Every shark movie after this (except for Deep Blue Sea) is a felony.
Wow. Talk about captivating. Spielberg was at the top of his game here with this movie that cost $9 million and made over $470 million. It was also responsible for introducing the idea of summer blockbuster releases, as the movie was shown in over 450 screens, accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign.
The movie is based on a novel of the same name by Peter Benchley, but Spielberg focused on the main theme, the shark, removing all the other subplots.
Shot mostly on location in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, the film had a troubled production, mostly due to the mechanical shark’s malfunctions. It also overran its budget and schedule. Some believe these are reasons Spielberg opted out of being involved in Jaws 2.
The movie plot was thus: during summer break, some teens were having a night party on the fictional Atlantic resort, Amity Island.
One of the girls went skinny-dipping while her friends continued to party on the beach. While waiting for a boy to come join her, she got pulled under by something that leaves only you, the viewer, with the idea that death came.
When pieces of her body washed ashore, Police Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) feared it was a shark attack and wanted to close the beach for the town’s safety. But Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) disagreed. His point was that the town's people survived mainly on tourist trade, and the July 4th holiday was approaching, so he refused to close the beach.
He soon changed his mind after a boy and a man also died from a shark attack. He then decided to hire Quint (Robert Shaw), the only local fisherman willing to take on a Great White.
The movie did well in the way it crafted its suspense, which makes you sit through its captivating play on your mind. There are online notable issues with the movie's physics like shark movement and others, but for the average movie goer you will not notice any of that.
The actors did a good job in managing to keep the suspense going, but the movie spent too much time building on the characters and on land, than it did where the action really happened, which lead to some uneven pacing.
The movie score is something that will stick with you, and it resembled the kind used by classic thriller director Alfred Hitchcock.
To overcome some of the difficulties, Spielberg mostly used an ominous, minimalistic theme created by composer John Williams to indicate the shark's impending appearances.
Jaws had three sequels, none with the participation of Spielberg or Benchley.
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