Jaws
Academy Award × 3·AFI #56·National Film Registry
Rent/Purchase
When the seaside community of Amity finds itself under attack by a dangerous great white shark, the town's chief of police, a young marine biologist, and a grizzled shark hunter embark on a desperate quest to kill the beast before it strikes again.
What critics thought
Jaws lands as a near-consensus thriller classic, with most critics marveling at Spielberg's ability to generate sustained dread through technique rather than spectacle. The sharpest disagreements fell on the film's characters — some felt they were richly human, others saw them as mere plot machinery — and the mechanical shark drew consistent mockery even from admirers, who credited the director's sleight-of-hand for keeping audiences too scared to laugh.
“a sensationally effective action picture, a scary thriller that works all the better because it's populated with characters that have been developed into human beings”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“In the best films, characters are revealed in terms of the action. In movies like Jaws, characters are simply functions of the action ... like stage hands who move props around and deliver information when it's necessary”
Vincent Canby·The New York Times
“Jaws is too gruesome for children, and likely to turn the stomach of the impressionable at any age. ... It is a coarse-grained and exploitative work which depends on excess for its impact. Ashore it is a bore, awkwardly staged and lumpily written.”
Charles Champlin·Los Angeles Times
“some of the most frightening sequences in Jaws are those where we don't even see the shark”
Frank Rich·New Times
“despite genuinely suspenseful and frightening sequences, it is a slackly narrated and sometimes flatly handled thriller with an over-abundance of dialogue and, when it finally appears, a pretty unconvincing monster”
Halliwell's Film Guide
Genres
Adventure, Drama, Horror
Cast & Crew
DirectorSteven Spielberg
StarringRoy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton
ComposerJohn Williams
Jaws
Academy Award × 3·AFI #56·National Film Registry
When the seaside community of Amity finds itself under attack by a dangerous great white shark, the town's chief of police, a young marine biologist, and a grizzled shark hunter embark on a desperate quest to kill the beast before it strikes again.
What critics thought
Jaws lands as a near-consensus thriller classic, with most critics marveling at Spielberg's ability to generate sustained dread through technique rather than spectacle. The sharpest disagreements fell on the film's characters — some felt they were richly human, others saw them as mere plot machinery — and the mechanical shark drew consistent mockery even from admirers, who credited the director's sleight-of-hand for keeping audiences too scared to laugh.
“a sensationally effective action picture, a scary thriller that works all the better because it's populated with characters that have been developed into human beings”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“In the best films, characters are revealed in terms of the action. In movies like Jaws, characters are simply functions of the action ... like stage hands who move props around and deliver information when it's necessary”
Vincent Canby·The New York Times
“Jaws is too gruesome for children, and likely to turn the stomach of the impressionable at any age. ... It is a coarse-grained and exploitative work which depends on excess for its impact. Ashore it is a bore, awkwardly staged and lumpily written.”
Charles Champlin·Los Angeles Times
“some of the most frightening sequences in Jaws are those where we don't even see the shark”
Frank Rich·New Times
“despite genuinely suspenseful and frightening sequences, it is a slackly narrated and sometimes flatly handled thriller with an over-abundance of dialogue and, when it finally appears, a pretty unconvincing monster”
Halliwell's Film Guide
Genres
Adventure, Drama, Horror
Cast & Crew
DirectorSteven Spielberg
StarringRoy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton
ComposerJohn Williams
Rent/Purchase