Starring: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss
Whilst preparing for the Independence Day flood of tourists, the tranquil calm of the coastal town of Amity is shattered by the presence of a large shark stalking the coastline, claiming victims in a series of vicious attacks. Local police officer Martin Brody (Scheider) takes out a boat with a shark specialist (Dreyfuss) and an experienced sailor (Shaw) to kill the shark.
Adapted from a novel by Peter Benchley, Jaws made an impact nearly unparalleled in motion pictures. The film started a wave (no pun intended) of animal-based horror films (most notably the Jaws cash-in Piranha (1978)) pioneered the notion of the summer blockbuster and provided the breakthrough success of Steven Spielberg. A film that combines elements of Alfred Hitchcock and Moby Dick, Jaws is much rougher than the relatively tame certificate and the, rather unjust, cuddly reputation of Spielberg would suggest. Tense and violent, the film pulls few punches on the violence front (this is one of the few, at least mainstream, horror films in which a child is not only injured, but killed and in rather gory fashion) and provides three great lead performances, especially Englishman Robert Shaw as salty sea dog Quint, near unrecognisable next to Shaw’s previous role as big blonde psychopath Red Grant in the James Bond film, From Russia With Love (1963). All of this brought to the fore by an unforgettable John Williams score. Duh…DUM!
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