Summer of '75 saw the birth of the blockbuster. It arrived alright. With teeth ready to sink its bite into an unsuspecting crowd. Right down to the iconic poster tihs film simmers with nostalgic glory. Seeing a director like Spielberg take on material like this is something that I'm starting to miss. His last genre efforts, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull & War of the Worlds show that 'magic' he loves to talk about disappearing. Regressing in tone and texture rather than progressing. He showed off his directing chops with Duel. Jaws takes everything he learned previously and amps it up to 11.
People often accuse of Spielbergo's movies being sugarcoated. This is certainly true of the Kick the Can segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie, Hook & several parts of Temple of Doom. Around that time he was all about kids. The magic and wonder of childhood. It's a far step from seeing little Alex being attacked by a shark in '75. I don't know if he'll ever get back to this point. Jaws also contains one of my favorite monologues. Belonging to Robert Shaw of course. It's a feverish, sweat inducing story that counterposes a merrily singing Shaw, Dreguss and Scheider. A+
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