I can’t help it. I love cheesy campy stuff, and in the summer I really like to indulge that part of myself. This summer, we decided that we are doing a whole shark month, not just a shark week. I started watching shark week with my brother every summer when we were kids, and I guess I still like it! Although, instead of watching the super informational shows about sharks, Billy and I are going to watch shark movies instead.

We of course had to kick it off with the best fourth of July movie ever- Jaws. Which of course we watched on the fourth of July. So with our entire neighborhood shooting off fireworks into the wee hours, Billy and I instead watched Jaws, complete with our gummi sharks as a snack. Because that is how we roll here.

For being a classically aged horror movie (I am not going to say old, it is the same age as me!), it still can scare you right out of the water. Not overly gory, but has some pretty disturbing, gory scenes, but it’s not a total slasher fest like some horror movies.

This movie stars Roy Scheider as Chief Martin Brody, new to the island – he is from the big city of New York City, which he left due to the amount of crime and violence. He is a bit of an oddball to the islanders – he lives on an island but is afraid of the water, an outsider in more ways than one.

It all starts with poor Chrissie – the unfortunate girl who gets attacked at night in the water, naked. My husband doesn’t think she gets enough credit for this scene, which he felt was very believable, plus she had to feel very vulnerable, at night in the water, naked, and pretending to be attacked by a gigantic shark all alone. Brody wants to shut down the beaches immediately, but the mayor makes him keep them open. Not good for business, shutting down the beaches, and Amity needs that tourist money. That decision proves to be not a good one, as the worst scene in the movie, in my opinion, happens next – little Alex Kintner is killed one crowded afternoon on the beach, right there, in front of everyone. One minute he is on his yellow float, the next he is dead. There is thrashing and blood, and panic of course ensues. People are running into the ocean, running out of the ocean, grabbing their kids – and at the end poor Mrs. Kintner is yelling for her son, who is nowhere to be found. I almost can’t watch that scene and just thinking about it still makes me sick to my stomach.

Mrs. Kintner advertises a bounty for the shark, drawing every fisherman from the surrounding areas to the little island to catch the killer. A small tiger shark is eventually caught and killed, but new man on the scene, Matt Hooper from the Oceanographic Society, KNOWS that this is not the shark. And an after-hours necropsy(?) proves it. However, this information is still not enough for the mayor to close down the beaches. The fourth is coming after all, and that will be a huge day for tourists! Can’t have them scared! Hooper and Brody have also discovered the boat of a fisherman floating aimlessly in the ocean, with a dead fisherman inside, floating around as well. Hooper finds a tooth attached to the boat, that belongs to a Great White. Unfortunately he drops the tooth, and there goes his proof. The mayor concedes to more precautions, but the beach will be open.

The fourth arrives and the ferry dumps a ton of tourists on the island who fill the beaches but maybe not the water. The mayor urges people into the water, there is a joke with a two kids and a fake fin, which pulls all attention from the pond as they call it – where Brody’s own son is boating with friends. But the shark is there instead this time and kills again. Not Brody’s son Michael, but an unfortunate boater in the tiniest boat I have ever seen.

This time, this incident, finally gets the mayor’s – and everyone else’s – attention.

The implied fear in this movie, the undercurrent of danger, is so much worse than the actual jump scares. The music adds the drama, the anticipation, the building of fear. You never know when or where the shark will attack, just like in real life.

After this incident, the mayor is finally ready to take some real action. So Brody hires Quint, a salty sea fellow, rough and gruff and whose boathouse is filled with the jaws of deceased sharks. You feel confident that he can do this job. He is not too keen on Hooper with all his scientific equipment and geegaws being aboard, as he believes in tradition and not all this newfangled nonsense, and this play between the two worlds, with Brody still being the outsider, is iconic. These three are the least likely to get on a boat together, but here they are, getting on a boat and heading out to sea to hunt a monster. Keep in mind, Brody is a city guy who doesn’t like the water on top of it all.

Anyway, once they are on the boat some of the very best scenes happen. Quint and Brody and Hooper all play their parts perfectly, which is funny because I read that the actors Scheider and Shaw, who played Quint, did not like Richard Dreyfuss too much. Which I guess worked for Shaw, since Quint didn’t really seem to like Hooper too much either, although they did end up with some mutual respect after a night at sea.

The three are out, using all the tricks that Quint knows or Hooper knows to try and draw this monster killer shark to them, so they can kill it – hopefully before it kills them.

They share drunken stories, and then Quint delivers a speech that brings Hooper and Brody to a quiet silence, the kind when you know you are hearing something big. I know that this scene always makes me sit up and take attention, even more so than the shark scares. Shaw just delivers it so powerfully, you have to listen.

He actually did this scene twice, because the first time he was blackout drunk. But for this take, the second take, he was stone cold sober, and sobering.

He talks about how the sharks have black eyes, dead eyes, doll’s eyes. And it did make me giggle because a few days again when we were painting, Wyatt was using black paint, and he said “Black, like daddy’s eyes!” Billy apparently has shark eyes…

The next scene that gets me, and always makes me jump, no matter what, is one performed by Brody. He is out doing his chores, like throwing chum in the water, when he gets a good look at what they are after, finally.

How he rears back, the expression on his face, and his famous (ad-libbed) line – utterly convincing. I would probably be stunned into that reaction as well, followed by the screaming. I would never want to be on board a boat, and turn to see that face rearing up at me – even in a movie!

From here it’s on – the hunt becomes real and serious, with some serious consequences as well. In the end it is everyman outsider Brody who saves the day and destroys the monster, and becomes the hero.

Overall, this movie is excellent. It might be older and behind the times technologically, it still is a very scary movie with some superbly acted scenes.

One little fun trivia fact: The actor, Jeffrey Voorhees, who played young doomed Alex Kintner, still lives on the island where they filmed the movie. He runs a bar/restaurant there, and serves a burger named for his character. So if you go to Martha’s Vineyard, check out the Wharf Pub in Edgartown.

Anyway, if you are someone who can watch scary movies and you haven’t seen Jaws yet, I say do it!

Next up we watch Deep Blue Sea, which scared me the first time around and I am anticipating that it will again!