The Saga of the Shark

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)