
with dozens of boats out on sea, one's just bound to catch a shark - and
one does, and everybody's so happy and proud ... everybody but marine
biologist Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), who argues the radius of the captured
and killed shark's jaw is to small to have inflicted the injuries of the
girl. Of course, everybody wants to get on with the celebrations, so
nobody - but Brody - listens to Hooper. But then, on 4th of July, the
shark shows up again, kills someone in plain sight, and proves to be a big
white one. Now even the mayor can't deny Brody his wish to close the
beaches anymore, but Brody also intends to go on the offensive, as he
hires shark hunter and all-around tough guy Quint (Robert Shaw) to track
down and kill the big white one, and he and Hooper accompany him on his
boat - even though he has many reservations against young and brainy
Hooper, who he thinks still has to prove himself as a man. But as Hooper
knows how to behave on a boat, he and Quint soon warm up to one another,
and between the three of them, they manage to track down the shark and
even attract it to their boat. But said shark isn't exactly a
light-weight, and he goes on the offensive against our heroes, damaging
the boat more and more in the process - and eventually, Quint has to admit
that it needs more than just a man to kill that particular shark, and now
Hooper takes over with his much more scientific methods. Ultimately
though, while Quint is allowed to die the hero's death, Brody, who has
always hated the sea, is the one who gets to blow up the shark as some
sort of redemption or stuff. In times like these it's almost
unfathomable there's anything but playing in the cinemas, but back in
1975, Jaws was one of the very first blockbusters, and it pretty
much laid the groundwork of things to come - and not only in a good way. Now
basically, Jaws has many an iconic scene, it's very well made and
well played, and the Jaws theme is so captivating that one tends to
forget the rest of John Williams' score is rather bland. And Steven
Spielberg, who has with this one latest turned away from his New
Hollywood roots, sure knows how to create suspense and shocks - but
frankly he proves himself more of a craftsman in that aspect, rather than
a visionary like Alfred Hitchcock. As the whole thing actually seems
rather crafted: The script is formulaic as hell, hardly any of the
characters apart from Brody show any depth (with Robert Shaw's Quint being
an especially crude caricature of a seafaring man) and many situations
seem incredibly forced - some cringeworthily so, like when Quint and
Hooper compare scars to prove one another they're real men. And all of
this is really what plagues blockbusters to this day (though of course
there are many exceptions), well-crafted pieces of genre entertainment
made after a (well-documented) formula that look great but feel bland. And
I don't even want to pan Jaws, it does have its moments, but just
because it was one of the first blockbusters back in its day doesn't make
it especially special.
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