There have been a vast amount of films dealing with sharks (71 that I’m aware of). Of course most recently, it was a plethora of Sharknado films.

Finding Nemo was a cute film, released by Walt Disney Productions and the animation was done by Pixar. It won an Academy Award for Best Animation and was the second highest grossing movie in 2003 ($871 million). Not shabby for an animated cartoon. It was out done by Lord of the Rings: Return of the King ($1.9 billion). But Finding Nemo isn’t my favorite of all time.

Deep Blue Sea had its moments, but watching it, I felt it was more for shock value than anything else. Overall I felt it was a B-Grade movie and not all that original. When I later found out a majority of the sharks were animatronics, I was rather disappointed. So yeah, not my favorite film either.

Here, I am going to lump-sum all the Sharknado films simply by saying they were fun to watch but incredibly bloody and many of the scenes were way over the top. I can’t single out one that would be a favorite, but will say, they were okay to good. Now if they could make a film called: Trump - Sharknado Bait ... that could be my favorite, but I digress.

Now, to the one I have seen more times that the law should allow.

A giant man-eating Great White Shark attacks beachgoers on Amity Island, a New England summer resort. The local police chief hunts it with the help of a marine biologist and a professional shark hunter. The film stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, Robert Shaw as shark hunter Quint, Richard Dreyfuss as oceanographer Matt Hooper, Murray Hamilton as Larry Vaughn, Mayor of Amity Island, and Lorraine Gary as Brody’s wife, Ellen.

Shot mostly on location on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, the film had a troubled production, going over budget and past schedule. As the art department’s mechanical sharks suffered many malfunctions, Spielberg decided to mostly suggest the animal’s presence, employing an ominous, minimalistic theme to indicate the shark’s impending appearances. This gave the shark more of a sense of believability verses animatronics such as Deep Blue Sea. Spielberg and others have compared this suggestive approach to that of classic thriller director Alfred Hitchcock. (Who can ever forget the shower scene!)

Considered one of the greatest films ever made, Jaws was the prototypical summer blockbuster, with its release regarded as a watershed moment in motion picture history.

Jaws became the highest-grossing film of all time ($190,000,000) until the release of Star Wars in 1977 ($221,280,994). Think about that for a moment. Jaws was released in 1975 and for the next two years was number one. It also means that it had outpaced 46 other prior Award Winning films to that date. (In 1976, Rocky was the highest grossing film. $117,235,147.)

Jaws won several awards for its music and editing. Along with Star Wars, Jaws was pivotal in establishing the modern Hollywood business model, which revolves around high box-office returns from action and adventure pictures with simple high-concept premises that are released during the summer in thousands of theaters and supported by heavy advertising.

In 2001, Jaws was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, being deemed, “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

But why do I consider this the best ever? The drama, the acting, the music setting the tone at every twist and turn. Also is in the opening of the film which set the tone. While at a beach party, Chrissie Watkins, goes skinny dipping in the ocean. While treading water, she is violently pulled under by a Great White shark. No one hears her cries for help. The next day, her partial remains are found on shore. That is intensity at its finest.

You catch glimpses of her being attacked but you do not see her being torn to pieces. The scene shots have it such a way you see Chrissie struggling to escape, crying for help and then she is gone. The music surrounding that one scene is enough to make the hairs on your body stand up and shake.

Conflict rises with this and the city (more the Mayor) wants Police Chief Brody to settle things down where there isn’t a reason to panic, although what the Mayor is really saying, “If we let this get out, our summer tourist business will fall and we can’t have that.” Conflit.

There are just way too many things I can go on about this film, but to say the least, as a shark movie this is my all-time favorite and also ranks in my all-time top 25 films ever produced.

If you are an alien and have never seen Jaws, go rent it, buy it, look for it online and watch. Yeah, the movie is 43 years old, but watch it the first time and that won’t even be an issue with you at all.

(You can find this film, for free, at cafehulu.com)

Unfortunately for it, the film Sharktopus doesn't even come close to falling into this category. The premise of the film is that the military has commissioned a genetically engineered creature to be used as a naval attack weapon. The creature - front half shark, back half octopus, spikes somehow conjured from an unknown genetic source - displays the prerequisite sci-fi bloodlust, taking victim after victim as the good guys race to stop it. The beast's scale changes frequently throughout, at one moment the size of a rowboat, the next large enough to threaten a cruise ship. The acting only adds to the, ah, unique quality of the film. Line delivery is frequently mediocre, death scenes consisting of looped footage relying heavily on screaming, flailing, and what appears to be Hi-C. So Sharktopus would not rate among the best of films, not by far. Most memorable? Definitely, in the same way Chamberlain has accrued insulting connotations.

Daa-dun... Daa-dun... Daa-dun...

Oh yeah, let’s finally talk about the Jaws movies. And just in time before the upcoming movie about a gigantic shark, The Meg.

Jaws is the classic horror thriller released back in 1975, and marked as the film that made director Steven Spielberg a household name. The film starred Roy Schnieder as Police Chief Brody, Richard Dreyfuss as marine biologist Hooper, and Robert Shaw as shark hunter Quint.

Based on the novel (yes, it originally was a novel) of the same name, the story is about a giant man-eating great white shark that comes to the shores of a small island off the coast of New York, Amity Island. There it begins attacking and eating the beachgoers and it is up to a police chief, a marine biologist, and a professional shark hunter to stop this man-eater.

Jaws is a classic for a reason. I think that goes without saying. It has been dubbed as one of the scariest movies ever made, and the original summer blockbuster movie. And again, it’s not hard to see why.

I can definitely concur that Jaws is truly a terrifying experience. I remember first watching it as a kid and it scared me. I watch it as an adult and the film still scares me from time to time. The first scene where the girl is skinny dipping in the water and the shark violently attacks her is still one of the most memorable and disturbing scenes in film history.

That theme, that music, goddamn. This is why John Williams is forever the greatest music composer of all time. That theme alone can send chills down anyone’s spine. I don’t think there’s a living person on the planet that can look at a shark and not think about that theme. Even if you’ve never scene Jaws before, once you hear the music, you already know that it’s from Jaws. This has got to be one of the best film scores for any horror movie, if not for any movie to date. Again, because it’s John Williams, a fucking Einstein mixed with Picasso when it comes to music.

The acting is great too. But on top of that, the characters are amazing, specifically with our three main leads: Brody, Hooper, and Quint. These three are outstanding as characters. Brody is the big hero, Hooper is the smart idealist, and Quint is cold and experienced. The three play off each other very well. Of the three, I think my favorite would have to be Quint. He shows that he's much more than a carbon copy of Ahab from Moby Dick (which was basically his character from the novel). Quint’s speech about the USS Indianapolis and how he survived it is probably the most spine chillingest moments in this movie, moreso than any of the scares. The way he describes the sharks attacking his crew... “The thing about a shark, he’s got lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll’s eyes...”

Spielberg is a master of the craft. There's a reason why he's still making movies today. The way he builds suspence in a scene and the way he uses the atmosphere and lighting is just masterful. One of the biggest reasons you rarely saw the shark in the movie was because the animatronic shark they built didn't function properly. So Spielberg used this to his advantage to make a beyond perfect movie.

And I don't just use the term 'perfect' loosely. This film truly is perfect. This is another film that I honestly cannot think of anything to nitpick about. Jaws is the ultimate scary movie experience and one that everyone should watch for themselves. People were terrified of this movie back in the day. Nobody wanted to go into the water after seeing it.

I love this movie and I watch it every summer to remind me what lurks below the water. Definitely make room for this on your 'What to Watch' list!

Positives:

-Scary as hell

-Amazing characters and acting

-John Williams’ score

-Great suspense

-Terrific writing

-Beautifully directed

-Instant classic

Negatives:

-None

Final Grade: A+

So there's my review for Jaws, as part of my series of Jaws Countdown Reviews all leading to the premiere of The Meg. Have you seen it? What were your thoughts? Were you terrified of sharks and the water after this movie? Please be kind, leave a like and comment, and check out more reviews here on Prose!

Best Quote:

Chief Brody: “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

#harrysituationreviews #countdownreviews #sharks #horror #thriller #AGrade #summer #blockbuster #stevenspielberg