Movie Review: "Jaws" (1975)

Recently, we added a No Plot Just Vibes display by the front circulation desk. And while I don’t think this recommendation can be described as no plot, I feel like it’s all vibes. Spielberg not only kicked off the summer blockbuster with 1975’s Jaws, crafting what became at that time the most successful film ever made - he tapped into something that I think has a lot of overlap with the concept of the beach read, so critical to the library browsing habits of so many come summertime.

The beach read might be epitomized as being about vibes. For those of us who may or may not be on vacation, it allows us to imagine a transporting experience to a faraway place where we can picture ourselves - relaxed, intrigued, caught up in something compelling- but where the concerns are heightened, fantastical, or at times not even present.

Well, in Jaws (1975), concerns gather like clouds on a sunny day. The film not only offers thrills as frightening as any horror movie, but also a wonderful sense of milieu in the Martha’s Vineyard particulars. With lived in sets that were real businesses and locations on the island, with extras who weren’t actors, and a feeling of summer idyll and specific place that is happily related to our own Massachusetts - that, in the hands of a 26-year-old virtuoso, becomes a searing and outright terrifying seafaring saga with the power to grip audiences 50 years later.

If your memory of the movie has been shaped by the popular conception of the shark as a flawed or unconvincing robotic creation, I’d urge caution - because in context, the monster is utterly frightening.

Not without humor or idyllic scenery, the movie serves as a kind of heightened vacation for viewers, the same way Spielberg’s Jurassic Park - itself, at its time, the most successful movie ever made - would do 18 years later. 

I want to recommend the film to library patrons, and also mention that the special edition DVD we have includes a really excellent Jaws documentary for those who aren’t able to stream the latest Jaws 50 documentary currently on Hulu, which has been getting some well-deserved write-ups in the press.

Whether you’ve seen it before or would be watching it for the first time, it’s a great vibe for summer.