Director: Steven Spielberg
Year: 1975
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Sharks
Plot:
Following a mysterious swimming accident, the police chief of a small island community grows concerned that a killer shark is in their waters and brings a small team together only they realize that it's much bigger than initially anticipated and a battle for water supremacy begins.
Review:
This is one of the greatest films around. There's one main reason why this works, and that's because it's one of the very few films that uses a well-known and believable human fear for its thrills. The idea of a huge shark or sea creature attacking us when we're completely vulnerable is a scary notion, and this here plays this up to perfection taking us right there with the victims when the shark's about to attack. This gives a chilling sense of fear of the sea and also helps to give the moments where the shark is there but unseen a reason to believe it is. The several beach attacks are the best examples of this, which are some of the better scenes in the film featuring the shark attacking the swimmers on the beach or the second attack in the adjacent pond where the realism of having a giant creature invading recreational waters and prey on defenseless humans is a truly scary feeling.
These are mostly helped with the most innovative technique where we're right up there in the face of danger with the camera-work, and it causes most of the film's biggest scares from the up-close-and-intimate work during the attacks to the sweeping vistas out at sea. The film's high point is the ending fight against the shark which takes place entirely out to sea which is a series of innovative, interesting, and logical events to destroy the creature, and everything in here is a joy to behold. From the cage assault to the barrel sequences to the beginning stages of hunting it down, every scene here scores wonderfully and it's got everything needed to enjoy the sequence.
The lulls are eminently watchable, there's tons of fast-paced action and every step is also logically done which is perhaps the greatest plus as they're totally believable. It's a long, drawn-out affair, making sure that time is taken with it to make sure that the shark comes off as a strong, imposing threat to the group, and that every resource imaginable must be thrown at it to bring it down. The last big plus is its great score, which is simple, catchy, and really manages to drive up the tension, making the scares work wonders. All these make this a simply wonderful film.
There are only a few relatively minor problems associated with this one. The main one is that the shark doesn't look that good. When the shark is on-screen long enough to get a good look at it, it's biologically different since the snout is way too pointed compared to a real shark and the creature's upper lips don't retract when biting. The last big problem is that this so easily features implausible scenes simply for the scare. The attack on the cage is a sterling example, as even though it's a great-looking, action-packed scene, sharks don't exhibit that kind of behavior which is what gives it away. These are the only real flaws in this one.
Overview: *****/5
A classic in every sense of the word, there are literally so few flaws present here not just as a genre effort but a film in general that it's impossible not to move it into the upper echelon of movie-making. An immediate watch for not just creature feature fans or any kind of genre follower, this is one even mainstream movie-watchers should give their time and attention to without much worry.
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