Jaws, the 1975 film that created the blockbusters, made Steven Spielberg a household name, reaally put him on the map, and it has so much importantance in film canon. The story of Jaws is pretty simple: shark attacks keep happening on the beach of Amity Island and so a police chief, a marine biologist, and a shark hunter try and find and kill the shark. It is so simple but done really well so that it doesn't seem boring.
The cast is great: Roy Schider (whose other credits include Sorcerer, The Marathon Man, and Seven Ups) as Brody, Robert Shaw (Taking of Pelham 1 2 3) as Quint, Richard Dreyfuss (who would later collaborate with Spielberg again in Close Encounters of Third Kind) as Hooper. I think the other characters like the Mayor (veteran character actor Murray Hamilton of The Graduate fame - the cuckold Mr. Robinson) and Brody's wife are not interesting, but they are not the focus.
The script is great. The characters are well-written, and the film never slow down. I say it is slow, but it was made before my time and everything is fast paced and most blockbuster nowadays. John Williams' score is great and captures the tension of suspense and horror; it is one of the best scores of all time. The poster too is iconic and is the best movie poster of all time, although I think Alien comes in at a close second. Spielberg also does a great directing, and there is a reason this put him on the map. It is probably his best film, but I need to watch more of his films before I can say it is for sure.
Jaws is a great movie and put Spielberg on the map and created the blockbuster. It has great performances from Robert Shaw and Roy Schider, a great score from John Williams and great directing from Spielberg. I only watch the sequels for curiousity sake. Jaws is also one of those films should never be remade because of how iconic it is, and it just seems it wouldn't work as well. It is not in my current top 10 films, but it could be up there some day.
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