Jaws

(1975)
(30th Anniversary Special Edition DVD)

"You'll never go in the water again!"

This is the movie that really reminds me of high school; it came out the summer before I started my senior year, the summer I turned 18.

"Jaws" was the "Psycho" of my generation. I don't apply this term to "Halloween", another equally scary film of the '70's involving pointy things that can kill you, because "Jaws" and "Psycho" have too very important elements in common with each other, and "Halloween" somehow seems to fall into a different horror genre.

Both "Psycho" and "Jaws" are about ordinary people doing something ordinary and enjoyable, two activities one would normally never find dangerous: showering, and splashing about in the shallows of the ocean.

I don't remember, but I can't imagine that this movie made people very happy whose livelihood depended on beach tourism, as it was released in the early summer.

Seeing "Psycho" made many people afraid to take showers (including actress Janet Leigh, who starred in it and claimed she never took another shower afterwards), and "Jaws" made many people afraid to swim in the ocean. It scared the hell out of us teenagers and made for endless pranks at the beach that summer (hey, I was 17 when it came out in the theater, what can I say)? Two of my friends would take turns pretending to be an approaching shark in the water, using his hand as a fin, while humming the classic "Jaws" soundtrack, or pretending to be the first victim in the film (minus the screaming, which upset the lifeguards), thrashing and flailing about in the waves as if being attacked and dragged underwater.

"Jaws" was also Steven Spielberg's first (and I think best) blockbuster. It could only help boost the careers of the 3 lead male actors in the film: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss (this was the role that made Dreyfuss a star). It spawned one of the most classic and oft-quoted lines in film history: "You're gonna need a bigger boat." It was also technically a very innovative film, with a mechanical shark that by all accounts was a great deal of trouble.

I hadn't seen this film in several years, having seen it umpteen times when it first came out, and several times on VHS, as I owned an old VHS copy of it. But I recently got the 30th Anniversary Edition, and saw it again last night, in the dark, in widescreen, through the stereo (gone is the full-screen only old tape).

Suffice to say that when the head pops out of the boat...I still jump just as much as I did the first time I saw it in the theater.

The ultimate, and best, of the "Scary Summer Movie" genre.

This "Special Edition 30th Anniversary Edition" (widescreen, of course) of the film includes some great special features such as deleted scenes and outtakes, a never-before-available interview with Spielberg, archives, and a two-hour documentary of the making of the film. The deleted scenes and outtakes are a riot; I can certainly see why the shot of Robert Shaw's clog-sheathed foot stepping out of a big black car with the words "QUINT" in white and a white outline drawing of a shark on its door were cut! Shaft! We never knew ya!