Customer Reviews

Jaws

5 star:		(584)
4 star:		(79)
3 star:		(25)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(32)

 

 

Well, I bought the DVD dts and I think you'll like the extras such as the outtakes, deleted scenes, and especially an excellent documentary. You'll get the behind the scenes from Spielberg, the actors, photographers, and the producers. In today's film world this movie could be made rather easily, but back then you'll see the tremendous undertaking that went into this production. The movie itself, of course, is just amazing. At one point Spielberg says that the shark is the star, but the scenes on the boat will show you 3 stars at the top of their game. The sound quality is outstanding and exact, but I do have one complaint.... on the 5.1 DTS their isn't much activity from the back 2 speakers. The sound coming from the front 3 is great, but they could have done more. This movie is just as suspenseful as when I saw it in the mid-seventies. I hadn't really watched it in awhile and I had forgotten the outstanding acting performances by Scheider, Dreyfuss, and Shaw. Shaw's USS Indianapolis speech is about as good as it gets, while Scheider's everyman performance really rings true. You'll enjoy this DVD and it's at a good price. A good bargain. Buy it!

Jaws was Stephen Spielberg's first hit and after his initial reluctance to release his movies on DVD, it finally makes its DVD debut. We all know the story, a great white shark terrorizes the waters off of Amity Island. The movie is based on Peter Benchey's best-selling novel. This is one of the rare instances where a movie is actually better than the book it was based on. In Mr. Benchey's novel, there is are some extraneous sections such as an affair between Ellen Brody and Hooper that really don't add to the story. The movie streamlines the book and the changes made bringing it to the screen actually improve on the book. The performances of three stars are superb. Roy Scheider plays Chief Brody as an everyman. We can all relate with him as he is just trying do his job and the right thing but is caught in the middle. He wants to close the beaches to catch the shark, but the people he is protecting want them opened as the water is the source of their livelihoods. Richard Dreyfus adds some comic relief to the film as the wise-cracking oceanographer, Matt Hooper. The late Robert Shaw takes what could have been a cartoonish role of the shark boat captain Quint and turns him into an obessive, vengeful man in the mold of Captain Ahab. The real star of the film could be its score by John Williams. The music adds tension and fear to the suspense much like the music from Psycho. The DVD contains some extra material including deleted scences, trailers and best of all a documentary on the making of the movie. This is a must see for all fans of the film. We learn of all the problems the crew experienced while filming on Martha's Vineyard, some original casting choices and other behind-the-scences tidbits. These are nice bonuses, but the movie's first appearance on the DVD format is reason enough to buy it. After 25 years, this movie remains a classic.

This movie is a credit to everyone associated with it, from the stellar cast of actors and actresses to the direction by Steven Speilberg to the original story (a novel) and screenwriting by Peter Benchley. This is a riviting tale superbly told, with excellent cinematography and special effects, and a scary soundtrack that builds the edge of mystery to a crescendo each time it musically announces the shark's appearence.

The idea for the movie is deceptively simple; a great white shark with a fond taste for the sweet taste of human flesh is patrolling the water off Amity Island (read Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard)and terrorizing the summer tourist population. Inject into this some interesting and novel subplots regarding a burned-out city cop and unlikely undersung hero, a brainy, affable but basically misunderstood young marine biologist, and a wonderfully crusty old mariner turned professional shark fisherman and you have the recipe for an entertaining rollercoaster ride.

This movie is a modern classic, one with a young Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and the late Robert Shaw. Watching their characters interact is an afternoon's entertainment well deserved, one that is durable and repeatable. It also is one that translates very well into the DVD mode. One caution; don't view it anytime before going for your summer vacation. You may really be afraid to go back into the water!

Have you seen the film? If so, you'll recognize that line. This guy is scooping chum into the water to attract the shark, talking over his shoulder, and when he turns back to face the sea, the open maw of a giant white shark is all he sees, and the critter is about to take his arm off. He gives it that significant silent pause, then says, "Hey, guys? We're gonna need a bigger boat."
It's SO PERFECT.
I loved this film when I first saw it a billion yrs ago, back when the earth was cooling, and I love it still. It's about a big shark that these guys are stalking so their peaceful little tourist town can resume business as usual. But then things turn hairy and scary when they realize that, actually, the shark is stalking them. Benchley's original book is pretty faithfully rendered in Spielberg's screen version. Especially well done are the scenes that pit the scientists and level headed sheriff against the politicians who just want all this nonsense downplayed so they can start making money again.
I slept just fine after watching it, but my husband had nightmares about sharks coming thru the bedroom walls all night for the next several nights, so...viewing discretion advised for those of tender sensibilities. It IS a little gory in a few spots.

Steven Spielberg's ultimate shocker still holds up great after all these years for the exact same reasons it was a huge box-office hit back in 1975: amazing score, powerful performances from an extremely talented cast, great special effects, and perfect direction. It's simple story of a shark terrorizing the waters of a small beach may not be the most compelling material ever to come out of Hollywood, but the attention to character and the sheer terror of the shark attacks more then makes up for it. There is something undeniably terrifying about the thought of being dragged underwater by something huge, something you can't even hope to escape from, and the very first attack scene is true nightmare fuel. As is the most memorable scene in the film, Robert Shaw's speech about his experiences after surviving the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, a World War II cruiser that sank and left hundreds of sailors floating in shark-infested waters for more than four days. Shaw's delivery of the scene still chills to the bone and stands as one of the greatest moments in film history. The DVD edition of JAWS has been long-awaited and fails to live up to it's potential. The lack of audio commentary by the director and a handful of out-of-context deleted scenes are major let-downs. But a superb 'making-of' documentary and an extensive art and design gallery are nice additions. Still, this is the definitive version of a classic film, one that deserves to be viewed multiple times both on the screen and in your darkest nightmares. Have fun swimming in the ocean after this one!!!

Let me get right to the point. "Jaws" is a classic, a masterpiece, the standard by which all modern horror and action thrillers are measured. Spielberg's 1975 adaptation of Peter Benchley's celebrated novel may well have ignited a new era for the movie industry at that time: the era of the "Summer Blockbuster." Sadly, it's an era that seems more intent upon marketing commercial products and visual effects over substance and innovation, as many of Hollywood's bigwigs (Spielberg included) have sold out to produce brainless, demographically inspired trash like "Con Air," and "Wild Wild West." Remember when going to the movies was fun? Remember when you could expect a healthy blend of crisp and original storytelling, attention to character development, and a plot that didn't insult your intelligence? "Jaws" manifests each of these essential ingredients to a quality movie-going experience, and the result is one of the greatest films of all time.

The residents of Amity Island, Massachusetts have one thing going for their livelihoods: summer tourists and beach goers. So what do you do when a great white shark threatens to bring an untimely end to the summer season, not to mention the lives of several unfortunate bathers? This is the dilemma that's brilliantly played out between the rational-minded sheriff (Roy Scheider) and the politically motivated town mayor (Murray Hamilton). The quarrel is finished when a series of tragic events compel that the shark be killed by any means necessary. Enter the best shark-hunting trio ever assembled. Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw formulate such perfect chemistry that we can't peel our attention away for even a moment. In fact, the movie's final hour may be one of the finest ever filmed in terms of drama, suspense, and sheer horror. All performances are commendable, the dialogue at times is brilliant, and the mechanical shark (Bruce) is as terrifying as any "computer generated" effect from that moronic film "Deep Blue Sea." John William's score ranks among the best ever composed, on a par in terms of ground-breaking significance with the themes from "Star Wars," "Gone With the Wind," and "West Side Story." The movie was followed by three sequels, each increasing exponentially in banality.

There probably hasn't been a single movie in the last 30 years that has changed the psyche of moviegoers more than JAWS. As I recall, people literally did not want to go back into the water! Speilberg tapped into this fear and tapped into it rather well.

As someone who had a certain fear of water, watching this movie on the big screen as a kid, you bet I was horrified! Today, JAWS still remains a classic.

To those who say that the shark looks fake and that a CGI one would've looked superior, well, I wish they would stop looking at movies through CGI-colored glasses. Personally, I think Speilberg's Great White (though mechanical in close-ups) was truly interesting. It had a certainly personality. IMO, many computer-animated creatures today are rather uninspired creations.

Besides, JAWS is much more than just about a shark. The story of greed at the expense of human life is truly interesting to see. It also boasts some great characters as well, namely, Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and especially Robert Shaw as Quint, the old shark hunter with a Captain Ahab syndrome. And what can I say that hasn't been said already about John Williams now timeless score. It's just magnificent!

Yes, JAWS does contain its fair share of frights, but Speilberg was wise in inserting genuine moments of humor as well to relieve that certain tension. A movie shouldn't be all fright, all of the time. Certainly, that scene with Chief Brody at the dinner table with his young son copying his every move was both humorous and quite touching. It gave the movie heart.

JAWS was the first movie to crack the one hundred million dollar mark. Today, many movies seem to crack that mark with ease. Yet, many of them are nowhere near as good as JAWS. Has the movie-going public been dumbed-down as to watch anything and make profits for these lesser movies?

With all of this success, there was a downside. JAWS did to sharks what another great monster movie, KING KONG did to gorillas - it gave these poor creatures a bad image and thus many were slaughtered. Like I said, this movie really changed the psyche of people, in terms of fear of the water and a huge dislike for sharks.

Jaws DVD

Roy Scheider plays the police chief of Amity Island, a resort town somewhere in New England, which is being terrorized by a Great White Shark (GWS).

We were just sitting on the beach drinking beer and smoking pot when someone decided to go skinny dipping in the ocean. Bad idea!

The excellent music composed by John Williams will always make me think of JAWS.


The police chief, played by Roy Scheider is suspicious that it is a GWS but the mayor, of course doesn't want to believe him until it conclusive, which it is fairly soon. The police chief wants to close the beaches, but that would costs too much in economic terms so he is vetoed.

All-in-all an enjoyable movie, but not right before you go on vacation at the beach.


Throughout the movie the GWS is anthropomorphized so that we / the movie makers give him almost human intelligence.

Not recommended for anyone who wants to swim in the ocean. For me it's swimming pools from now on, Baby.

Gunner February, 2008

There are few sounds more terrifying than hearing someone screaming "Shark!" at a beach or from the water, whether it be in real life or the movies. A young Steven Spielberg went out and milked that scream for help for all it is worth and more: made a classic Adventure-Horror movie. "Jaws" is great in every department. The acting is flawless, with Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw "bonding" in their search and detroy mission of the ultimate great white shark. So powerful is Jaws that almost any picture since has taken little bits from it, unable to escape from its enormous shark shadow. Spielberg, from the opening night sequence shocks us(one of the most terrifying in history) when we don't even see the shark, but see the first victim from the shark's eye view and John William's brilliant soundtrack telling us the terror is just starting. Spielberg has made many great movies, but none scarier than Jaws, none that has its combination of terror, adventure, high spirits, great acting and superb technical achievement of editing, cinematography and sound. With this masterpiece, Spielberg, at a young age, set the bar higher for horror and adventure films, and showed he was a genius in making action movies. It still holds up well, much better than digital movies that are pale in comparison, sloppy and incoherent compared to the great unity of Jaws. Steven Spielberg might have made movies after Jaws that were as good but none better. Jumping beyond its genre , it is on my list of top twenty movies ever made.

Five years ago, Universal commemorated the 25th anniversary with an excellent DVD release, loaded with extras. Two versions were actually released (one had a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, the other had a DTS 5.1 mix), but everything else was the same.

Now, five years later, they've released the 'definitive' DVD edition for the 30th anniversary...

So what's different? Not the video transfer - it's the same as the 25th anniversary DVD.

The 30th anniversary DVD DOES have more audio options: it includes BOTH the Dolby Digital AND DTS 5.1 mixes. Even better, it includes the original mono soundtrack, which has never been issued on DVD before. It also has 5.1 mixes in Spanish and French, and it has new subtitle options, also for Spanish and French.

As for the rest, there are more bonuses. The 25th anniversary edition was a single DVD - this 30th anniversary edition is two DVD's, and the extra disc can now accomodate the full-length "Making of JAWS" documentary that originally ran for two hours when it was first released on the LaserDisc edition of JAWS (which is long out-of-print). A truncated, one-hour version was used for the 25th anniversary edition. It's an excellent documentary, worth seeing in its entirety, but if you're already well-versed in the making of JAWS, you may be underwhelmed. Furthermore, you can probably rent the bonus disc on this 30th anniversary DVD through Blockbuster of Netflix, so if you're only going to see it once, that's the way to go.

Also new is a 9-minute featurette "From the Set," included on the first disc. Produced in 1974, you get a few words from the cast, crew, and Spielberg as they film JAWS, but it's not very interesting. There's also a nice 60-page commemorative booklet (the 25th anniversary edition had a very skimpy booklet), an added movie poster gallery on the bonus disc, and a new bonus feature called "The JAWS Phenomenon" that looks at how JAWS was marketed around the world. They also add one extra deleted scene (very minor, it features Quint, shortly before they set sail in search of the shark), which is placed on the first disc with the other deleted scenes.

Some of the minor bonuses from the 25th anniversary edition have been ditched for this new edition, including a trivia game, a "Shark World" educational piece, a screensaver, etc., but otherwise everything else on the 25th anniversary edition was carried over to this new edition.

So, who should buy this new, 30th anniversary edition? Purists who absolutely prefer the original mono mix, viewers who are much more comfortable with Spanish or French, viewers who want JAWS on DVD but do not own it yet, and die-hard fans that already own countless editions of JAWS for the sake of collecting. For everyone else, if you already own the 25th anniversary edition, save your money and skip this.