You know, at this point anyone writing about Jaws has to ask themselves, "Does this need a review?"

The obvious answer to this is, "No". Everyone knows what Jaws is about. 

It's one of the most successful films of all time and it has been blamed for single-handedly kicking off the "summer blockbuster" phenomenon. It's been studied, critiqued and written about enough times that you could probably lay a paper trail down that would extend to the moon and back. There are tribes in the deepest darkest recesses of the Amazonian rainforest who still wear loincloths, hunt with spears and can eloquently debate whether Spielberg went too far with the horror element in the "Ben Gardner boat scene". 

However, there is an aspect to the success of Jaws that many people may not even think about: how Steven Spielberg's film affected viewers' ideas of the ocean. I would argue that no film has had a greater impact on the world than Jaws. That in itself is why I consider it the greatest film ever made. It's also my personal favorite film of all time - I can watch this movie at any time, anywhere, and I don't need to pick it up at the beginning to become completely engrossed by it.

After Jaws was released, the image of the shark, shark teeth and shark fins became wildly popular in marketing campaigns worldwide. The Great White shark went from being a relatively unknown animal (first brought to the mainstream via the 1971 documentary Blue Water, White Death) to being a household image. Seeing Jaws piqued my own interest in Great White sharks and I read everything about them I could get my hands on. My brother did the same. At the time, we were elementary school students checking out books that were meant for adults and college students.

Now, my four-year-old has a level one reader about sharks and rays including a large two page spread about Great White sharks. Jaws did that.

While bringing awareness of sharks to a new level can be a positive thing, there are more than a few negatives resulting from the success of the film. Interest in shark fishing soared. The public's perception of all sharks being man-eating killers meant more sharks were killed than ever before. In the years since Jaws' release, shark populations worldwide have steadily declined. Obviously, the film is not entirely responsible for that. There are multiple reasons shark populations have plummeted, including changes in fishing methods (gillnetting, etc.). Still, fishing for Great Whites themselves became a much more popular sport than before and that has led to alarming declines in their populations. They are slow to mature and reproduce which means you're much less likely to find a Great White the size of the shark in Jaws these days, no matter what those Sci-Fi Channel Original movies would like you to believe.  

Another way that Jaws affected a worldwide industry upon its release was that it kept people out of the water. Jaws scared people so badly that it is regarded as the main reason recreational scuba diving hit an all time low in the late seventies. People were frankly frightened of getting into the ocean. Prior to its release, people wanting to dive cited Sea Hunt and Flipper for making diving look cool. Afterward, people seemingly forgot about those shows completely.

Think about that for just a moment. Has any other movie in the history of images on film ever had that kind of an impact on both society and the world? 

Hostel didn't exactly curb tourism to European countries. Even The Exorcist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th combined, as scary as they were, didn't have any effect on a global industry much less drive an animal to the endangered species list.

As for the movie industry itself, Jaws also spawned a ton of rip-offs and some pretty awful sequels as well thereby bringing back the man vs. gigantic-pissed-off-animal genre of horror. If you're looking for laughs, check out Tentacles (giant octopus), Tintorera! (released as "Tiger Shark" in the US), Ultimo squalo, L' (another giant shark - this was released as "Great White" in the US), and the undeniably awful/awesome Orca. Those are just a few of the knockoffs. There are many more out there and I didn't even touch on the non-ocean themed ones like Grizzly or (my favorite rip-off title) Claws!

Movie geeks will debate the importance of different films until our society ceases to exist. Having me state that in my opinion, due to the impact it had worldwide, Jaws is the greatest film ever made will bring scorn and pain upon my head in the forums. There will be shouts of dismay concerning everything from pacing to technical camera glitches to blah, blah, Seven Samurai, blah, blah, Citizen Kane, blah, blah, Italian cinema, etc.

Have at it, assholes. 

Jaws is the greatest film ever made.

Presentation
If you don't already own this, the 30th Anniversary edition of the movie is pretty much the best way to go. It looks good. It sounds good and until they start remastering this thing for Blu-Ray and Hi-Def, you won't find much better. That said, this is the same transfer that was issued on the 25th Anniversary release. The sound here is in DD 5.1 and is exceptional. However, from a presentation standpoint there really is no reason to double dip on this. If you already have it, just watch what you have again and smile.

Extras
The 30th Anniversary edition of the movie contains many of the extras scattered across older releases of the film. For instance, the documentary included here is the same as the one on the 1995 laserdisc release. What's nice about this is that while portions of it have been featured as extras on earlier releases, this is the first time it's been featured on DVD completely unedited.

It's a two-hour documentary that takes you from Benchley discussing his writing the book all the way through to the release of the film and the aftermath. The only bad thing about this (and it's this way with most docs so it's not that big of a deal) is that there are no chapter stops. You need to be committed to watching it or you're in trouble. Still, it's very interesting and includes interviews with quite a few people from the cast and crew.

There are stills galleries from the set, storyboards, and a gallery featuring the marketing collateral behind Jaws. I was amazed at how many Jaws toys I had at one time or another. Some copies of the 30th Anniversary edition also come with a booklet of stills from the movie that is nice to have but nothing mind-blowing. Still, if you're going to purchase it, why not get the booklet, right?

The Bottom Line
The movie is iconic. Great performances from Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw. A hellaciously entertaining script. A gigantic fucking shark. An Oscar winning score. Steven Spielberg flexing his muscles on a large scale for the first time. This movie is simply amazing. Every horror, action or adventure fan should own a copy.