This film broke the paradigm of the safe beach and a paradisiacal place to enjoy and created the mistaken belief that these fish attack people for pleasure.
Based on the book of the same name by Peter Benchley and adapted the script by the same and Carl Gottlieb who was initially hired to play the role of the character of Meadows and at the request of the director rewrote the script of the film.
The action takes place on the beach of Amity Island, a quiet place where police chief Martin Brody, played by Roy Scheider does not have many problems until a girl named Chrissie disappears and he finds her mutilated remains on a beach.
The coroner determines that she has been attacked by a shark and the commissioner suggests closing the beaches but due to the bathing season is denied and at the insistence of this the mayor hires the services of shark hunter Quint, who is played by Robert Shaw, veteran actor who in 1967 had been nominated for an Oscar as best supporting actor for his role in the film "A Man for All Seasons".
The pair is joined by marine biologist Matt Hooper played by Richard Dreyfuss and as time goes by they discover that they are confronted by an unusual animal, in the middle of the 4th of July holiday season, when the beach is invaded by visitors.
Suspense, terror and adventure are an important part of most of the 124 minutes of the film and the catastrophic scenes prove it, what seemed like a summer of pleasure turns into a nightmare.
This film was one of the first works of director Steven Spielberg and who catapulted him to success, at that time it represented a high budget production, 9 million dollars and became the highest grossing film in history collecting more than 470 million dollars, until two years later it was surpassed by Star War.
The shark was a technological breakthrough at the time, as what was called a mechanical animatronic had to be created to play the role of the shark, and John Williams' music was also an important part of the success.
Despite the commercial success of the film, its director was not nominated for an Oscar, the film was not considered the best that year since the award was given to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and the leading actors were not equally nominated, however it did win the Oscar in the categories of best editing, best soundtrack and best sound.
In 2001 the Library of Congress selected Jaws to be preserved in the National Film Registry as a "culturally significant" film.
Taking advantage of its success, 3 sequels were made, none of them with the participation of the director or Peter Benchely, however they had good box office income, being the 3rd the one with the highest income, reaching 87 million and the 4th the one with the worst critics.
