Friday I’m In Love: Jaws

They’re all going to die.

I love big, dumb action movies. My un-ironic and undying love for the Fast and Furious franchise is a well-known joke among my friends and family. Those movies have brought me more joy than almost anything else in this terrestrial plane. On most days, I’d seriously consider giving up one of my kids to spend a week with Dominic Torretto and la familia.

And while I’ve definitely seen (and enjoyed) The Meg, I’m a firm believer that a smaller shark story makes for one of the greatest action movies of all time. I know this is not a unique opinion. Jaws is routinely rated as a masterpiece. So when it came time to watch it with our songs (ages 16 and 13), I was probably a little too excited. Overhyping things is one of my specialties.

But I’ll be darned if Jaws didn’t live up to every single bit of anticipation. It’s a high-wire act throughout, mixing laughs with jump-scares and genuine elements of shock/horror. It’s gorier (so much blood and so many severed limbs!), more hilarious (Quint is an avant garde stand-up comedian!), and more claustrophobic (they definitely needed a bigger boat) than I remembered.

We all know about the unforgettable notes of John Williams’ score, but this last viewing had me doing a deep dive on Jaws’ cinematographer, Bill Butler (he shot Rocky 2, 3, and 4 as well as Stripes, Child’s Play, Hot Shots, and Anaconda… so go figure). Unlike most action flicks, there’s real beauty and a bit of tenderness in the way Jaws is shot. There’s also a lot of isolation and the coolest skewed-perspective zoom in the history of forever.

We also need to talk about Richard Dreyfuss. Richard Dreyfuss is a god among men. Richard Dreyfuss is the untouchable prototype for the modern man. Richard Dreyfuss is a fashion icon torn from the pages of next month’s Kinfolk magazine. Richard Dreyfuss is a billionaire oceanographer. Richard Dreyfuss hides in the depths of the ocean during the ultimate battle with a great white shark and somehow isn’t a coward, but a hero. Richard Dreyfuss steals scenes from a white-hot Roy Scheider. Richard Dreyfuss matches scars with a grizzled shark hunter. Richard Dreyfuss almost gets his pelvis crushed by a rope before all the excitement happens. Richard Dreyfuss is sleeping with all the beautiful tourists (men and women) back in Amity. Richard Dreyfuss forgets to take off his glasses before going down into the shark cage. Richard Dreyfuss can get it.

Watch Jaws again. It’s your new favorite movie. It’s my new favorite movie. I love it even if we screwed up the microwave caramel corn and only half of it popped.

Every Friday I share something I love. Usually, it’s a new infatuation. Occasionally, it’s something else. We’ll see how it goes. Thanks for the theme song, Phoebe Bridgers!