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 |  Jaws 30th Anniversary EditionDirector: Steven Spielberg Rating: M 5 hours Universal Watching 'Jaws' for the millionth time I found myself thinking how much promise was shown by that brilliantly visceral and economical young US filmmaker Steven Spielberg ('Duel', 'Close Encounters Of The Third Kind', 'Raiders Of The Lost Ark'), before he died mysteriously and was replaced by that overblown jerk Steven Spielberg ('War Of The Worlds', 'Minority Report', 'The Lost World: Jurassic Park'). I mean, you just know that if Spielberg #2 made 'Jaws' today it'd be insufferable. Chief Brody, played by Tom Cruise, would be a widower raising his two sons and would have to break all the rules in a race against time to save them from a giant CG shark, possibly the result of genetic engineering or robotics. Laura Dern would play Hooper, the brilliant female oceanographer constantly fighting to prove herself in a man's world but eventually winning Brody's heart and teaching him how to love again while also gaining the grudging respect of Quint, the crusty old fisherman with a heart of gold and a head full of homespun wisdom, now probably played by Morgan Freeman. Watch for the inevitable Tom Hanks cameo. Thankfully Spielberg #2 hasn't seen fit to digitally "enhance" any features on this reissue of 'Jaws', unlike his 'ET' guns-to-walkie-talkie meddling. And you know why? 'Jaws' is freakin' great. Sure, the mechanical shark's not exactly perfect (although it's still not half bad, three decades on) but the four central performances are just so damn perfect that by the time the beast turns up you're prepared to accept whatever Spielberg #1 throws at you. Roy Scheider gives his life's definitive performance as Chief Martin Brody, the New York cop who transfers to Amity Island to provide a safer life for his family. Lorraine Gary is perfect as his wife Ellen, building what could have easily been a cipher into a rich and rounded character. Richard Dreyfuss has rarely equalled the mix of irritating superiority and charming enthusiasm that he brings to the character of oceanographer Matt Hooper, and Robert Shaw channels Captain Ahab as the barely-sane shark hunter Quint. And yes, we all know that a bullet can't make a compressed air canister explode as per the film's climax (thanks, Mythbusters) but by that stage, who cares? The editing is superb, John Williams' score is still chilling and the dialogue is bang-on perfect (courtesy of author Peter Benchley, actor/writer Carl Gottlieb and a cast who knew how to ad-lib in character). The second disc contains outtakes, deleted scenes, an animated thing with shark facts (which isn't nearly as good as the similar giant squid AV display at the SA museum), an on-set UK documentary from 1974 and an extended version of the documentary which accompanied the 20th anniversary video release (no new interviews, just more footage), in which Dreyfuss, looking like a cancer patient, reveals that the rumours of tension between he and the late Shaw were true and we also learn that Scheider did improvise the immortal line, "We're gonna need a bigger boat." If you already have 'Jaws' on DVD you probably don't need to get it again - but if you don't, then what the hell is wrong with you?  | |
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