Jaws

It’s summer, a good time to revisit ‘Jaws’

ROBERT SHAW (left), Roy Schieder and Richard Dreyfuss in the original “Jaws.”

“Jaws” is a watershed film in many respects, something we sort of take for granted today. Yeah, ‘watershed’ is a bit of a pun.

Based on the Peter Benchley novel, it’s the story of a New England town, Amity, terrorized by a great white shark.

The film was released 35 years ago and spawned plenty of inferior sequels. In fact, one sequel was ahead of its time, it was “Jaws 3-D.”

But the original “Jaws” shows what can be done when ingenuity and imagination get together because computer generated images weren’t available yet.

“Jaws” was the first summer blockbuster, marketed for the season.

Director Steven Spielberg had a difficult time creating a really scary shark in 1975, so his people opted to do many scenes scaring the audience by showing the effects of the big fish without showing it.

It was a big film for Roy Scheider, who played Police Chief Martin Brody; Richard Dreyfuss, who was played college know-it-all Matt Hooper; and Robert Shaw, who was the grizzled sea captain with many stories to tell, Sam Quint.

The story was fairly predictable. It was the journey that was exciting.

It became popular in an era of disaster films like, say, “Towering Inferno,” released the year before.

In “Inferno,” firefighter Paul Newman warns about potential problems because the new, fancy high-rise was built shortcutting the building code.

Tsk, tsk, don’t worry, the bigwigs say.

“Jaws” opens with a young maiden running along the beach drunk, jumping into the water, only to become fish food. But like a polite nibbler, the shark didn’t eat everything. He left a little something to wash up on the beach.

So the chief wants to close the beaches, but the mayor says tsk tsk, don’t worry. All will be well.

In both movies and so many others, the results turn out any way but well.

That’s the trouble with disaster films. Public officials are too optimistic and are looking out for the bottom dollar.

“Jaws” does a wonderful job of building suspense, sometimes because of false starts. Oh, it is just kids wearing fake shark fins.

But there are so many instances as the familiar music starts and despite our best efforts, we jump and gasp at onscreen antics.

Doggone, the film just exudes summer.

People lying in the sun relaxing. Kids splashing and having fun all day in the water.

The perfect antithesis for the foreboding phantom of the water.

Early in the film the townspeople are excited because they believe they have captured the dastardly devil of the deep. Those fools, they should have realized it was too early in the film for it to be the real culprit.

No, we need a few more severed limbs and splashes of red in the water to get everyone focused on solving the problem.

The film goes from disaster film to buddy / disaster picture in the final quarter. The Dreyfuss, Scheider and Shaw characters set out in the Shaw character’s crusty boat after the great offender.

The filmmakers dodge a real cliché here by making the salty Shaw and nerdy Dreyfuss bond, swapping stories about their adventures at sea, punctuated by battles with their oversized menace.

It is here where the Scheider character actually sees the creature and open-mouthed declares, “We need a bigger boat.”

The film has been re-released to theaters at various times and is readily available on DVD, as are the far inferior sequels.

The original film had such an impact, it kept people off the beaches.

Sure you’ve seen it before. But take the plunge. Watch it again.

JAWS

• Directed by Steven Spielberg

• Written by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb

• Runtime: 124 minutes

• 4 stars out of 4