Factual error: When Hooper sees the hole in the hull of Ben Gardner's boat, he uses his knife to pry out the shark tooth. The tooth is located at the bottom of the hole, with its flat root side stuck inside the wood and its pointy side facing up. It is completely impossible for the shark's tooth to become wedged in the wood this way, while he takes a nice bite out of the wood hull. (00:49:15)
Jaws (1975)
3 reviews
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Murray Hamilton, Lorraine Gary, Carl Gottlieb
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9.2/10.The fear of what swims beneath is effectively chilling. This movie works as a horror movie.
Jaws was the first summer blockbuster film and this horror-adventure classic still has teeth! A summer swim by a young woman visiting the New England beaches of Amity starts the terrifying tale of a giant shark terrorizing a seaside community, which forces a concerned police chief named Brody to team up with a visiting enthusiastic scientist named Hooper and a seasoned local seaman called Quint to hunt the voracious fish before the body count keeps climbing, spelling ruin for the town! Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw drive the film, while the shark keeps viewers at the edge of their seats! While the clothes have changed and some facts about sharks have come to light since the 70s, Jaws remains one of the very best "fear of what lies in the depths" movies to date.
I saw the 50th Anniversary of Jaws in theaters.
So me and my dad have movie night every Friday, sometimes on Saturday, As it lines up with our work schedules best and he doesn't have to be up early on weekends like he does week days. Yesterday (8-29-25), was my dad's 60th Birthday which lined up on a Friday. The 50th Anniversary of Jaws was still in theaters so we decided to go see that together. My dad hadn't seen the film in probably about 20 years... and full disclosure I had never seen the movie in full before this moment.
I have seen clips, pieces here and there, watched a few reviews and even the Heavy Spoilers break down of the movie so I still knew most of what happens in the film. However, I've never actually seen the movie from start to finish in full.
So seeing it for my first viewing on the big screen for it's 50th while taking my dad out for his 60th birthday was a real treat.
Well so what did I think of the movie?
Often the case when I go into a movie that has legendary status, or has been praised for years and years by the masses, and then I see it for the first time I feel disappointed. I hear hype for a film for decades, people building it up and I want it to live up to such a reputation. Many times after that, I just feel it wasn't all it was hyped up to be. I feel let down. So I've tried going into old legendary movies I've never seen before with less expectation so I'm not let down.
I've heard for years that Jaws is some great horror movie and the one that started the summer block buster trend and all that.
I never understood how it could have been when I was younger. I don't mind horror movies, but It's not a genre I go out of my way to watch often. I have my favorites like The Relic, but it's just another type of movie for me.
I couldn't understand how a movie just about a shark could be such a great legendary horror movie, but the hype around it for years and years is all I hear.
So I went into this expecting to be let down.
Boy am I glad to have been so wrong!
This movie not only lived up to everything I heard, but exceeded it. I really didn't know what I was missing as this movie was great. I had expected to walk away from this giving it a 3 star, maybe a 4 star rating. But here I am leaving it a big fat 5 star as I loved it.
it was very well told, suspenseful, great characters and writing, good acting... and the tensions on some of those boat scenes were great.
Some of the jump scares or moments, like the face in the boat, I did have spoiled years ago with how much this movie is on the internet, but they still got me some. I do kinda wish I could have gone into this completely blind and not have had those big moments spoiled by decades of internet... Yet despite it all I still came away loving this movie and now can fully understand why it is so beloved and legendary after all this time.
And considering this came out in 1975, it's especially impressive the quality of the film.
I get it... now I get it. And I'm glad that I've finally watched Jaws. I'm 35 years old and it took me this long to get to it, but I'm glad I finally did.
If you're like me and have never seen this film before, it truly is a must watch.
Mistake Status: This already has 293 mistakes listed by the time I'm writing this review and has been picked to death by other people. While I have faith in my falcon eyes to find something, it would be a ton of effort and work just to try and find one small detail the other people missed. I don't think I can contribute too much to this movie's mistakes. That said, at some point I may do to this like I'm doing to some of the old Bond films and go through cleaning up some of the mistakes by adding in all the time codes and pictures and all that. At some point.
More mistakes in Jaws
Chief Martin Brody: You're gonna need a bigger boat.
More trivia for Jaws
Question: There are two scenes on the boat after they have seen the shark and Brody has a panicked look, while in the background a shooting star passes right behind him. This happens twice, but it's in the day time. Was it real?
Answer: Although the 1995 documentary "The Making of Jaws" claims that the shooting star was real, the fact is that the shooting-star background effect is a Steven Spielberg trademark in most of his films (first noticed in "Jaws," but also appearing in "Close Encounters," "E.T. The Extraterrestrial," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," "Saving Private Ryan" and others). Spielberg has always had a fascination with shooting stars, dating back to his childhood, and he works them into almost every film. Http://americanprofile.com/articles/steven-spielberg-shooting-stars-movies/.
Suggested correction: When Hooper uses the knife to pry to tooth out, it took very little effort, suggesting that the tooth wasn't wedged into that spot, but merely just resting in that spot.
The shark tooth was inserted into the wood by the prop crew with its flat root side down, which would have been impossible to have occurred during the attack on the hull. As to the statement that the tooth was "merely just resting in that spot" then Hooper would not have needed to use the blade to remove it from the wood, plus the fact that since it was underwater it would have floated away during the hours after the attack. But it did not float away, so it must have been at the very least snugly fit into the wood hull. Still impossible.
Super Grover ★
The original mistake says that the root of the tooth was embedded In the wood. Not possible since it should be the sharp end in the wood and the root showing on top (as described in the mistake).
Ssiscool ★