What more can I write about one of the most written about films - Spielberg's 1975 masterpiece of terror "JAWS"? I recently had a chance to see it on the big screen alongside another Spielberg blockbuster - Jurassic Park (1993), which although it is a good movie, it is somehow pale in comparison to the grandiose and masterful kinetic energy of Jaws. However, this review will focus on Jaws.
First things first. Even though, Jaws is often mistaken for the first horror blockbuster (The Exorcist 1973 beat it to the first spot) the film was the first major motion picture to cross the $100m barrier at the box office, thus becoming the first Summer motion picture event. Keep in mind that's four years before Star Wars, which was for many fans the hallmark of the 70's blockbuster events. It did as much good for the world of cinema as it did bad. Jaws's success opened the floodgates to the blockbuster movie, both as an event and as a major investment for big corporation which controlled the studios at that point in time. However, despite the monetary effect, which helped fuel future major motion pictures - 'Star Wars' and 'Alien' being the most often cited examples of post-Jaws syndrome blockbusters, Jaws was a monumental success in technical terms.
The camera team of Jaws lead by prominent DP Bill Butler ASC (The Conversation '72) and outstanding camera operator Michael Chapman were able to achieve what most technicians at the time deemed impossible. To put this in perspective, in 1974 when JAWS was shot, SteadyCam was not invented yet. Therefore, the camera operator and DP had two options - shoot on tripods - as Spielberg initially wanted, or shoot hand-held. In the words of Michael Chapman himself - "if you put a camera on a tripod on a boat, you'll make the audience throw up in the isle, as the motion of the boat's movement will be enhanced through the tripod..." This was the main reason why the film as shot 90% hand-held, which at that time for a major project of such proportions was a bold decision. A decision, which paid off immensely. Although, not noticed by an untrained eye, the achievement in cinematography on this picture was a monumental one.
But certainly, had it not been Spielberg's masterful ability to tell compelling stories, combined with an ample team of avid technicians and creative personnel, Jaws would have probably been a much lesser movie than it is today. The sheer terror of the unknown, the power of the opening prologue sequence, and the fact that the shark gets little screen time, all of these factors contributed to the massive success of this film. It is rare, that a movie like Jaws can be put on the big screen in a rural area of China with no subtitles and people would still be jumping out of their seats and shielding their eyes with their fingers. That is the very essence and power of cinema - universal storytelling going beyond all cultural or political borders.
Now, some may argue - the real mechanical shark, the build for the film never really worked properly, that's why it gets so little screen time. And to that I say, sure, it's true the technical difficulties prevented Spielberg from showing more of the shark, but it is the scarcity of the monster, which makes the very few times we see it on screen so startling and scary. Had it appeared more often, it's effect would have been diminished.
Still, 35 years on, JAWS holds up as one of the scariest and masterful films ever made. It's iconic imagery still possesses the power to keep the viewer spellbound for the whole duration of the picture. Not many films hold up today, but JAWS does, and it will for a long, long time.
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