JAWS

I thought I was going to be disappointed when I sat down to watch Jaws this morning. It had been awhile since I had seen it and many movies from that era have not aged well (as it was later pointed out by Mr. Strahl, most of the movies I was thinking of 'in this era' actually came from the late 60s, so my comparison was unjust). But disappointed I was not.

In 1975, cinema discovered a new phrase - The Blockbuster. While movies like Gone with the Wind were considered blockbusters because of the money they made over time,  Jaws was the first film to transform the definition into a type of movie; an event that would create lines of eager fans wrapping around city blocks. And as more people crammed into the theaters to see this toothy masterpiece, it became evident they would soon be staying out of the water once the credits rolled.

The best part about Jaws is how well it holds up in 2010. Its story is predicated on human reaction while the fear comes mostly from what you can't see. It's a slow rolling movie that builds tension over its entirety. And in the third act, when you need a payoff, you get to see the biggest damn shark known to man. But not too much of it to realize that it's not real. Something Deep Blue Sea should have thought about.

Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw compliment each other masterfully. Each character taking full advantage of the scenes intended to show deep back stories in just a couple of lines. And kudos to Spielberg for not forcing the action, rather, letting the characters build it.

"We're gonna need a bigger boat."