Plot: What’s it about?
DVD has officially arrived. Yes, it’s true…How we know this is when one of the most acclaimed directors of the last century starts releasing his “true gem” titles on DVD. Stephen Spielberg, then a “good” director with but a few credits to his name, took a novel by Peter Benchley and turned it into quite possibly one of the most popular movies of all time. Jaws is the reason that many people, myself included, are afraid of the ocean. With other titles to his credit (and it’s quite the long list, and likely to keep getting longer) including Raiders of the Lost Ark (excuse me “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark) trilogy, E.T., Schindler’s List, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jurassic Park to name but a few. It’s also interesting to note that all of these “A” list titles are not presently available on DVD, though an announcement was made regarding Jurassic Park and it’s sequal “The Lost World”. A few of Spielberg’s titles did manage to pop onto DVD before this giant, most noteably the highly popular “Saving Private Ryan”. With a few other minor titles including “Amistad”, “Gremlins” and “Poltergeist” being released already, we have to wonder what title(s) will be next…Anyway, Jaws is more than a movie, it’s a phenonenon and it looks and sounds better than it ever has on DVD.
Part of what made Jaws the hit it was at the time was the shark itself. In the documentary, they mention that they were constantly having problems with the mechanical shark, and as a result had to limit the number of scenes that it appeared in. Strange that a problem would ultimately result in the movie’s success. Anyhow, this brings us to the plot of Jaws. For the three people out there who haven’t seen Jaws, I’ll summarize. In the small town of Amity (meaning “Friendship”), the Summer season represents toursits. Tourists represent money so the local townspeople don’t have to starve during the Winter season. All is well and good and the town is getting ready to celebrate their 50th anniversary show when a few people turn up missing. It’s rumored that sharks are the reason, but it’s no reason to stop the entire tourist season…so the events go on. So do the attacks. It’s not long that the local sheriff, Chief Brody (Roy Schieder) wants to shut the beaches down, hence driving away the town’s profits, and hunt down the shark that is doing all of the killing. Of course the town is in an uproar to this outrageous notion that somthing could actually be wrong…
After the town is publically convinved, as if almost some sort of show is being put on, by a shark attack; a local fisherman offers to catch the shark (in what is a classic scene) for the mere price of $10,000. The die is cast, the sheriff, a local ocenagraphic institute expert by the name of Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and the fisherman, Quint (Robert Shaw) all set out to catch the killer beast. It’s here that the killings cease and the fun really begins. Three men out on the open sea trying to catch what has got to be nature’s perfect killing machine. The three bond, see the extent of the shark’s powers and are convinced that it’s no ordinary shark that they’re dealing with.
To give away the ending would not only be to tell the inevidable, but to anyone who hasn’t seen it, downright cruel. But there are three sequals that have also made their way to the screen, so if that tells you anything…Jaws is one of those movies that has been copied and copied and copied. If it’s not Deep Blue Sea, it’s The Deep or some othe movie. Not to say that these copies aren’t good, but there’s really no substitute for the original. I simply cannot recommend Jaws enough. But I have to warn you that the tagline reads “Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…” and it’s true. If you haven’t seen this movie and live near the ocean, why ruin a good thing!
Video: How does it look?
A movie as old as Jaws has obviously gone through many incarnations in the home video market. It came out before Beta and VHS, before Laserdisc and Video CD and of couse DVD. Through all the versions of this film, none have even compared to the brand new DVD version(s). The 2.35:1 image looks postively splendid for a film of this age. While some faults are bound to be found, and they are, on the transfer the colors and images almost leap off the screen. Being more of a dark movie, and taking place in the murky waters of the Atlantic the image is challenged, but passes every test. Edge enhancement is kept to a minimum and the fleshtones look as normal as could be expected. I’m running out of adjectives here, let’s just say that you won’t be disappointed.
Audio: How does it sound?
Jaws is as much about audio as it is about plot. What would we identify the movie with if it weren’t for that classic “Duh dum…duh dum…duh dum duh dum…” music. Half of us think of that every time we take a swim, ocean or not! The Academy award winning score has been remastered in a Dolby Digital 5.1 format and if you’ll look closely to the side you’ll see that the “DTS” box is checked. The exact same version of Jaws has also been released in a DTS format, though we were only sent the Dolby Digital copy for review. The sound is agressive, but is still somewhat dated. And rightly so, the movie is now officially 25 years old, but the subwoofer kicks in as do the surrounds and I was very impressed. Usually I’m a purist, and it would have been a nice touch for Universal to include the original mono soundtrack, but I’m more than happy with the sound mix, and you will be as well.
Supplements: What are the extras?
While the special edition 6 disc Laserdisc set contained even more material than this, this DVD isn’t exactly part of some chum line! We are treated first of all to a brand new 16:9 transfer that looks positively spectacular and an equally pleasing remastered soundtrack. In addition, we get the original trailer, cast and crew bios (all standard) and some production notes. Some more bonus material includes a trivia game (that references “Who wants to be a Millionaire” in a weird manner), outtakes though there are only two and some deleted scenes. There is also a behind the scenes documentary that has new (new being 7 years old) interviews with the cast members and their thoughts on the long lasting impact of Jaws and even some material with Stephen Spielberg himself. Lastly, there are some production photographs that round out the set nicely. Also included are some DVD-ROM links. Overall, there is no reason why you shouldn’t have this disc.
