Jaws
Unforgettable Spielberg classic about a giant man-eating shark terrorizing an American seaside town.
A tourist town on the East Coast of the United States is ravaged by a huge bloodthirsty, man-eating shark. The local sheriff, played by Roy Schneider, intends to close the beach to prevent further attacks. He is however overruled by the mayor, who puts the commercial interests of the seaside resort above general safety. The sheriff decides to take matters into his own hands. Together with a nerdy scientist – a legendary role by Richard Dreyfuss – he decides to fight the monster.
Although the mechanical shark in JAWS was the crowd-pleaser at the time, the performance of actors Roy Schneider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw are now the pinnacle of this masterpiece. Spielberg ignored the relational troubles that are central to the story of Peter Benchley's original novel and mainly focuses on the collaborative fight against the shark. Benchley would eventually be removed from the set when he objected to what he thought was a totally implausible final scene. Needless to say, Spielberg was right, as the figures show: JAWS won no less than three Oscars and the film had a total revenue of 470 million dollars on a budget of 9 million (!). The film industry would never be the same; with JAWS, the summer blockbuster was born.