Short Take: Jaws

With Jaws, director Steven Spielberg didn't make the film he set out to. He delivered something far better--perhaps the most artfully made adventure thriller in the history of movies. Peter Benchley's original novel was just a pulpy page-turner. It's about a seaside resort faced with a man-eating shark off its beaches, and the efforts of the police chief, a local fisherman, and a young marine zoologist to find and kill it. The adaptation was conceived as an expensively literal-minded monster movie. But the life-size animatronic sharks that were built continually broke down during the shoot. Spielberg, in order to minimize their use, rethought the storytelling approach. Whenever possible, he indicated the shark's presence with tropes, which ranged from an assortment of props to John Williams' ominous score. His handling of the technique is powerful and remarkably assured. Spielberg demonstrated a stronger command of poetic effect than many much tonier filmmakers. He integrated it with his extraordinary gifts for picture composition, action choreography, and montage to create a spectacular--and at times terrifying--roller coaster ride. He let his lighter side show, too. Tropes are embraced for humor as well as suspense. The most clichéd shark signifier--the dorsal fin cutting the water's surface--shows up twice, and both times it's played for laughs. Spielberg also keeps things loose with the characters. The police chief, played by Roy Scheider, hits every note of man-of-action steadiness the story calls for, but he has funny bits, such as his startled reaction upon first seeing the shark, or the lovely bit of playacting he has with his son at the dinner table. Robert Shaw's fisherman--a bargain-basement Captain Ahab--is an outsize caricature of self-reliant macho foolishness. The zoologist (Richard Dreyfuss) is most memorable when mocking the fisherman's manly-man grandstanding. It all adds up to a splendidly crafted and entertaining film. The cast also includes Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, and Jeffrey Kramer. The cinematography is by Bill Butler, and Verna Fields provided the superb editing. The script is nominally by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb, but there were substantial uncredited contributions from Spielberg, Howard Sackler, John Milius, Matthew Robbins, Hal Barwood, and Robert Shaw.