Film Review - Jaws (1975)

 Figure 1

Like so many great features it is often that the premise is simple and small, but the scope is huge. This is a strange concept but it works because we can imagine more when we have a boundary, it is arguable that Jaws is this idea personified,  'shark lurks in tourist heavy beach location'. 

"What Spielberg and his team have done is to pare Peter Benchley’s pulp novel down to essentials and then to play it for all its bare bones are worth." (Malcolm, 2016), this suggests that from its more indepth novel Spielberg has seen the scope of what it really is and adapted it visually in a way which strips it down to the most immersive and enthralling way possible.  

Figure 2

One of the techniques often used, since Alfred Hitchcock best described suspense was putting a bomb under the table and it not going off. Spielberg here keeps the monster hidden right up until the end, where even then

"We are often looking at kegs and not at a shark, but the premise is so well established that the shark is there." (Ebert, 2000) supposing that the imagination has built up a monster so much that subtlies employed like this dramatise them in a way we are conditioned to interpret them. 

Figure 3

Spielberg has used simple details paced well in order to build suspense and give Jaws the horrific persona which it deserves, Rothman suggests that "The movie is very like its subject. If the great white shark that terrorizes the beaches of an island summer colony is one of nature’s most efficient killing machines, Jaws is an efficient entertainment machine." (Rothman, 2015) an audience can there for be compared to the tourists and the characters which are terrorised by the shark. 

Bibliography:

Ebert, R. (2000). Jaws Movie Review & Film Summary (1975) | Roger Ebert. [online] Rogerebert.com. Available at: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-jaws-1975 [Accessed 1 Mar. 2018].

Malcolm, D. (2016). Jaws - the original Guardian review: archive, 22 Dec 1975. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/dec/22/jaws-steven-spielberg-1975-review-derek-malcolm [Accessed 28 Feb. 2018].

Rothman, L. (2015). Read TIME's Original Review of 'Jaws'. [online] Time. Available at: http://time.com/3894762/jaws-1975-review/ [Accessed 1 Mar. 2018].

Illustrations:

Figure 1 - Jaws (1975) [Film] - Steven Spielberg: Universal Pictures 

Figure 2 - Jaws (1975) [Film] - Steven Spielberg: Universal Pictures 

Figure 3 - Jaws (1975) [Film] - Steven Spielberg: Universal Pictures