Jaws
Actors: Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider
Release Date: Monday 30th November -0001
Running time: 124 minutes
A while back I took a bunch of flak on this site for my four star review of Back to the Future; "Why wasn't it five" people cried, "so Kick Ass is a better film, then?" Well, yeah it is. But anyway, while I loved BTTF, it was never a five star film. All these years later, another digitally remastered release from the same studio, Jaws, still is.
A big shark swans about east coast and chows down on some floating innocents. A wily local police chief (a perfectly cast Roy Scheider) figures out what's going on sharpish, and sets about trying to convince the local mayor - who refuses to shut down the popular beaches. As the body count rises, the chief must take matters into his own hands - utilising the skills of a master fisherman and hunter (a superb Robert Shaw) and a smart, enthusiastic marine biologist (Speilberg's favourite everyman, Richard Dreyfus).
It says something, that when looking back at the long and plaudit-saturated career of Steven Spielberg, Jaws stands out as arguably his finest work. Only his second film as a director, it not only works almost flawlessly from an execution point of view, it was seminal almost beyond articulation.
Not rereleased in 3D, but rather a very clean, pristine new digital format - ala recent Universal titles Jurassic Park and BTTF - it still works extraordinarily well on the big screen. The tension is there in abundance, and THAT score has to be the most iconic in film history - start humming it next time you go swimming, people will still shit themselves.
The original blockbuster and a genuine, bonafide classic.
