Jaws (1975)

Jaws (1975), directed by Steven Spielberg.

Miscellaneous notes after an umpteenth viewing of Jaws:

• The story gets right to business without seeming rushed.

• Roy Scheider was a favorite from that period and seems very natural here as the big city cop on a small resort island. He has to accommodate the town council and businesses and do much of his own fetching and carrying.

• You can see his dread of the ocean very early, the way he looks at it after finding the girl's body on the beach.

• Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss both seem a bit "too much" when they first appear, but the movie actually grows toward their characters. We enter their world. They're in their element out on the boat chasing the shark, which is the center of the film.

• Shaw's character makes perfect sense after we hear his tale of the USS Indianapolis. Dreyfuss is at his best when scared spitless.

• This is not the sort of action thriller where the extras stand around watching the main characters do all the work. A vast mob is always in the way, crowding them and having to be handled.

• It's great that ordinary people occupy the beach, not just Hollywood hardbodies and pneumatic young women.

• Priceless: the shared expression on the faces of the councilman and his wife when the mayor suggests they get in the water.

• The sound design is excellent, a vivid recreation of the surf and sounds of a fishing port.

• The John Williams score: he has exhilarating chase music when out on the ocean pursuing the shark, the men in charge, masters of the sea. Then the shark hunts them and we switch to the ominous fright theme. In an inspired construction he combines both themes during the life-and-death battle, which I think contributes enormously to its excitement.

• The shark begins to generate supernatural dread. No one has seen this behavior before. It seems to have a malign intellect. Quint, disbelieving: "He can't stay down with three barrels! Not with three!" It must be what Ahab felt about Moby Dick. It's one thing for Brody to be afraid, but quite another when the professional shark-killer and scientist are up against the unknown.

• Are there complaints about the mechanical shark effects? Doesn't bother me at all, in that it doesn't take me out of the movie.

• Did you see those shooting stars?

Available on Blu-ray with a fine, sometimes exceptional image. The early scene of the beach party seems more vivid than I recall, but my memory is unreliable here.