When it first came out 37 years ago, it was all about the shark. Looking at it now, it’s all about the acting. To be fair, there are still plenty of cool action scenes in the Steven Spielberg classic, like the opening scene of the lone swimmer being attacked and the beach scene where everybody in the water looks like a smorgasbord waiting to be eaten, but ‘Bruce’ the shark looks pretty rubbery today. The acting, on the other hand, is strong and muscular, without ever falling into macho cliché. Roy Scheider brings a nice New York swagger to the role of the police chief, but isn’t afraid to show some real emotions – fear of the shark, love for his family – as the story goes on. Richard Dreyfuss is good, too as the young marine biologist who thinks he knows more about sharks than anyone else because he’s studied them in the classroom. And then there’s the late, great Robert Shaw and his peerless performance as Quint, the veteran shark hunter with a mania for catching sharks that rivals anything Ahab ever felt for the white whale.
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