Recommendation: 4/5 SHOWTIME  

Plot: “When a killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community off Cape Cod, it’s up to a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down.”

Review: As the first few notes of one of the most famous songs in the history of cinema filled the theater, I knew I was in for a special treat. As John William’s genius work delivered us to an innocent beach party, a smile creeped across my face. Any frustration over accidentally purchasing a 3-D ticket melted away. On this warm September Sunday, I would collect another cinematic experience that has been missing from cinephile history for far too long. On this day, I would finally see Jaws on the big screen.  

This film wastes no time injecting tension, mystery, intrigue, and a sinister feeling of danger into the veins of the audience. Thrown into chaos after the death of a young woman who went for a late-night swim, we and a summer resort town are about to change forever.   

In that chaos, there is a powerful lesson to be learned. All politics is local. In these times in which we find ourselves, this is an important lesson to remember. Fearful of closing the beaches, local leaders choose the economy over people. By doing so, they endanger the lives of countless people. Having lived through the COVID-19 pandemic, these cinematic choices hit closest to home. As the mob drowns out voices of reason, I realized this would not be the cinematic escape I intended.  

With false assurances and half-baked measures at safety, citizens and tourists return to the beaches and swim in the ocean. Misguided and public pressure leads to nervous steps back into the water. Knowing what is lurking in the shallow reaches, the filmmakers turn the tension all the way up. False sightings and shaky nerves send people fleeing for safety. In the anxiety of that moment, we get our first glimpse of the creature sowing panic on the shoreline. He was bigger and more ominous than I imagined, which makes the last act of this movie even more terrifying.  

The final third of this film focuses on hunting the beast down and killing it. On an old rickety boat, a local sheriff (Brody played by Roy Scheider), a marine biologist (Hooper played by Richard Dreyfuss), and a man of the sea (Quint played by Robert Shaw) find themselves armed with countless gadgets and years of seafaring knowledge. As they plow forward, I honestly did not know if it would be enough. In quiet moments on the boat, the director, Steven Spielberg, uses sound brilliantly to push the tension as high as possible.  

When a fin is finally spotted, the team launches into an assault of barrels, bullets, and brains to bring it down. The beast is not going quietly. After a full day of tracking the shark, our three characters find themselves collected around the dinner table trading war stories and comparing scars. In this moment of fellowship, Quint shares a story which perfectly delivers us to the next day’s battle with the creature of the sea.  

As the last attempts to kill the shark played out before me, I knew some of the crew members would not be there at the end. I also feared a sea sprayed with red. Arriving at the moment is not something I am going to spoil here. Instead, I will say that the ending scenes left me floored and engrossed. Never have I seen such a spectacle. I am so appreciative that I finally got to see this movie as intended, but also a little sad that it took me this long.  

Be good to each other,  

Nathan