As the proto-summer blockbuster, “Jaws” (1975) gets everything right. Part horror movie, part suspense-thriller, part swashbuckling adventure, it’s also chock-full of subversive social commentary. Steven Spielberg’s breakout hit delivers most of its real bite beneath the dazzle of Great White teeth. Replace the shark with COVID-19 and see if you don’t find the same foibles exhibited all over again nearly 50 years later.
Of course, it’s the comradery on the boat that secures the film’s place in our hearts. Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss are all first-rate, as is John Williams’ music, in this, one of the must-see films of the 1970s. Would that someone could make a movie like this again, in any genre.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water. “Jaws” puts the bite on our ass, on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Your comments are on the menu. We’ll count you among our friends, even as we make you our chum, when we livestream on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:00 EDT!