Jaws Blu-ray Review

3rd Sep 2012

Jaws is back on release again, this time in a finely polished Blu-ray edition.

And it is all credit to the look of the film. Anyone worried that it would get too digitised need worry no more. Jaws still has that classic cinematic look that Spielberg took on in his early career. Jaws rests nicely in between the golden age of cinema where the likes of Lean, Huston and Ford put up gloriously colourful and expansively shot stills on the moving screen. Jaws has a lot of that feel about the way that it looks, be it Brody making his way through Amity, or Robert Shaw on the bow of his boat, rifle in hand, calmly waiting out his opponent.

The script also beats down anything we get in modern cinema today. The story and characters are never heightened to silly extents, and the purpose of each follows a natural logic. With this in mind the writers have kept each scene focussed on attaining something so the film never gets boring.

Some writing classes direct wannabe scriptwriters to Robert Towne’s Chinatown (good choice) – but if you really want to write a very good Hollywood film you need look no further than Jaws. It has its opening scare, and then regular threats throughout the first hour, each shot dramatically different from the last until the story finally shifts gears and becomes a three man stage play on a boat. Truly powerful stuff.

The film background is almost as famous and well known as the film itself – but just in case you are not familiar there are two feature length documentaries. The 2 hour version of Laurent Bouzereau’s production which charts the history of the film, and the other a 100 minute document on the lasting legacy of Jaws. Both of these are widely informative and include contributions from most of the key players.

There is also a bunch of publicity material as well as a look at the restoration process for the Blu-ray. The only thing missing really is a commentary – but we all know that Spielberg doesn’t do those. But you pretty much get all you need from him in the interviews he has given.

Quite simply put – this is a must buy for all Blu-ray collectors and film lovers. There isn’t much difference in numbers between the amount of people who like Jaws as there are people who like to breathe air.