Jaws Conquers All

Jaws. 

That is all.

No, seriously, if you want to know anything about storytelling, the answer lies within the two peerless hours of that movie.

How to open.

How to build tension.

How to enthrall and mislead your audience. 

How to establish a hero and make him indispensable.

How to create a sense of time, place and culture.

Most important of all, how to nail an ending.

11 out of 10.

Certified one hundred percent fresh forever.

Jaws is a Swiss Army knife of a movie. It slips effortlessly between genres. At various times, it plays as a straight drama, a comedy, a thriller, an adventure story and a horror. The mere fact that it avoids the obvious trap of becoming a schlock creature feature is a minor miracle. But far beyond its practical, aesthetic and technical achievements, thematically, the movie manages to cover endless ground.

Quint portrays the reality of a tortured man, living with inescapable survivors guilt. He also represents the ancient notion that our destiny is already written in the stars and wholly unavoidable. 

Brody serves as the good and decent Everyman, forced into an impossible position by outside influences. Hampered by politicians, greed and cynical coverups. He endures his own guilt over the preventable death of the little boy, Alex Kitner, but rises heroically out of this tragedy and faces down his slimy boss, Mayor Larry Vaughan (played by the wonderful Murray Hamilton), in the famous ‘shark city’ hospital scene.  

Hooper and Quint clash across the age-old divides that exist between generations, class and wealth. 

Quint, Brody and Hooper illustrate the sweet and unending mystery of male bonding. The most unlikely friendship and camaraderie that builds up between these three very different men is a tale worthy of a movie in its own right. The kind of narrative that would have been worthy of Cameron Crowe (at his very best).   

The exploration of commerce versus public safety.

The investigation of nature as a threat to the survival of humanity.

Believe me, I could go on forever. 

Jaws was made in 1975. I was born in 1977. The movie has been in my life for almost forty years at this stage.  The personal relationship I have with it, illustrates the aspect and almost indescribable beauty of storytelling that I adore the most. My love for Jaws has changed and evolved throughout the years. What it meant to me at the age of 9, bares no resemblance to what it brought into my life at 22 or 47.  I can only assume that we all possess a similar relationship with our favourite stories. The book, telly show or movie that we go back to, time and time again, delivering nurture, comfort and relief like a homemade bowl of chicken soup or hand sewn blanket when we are poorly.

As a boy, my obsession was with the shark. As a younger man, I adored the colourful madness and wit of Quint. As a man in his forties, my connection and understanding of Chief Brody as a family man and diligent and capable public servant has resonated more powerfully than ever before. The man is an outsider on Amity Island. He can’t swim and is terrified of the water. He is constantly hamstrung in his attempts to do his job to the best of his ability by his corrupt and self-serving bosses, the people who should be on his side and in his favour. The plethora of obstacles thrown in his way feel very real to a man of my vintage and ring true as a sore reality of life – as relevant now in 2025, as they were fifty years ago.

Although a deeply subjective practice, in my own personal opinion, the true measure of any great story is defined by its rewatch or reread-ability. Crime and Punishment never gets old. Life of Brian or Blazing Saddles will never fail to garner a laugh. If you don’t well up with tears when Chief whispers ‘let’s go’, before mercy murdering his best friend RP McMurphy with a tidy white pillow at the end of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the fault is with you, my friend, not the magnificent story just told.

But in the pantheon of my own personal favourites, Jaws will forever be number one. Like Quint says to Hooper before the Orca sets sail from port, ANTI-shark cage, you go inside the cage? Cage goes in the water? You go in the water? Shark’s in the water…OUR shark…farewell and adieu to you fare Spanish ladies. Farewell and adieu, you ladies of Spain, for we’ve received orders for to sail back to Boston…

Okay, you get the point. I’m stopping now.

Jaws conquers ALL!! 😊