Jaws Film Review

    

    Jaws, directed in 1975 by the great Steven Spielberg,  was a thriller and one of the greatest block buster films of its time. When Jaws hit the theaters it was a big hit because nothing like it had been made before. This movie features a shark that apparently is on the hunt to eat the people of Amity Island. The head police officer of the town, Martin Brody, decides to take ont he mission of killing this shark. He bring up the issue to the mayor, who does not agree with the idea to shut down the beaches since it a town known for their beaches during the summer. They decide to let it go, until another little kid gets eaten by the monster. Once they decide to close the beaches, it is decided that the shark needs to be killed, so Brody, Hooper, and Quint set sale to capture it. Quint was a man with a lot of expertise in killing sea creatures and Hooper was a marine biologist. While it was an interesting group, the 3 men worked together to kill the shark, with a few mishaps and shenanigans along the way. 

    One interesting thing that I learned from this movie is that the shark was mechanical shark. I think that it is pretty obvious while watching the movie that it is mechanical, but I thought it was really cool that they filmed an entire movie about a shark without a real one. It very clearly would have been very hard to film the movie with a real shark the entire time so it makes sense that it was fake, but at that time we did not have as advanced technology that we do now. The cast dubbed the name "Bruce" to the mechanical shark which I enjoyed learning about because even thought it was not a real cast member, they made it feel like it was. I also learned that there was a real shark used in several scenes. When Hooper goes under the water to try and find the shark, they used a real Great White then. I can't imagine what it could have been like to take on the role of creating this movie, since the main character is a shark, so the fact that they had a whole mechanical one, and the movie did so well is very impressive to me. 

    One specific scene that I want to talk about it the one when Quint dies by the shark. The first time that I saw this movie I was shocked when Quint happened to be the one that was eaten. I think having him be the one to die was a very interesting choice because him of all people had the most knowledge on the subject. At that point in the movie, really nothing was going right because their boat was falling apart and the shark was still not caught. It was a pretty sad death as well because earlier in the movie Quint shared an entire story about being stranded at sea with sharks eating all his friends but him surviving. He said it was the most scary right before getting saved because he didn't know if he was going to get eaten or not. He had survived that terrible time, but them unfortunately fell victim to the Great White of Amity Island. At that point in the movie I think we as an audience had become particularly attached to all 3 of the men who were trying to capture the shark, so the fact that one of them died made it feel even more real.

    Overall, I do think that this movie deserved all of the hype that it got. For being in 1975, it was really well done and a super fun watch. I think the actors did a great job, including "Bruce" and it will forever be one of the most well known films ever made.