Jaws (1975)

Directed by

Steven Spielberg

Genre

horror film, adventure film, science fiction film, thriller film, survival film, science fiction horror film

Country

United States

Runtime

2h 04m

Rated

PG

Rating

7.7 of 10 from 11,639 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A police chief teams up with a marine biologist and a shark hunter to track a man-eating great white shark terrorizing a New England beach town.

tensesuspensefulominousunsettlinggrippingminimalist

What happens

Jaws is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the 1974 novel by Peter Benchley. It stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, who, with the help of a marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss) and a professional shark hunter (Robert Shaw), hunts a man-eating great white shark that attacks beachgoers at a New England resort town. Murray Hamilton plays the town's mayor, and Lorraine Gary portrays Brody's wife. The screenplay is credited to Benchley, who wrote the first drafts, and actor-writer Carl Gottlieb, who rewrote the script during principal photography. Shot mostly on location at Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts from May to October 1974, Jaws was the first major motion picture to be shot on the ocean and consequently had a troubled production, going over budget and schedule. As the art department's mechanical sharks often malfunctioned, Spielberg decided to mostly suggest the shark's presence, employing an ominous and minimalist theme created by composer John Williams to indicate its impending appearances. Spielberg and others have compared this suggestive approach to that of director Alfred Hitchcock. Universal Pictures released the film to over 450 screens, an exceptionally wide release for a major studio picture at the time, accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign with heavy emphasis on television spots and tie-in merchandise. Regarded as a turning point in motion picture history, Jaws was the prototypical summer blockbuster and won several awards for its music and editing. It was the highest-grossing film in history until the release of Star Wars two years later; both films were pivotal in establishing the modern Hollywood business model, which pursues high box-office returns from action and adventure films with simple high-concept premises, released during the summer in thousands of theaters and advertised heavily. Jaws was followed by three sequels, none of which involved Spielberg or Benchley, as well as many imitative thrillers. In 2001, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• Shark Kill (1976)
• Shark Zone (2003)
• Sharks' Treasure (1975)
• Mako: The Jaws of Death (1976)
• The Thing (1982)
• The Stepford Wives (1975)
• Have a Nice Weekend (1975)
• French Connection II (1975)