The Roger Ebert Experience selects, in the Thriller category: Jaws
Jaws is a
1975 thriller/
horror film directed by
Steven Spielberg and based on
Peter Benchley's best-selling
novel that was inspired by the
Jersey Shore shark attacks of
1916. The police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a
great white shark by closing the beach, only to be overruled by the town council, which wants the beach to remain open to draw a profit from tourists. After several attacks, the police chief enlists the help of a
marine biologist and a professional shark hunter.
Roy Scheider stars as police chief Martin Brody,
Richard Dreyfuss as marine biologist Matt Hooper,
Robert Shaw as shark hunter
Quint,
Lorraine Gary as Brody's wife Ellen and
Murray Hamilton as Mayor Vaughn.
Jaws is regarded as a watershed film in motion picture history, the father of the summer
blockbuster movie and one of the first "
high concept" films.
[2][3] Due to the film's success in advance screenings, studio executives decided to distribute it in a much wider release than ever before.
The Omen followed suit in the summer of 1976, and then
Star Wars one year later in 1977, cementing the notion for
movie studios to distribute their big-release action and adventure pictures (commonly referred to as
tentpole pictures) during the summer. The film was followed by three sequels, none with the participation of Spielberg or Benchley.
Jaws 2 (1978),
Jaws 3-D (1983) and
Jaws: The Revenge (1987). A video game entitled
Jaws Unleashed was later made in 2005.
One of the best scenes ever: