Is "Jaws" the most overrated film ever made?
It's just a slasher film with a fish instead of a human.
shareYour existence is overrated
shareI think therefore I am. Refute that.
It would have been better with a giant salmon.
MovieChat Forums > Jaws (1975) Discussion > Is "Jaws" the most overrated film ever m...
Hmmm, let’s see. JAWS has:
A great script
Great direction
Great acting
Great cinematography
Great editing
Great music
A true primal fear
Sorry, but you’re wrong.
We should also highlight Quint’s USS Indianapolis speech as one of the best monologues captured on film.
They also created a masterpiece without actors who looked like models. The everyday person is part of its great appeal.
You are right on, I just wanted to add a little. 👍
Yes and since then, SyFy network has made literally hundreds of shark attack movies, in which every one of them has more kills, and gore
shareNo, while I enjoyed and laughed over your ‘slasher film with a fish’ description I think it’s one of the best movies ever made and along with The Flamingo Kid is always on my Summer ‘must watch’ list.
I love the characters, the setting, the dialogue and unlike Jason Vorhees or Michael Meyers (who were enjoyably scary too) the shark was an actual, plausible real life menace. This movie really did make me scared of the beach for years lol.
I think it’s perfect and Amity was a charming town that I’d live in…I’d just stay the hell out of the water!
This movie ripped off an episode from The Planet of the Apes TV show a year earlier. In that episode there was a killer shark on the loose, which the apes called it the gods of the sea, but the astronauts killed it. Name of the episode was Tomorrows Tide
shareInteresting, I did not know this, thx.
shareI'd say it's the other way around, since the novel was published in February 1974 and that episode aired in October...
shareI enjoy a good horror film. As a rule I hate slasher films though. Maybe I should rewatch "Jaws". Yes, it was startling and different than any film which went before it. So yeah, it rates high, but I said it's "over"rated. It relied on a gimmick more than a script.
shareI guess our tastes may just differ somewhat but I do enjoy a respectful chat with a stranger. I love old slashers and Jaws is a favorite of mine.
Do try to watch The Flamingo Kid if you care to, it’s got some good actors playing great characters, there’s a sweet romantic subplot, the settings are well done… it really is good fun👍
👍
shareNo, it's an actual masterpiece. But young folks could be forgiven for not enjoying it. It's a very much old school style film. Long, slow build. Lots of character building. Gritty film stock. But whenever it's talked about, you get flashbombed with a handful of iconic scenes. But the movie really is just a shit ton of talking.
shareOh yes!! Yes! Yes! I agree about the "long slow build." No director today seems to know HOW to create suspense and tension. It also didn't hurt that the actors were superb and totally first rate talents.
shareNot the most ever made, but it is somewhat overrated.
shareSeveral places it was NOT overrated:
ONE: By the millions of people who went out to see it...the highest grossing movie to that point in time -- and to rack up those numbers, that means they saw it several times each, many of them. Face it, NO slasher movies between Psycho(1960) and Jaws made that kind of money. Psycho didn't make that kind of money. (The Exorcist did -- but it wasn't really a slasher at all.)
TWO: By the popular culture of the summer of 1975. Incredibly, Jaws was at one time set for a Christmas 1974 release -- "Summer at Christmas" but got delayed to June of 1975 and suddenly, here was a movie that was set "in the summer season people were living." In America, you had the beach cities of the East Coast(where Jaws is set) and the West Coast(especially Southern California) and you could walk out of a matinee showing of Jaws at a "beach theater" and hit the beach in an hour or less. That's what I did that summer.
THREE: It was in the classic sense, a "good movie." Well written, well acted, well directed, well scored(with one of the most famous musical motifs of all time), well photographed, well edited. To see how bad it COULD have been, all you need to do is watch Jaws 2, or Jaws 3-D, or Jaws 4. Various writers improved upon Peter Benchley's novel and we got three interesting main characters and a good supporting cast. (Indeed, Shaw's Indianapolis speech was considered the hidden "Oscar bait" within Jaws.
FOUR: I think this was a hidden bonus: the three main men contrasted in a "two against one" manner that was always interesting. Brody hates the water; Quint and Hooper are "men of the sea"; Hooper is rich; Quint and Brody are working man heroes; Quint is crazy; Hooper and Brody are sane. Watch those conflicts all work against each other when they are trapped together on that boat.
About the only thing I'd criticize it for was the blatant nepotism in the casting of Lorraine Gary (the wife of Universal President Sid Sheinberg) as Mrs. Brody - and it got worse in "Jaws 2" - she was actually given name above the title billing for the sequel and MCA shareholders were irate when they found out she was paid $242,349 - a pretty hefty "Star" salary for the day (i.e. Gregory Peck was paid $250,000 for "The Omen"; Faye Dunaway was paid $200,000 for "Network"; Roy Scheider was paid $100,000 for the first "Jaws" and $400,000 for the sequel, etc).
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