movie reviews jaws 3

Every 'Jaws' Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.

No matter if you are a die-hard cinema fan or a casual moviegoer, everybody has heard of Jaws . It is one of the few movies that it feels like everyone has seen, and those that have not should swiftly add it to their watch list. Its simple tale of a man-eating great white shark tormenting the residents of a beach-side town has been terrorizing audiences for almost five decades, and it has not lost any of its charm in that time.

RELATED: 10 Most Thrilling Movies of All Time, According to the AFI

Many people are surprised to learn that Jaws received three sequels, as none of them came close to making the same impact as the original film. In fact, Jaws is still firmly entrenched as the greatest killer shark movie of all time, with any movie released in the genre bound to be compared to the masterpiece. While the original is easily the best in the franchise, how do the Jaws sequels stack up against each other, and are any of them worth taking a bite out of?

4 'Jaws: The Revenge' (1987)

Jaws: The Revenge sees the return of Lorraine Gary as Ellen Brody, reprising her role from the first two movies. After her youngest Sam is killed by a shark, Ellen travels with her other son and his family to the Bahamas in an attempt to find peace. Instead, they encounter the same shark who is seeking revenge against the Brody family.

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As the fourth and final entry in the series, it can be claimed that Jaws: The Revenge killed the franchise due to its poor quality. It frequently comes up in discussions about the worst horror movies of all time , as it is riddled with plot inconsistences and bad effects that are shameful when held up against the groundbreaking original. Anyone seeking an intentionally bad movie should check out The Revenge , and it even features Michael Caine in a supporting role as Ellen's new love interest.

3 'Jaws 3D' (1983)

Every classic franchise dabbled with 3D at some stage, and in 1983, it was Jaws' turn. Jaws 3D follows Michael Brody ( Dennis Quaid ), the son of the hero from the first two films. Michael works as an engineer at SeaWorld, where his girlfriend Kay ( Bess Armstrong ), a marine biologist, begins to suspect that a shark is responsible for the mysterious death occurring at the tourist attraction. When Kay and her fellow biologists capture the shark they believe to be the culprit, they soon feel the wrath of the shark's mother as it comes for its baby.

Jaws 3D is another poor entry in the franchise but still manages to be better than The Revenge . The SeaWorld setting makes for an interesting hunting ground for the shark, and the cheesy performances give it a "so bad it's good" vibe. Those present during the film's theatrical release commented that the 3D effects made for a better viewing experience, and it is easy to imagine that having the shark flying out of the screen at you would greatly enhance the movie's entertainment factor like the best 3D horror movies often do.

2 'Jaws 2' (1978)

Picking up after the events of the first movie, Jaws 2 sees the town of Amity returning to normal. But when bodies begin floating to the surface once again, Police Chief Martin Brody ( Roy Scheider ) suspects a second shark has arrived to munch on Amity's residents. Despite being doubted by his superiors, Brody knows better than to ignore his gut and sets out to combat a man-eating shark once again.

RELATED: 10 Classic '70s Movies That Just Get Better with Age

While Jaws 2 fails to reach the massive heights of the original film, it is clearly the best sequel in the horror franchise . The fact that it continues the story of the first movie and features a few returning cast members does help it to feel connected rather than a spin-off trying to cash-in on the brand like the latter sequels. Its focus on a teenage cast who are hunted by the shark calls to mind the slasher movies that would follow it, like Friday the 13th , and it is never not fun to see dumb teenagers picked off one by one in a horror setting.

1 'Jaws' (1975)

When the peaceful seaside town of Amity begins to be plagued by deaths in the ocean, Police Chief Brody tries to warn the residents that a hungry shark is waiting to feast on them. When his pleas fall on deaf ears, he can only watch as more civilians fall victim to the creature. Eventually granted permission to set out and destroy the beast, he sails into the ocean with marine biologist Matt Hooper ( Richard Dreyfuss ) and shark hunter Quint ( Robert Shaw ). As the three men bond aboard the boat, they find themselves in the shark's hunting ground as it seeks to rip them apart.

Much has been said about Jaws already, and it is all true. One of the greatest thrillers of all time , Jaws also once held the record of the highest-grossing movie ever . It popularized the idea of the summer blockbuster, and is the best animal attack movie that all others aspire to be. Everything from the unforgettable soundtrack to Stephen Spielberg 's masterful direction makes Jaws a legendary classic and one of the best movies ever made.

KEEP READING: 10 Best Movies with Sharks That Aren't 'Jaws', from 'Deep Blue Sea' to 'The Shallows'

• The Inventory

Jaws in 3D (Not Jaws 3D ) Is Out This Weekend and Worth Your Time

The steven spielberg classic is back in theaters this weekend with a whole new dimension..

As the summer movie season comes to an end, a few all-time blockbusters are busting back into theaters. One is from just last year but the other is the original. The first . Maybe the best of the best. Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classic, Jaws .

Jaws on the big screen alone is quite the experience. John Williams’ Oscar-winning score blankets you in fear. Spielberg’s masterful direction pushes you to the edge of your seat. Watching the movie on the big screen by itself would be worth the cost of a ticket . But this weekend isn’t a mere re-release. Spielberg himself has approved a 3D conversion of the film and if that piques your interest in any way, it’s absolutely worth your time.

io9 caught a screening of Jaws in Real D 3D last week and it’s truly excellent. Which, we fully admit, has lots to do with just how incredible Jaws remains. It’s a movie you can watch again and again and find new things to marvel at. Nu ances to the performances . Foreshadowing in the filmmaking. But in 3D, much of its marvel has to do with the cinematography of Bill Butler.

Unlike 1983's Jaws 3D , the third film in the franchise which was filmed with 3D in mind, Jaws in 3D isn’t all about stuff flying off the screen. Instead, it’s a more subtle, immersive experience. Butler’s compositions are deconstructed almost like one of those exploded blueprint posters . Every piece of the frame is stretched front to back making it feel like you’re looking out a window, not at a flat screen.

Instantly, you notice how many shots in the film were composed to give the world depth and scope. Brody walks through town, and the buildings and crowds stretch into the horizon. Fishermen run on a dock with the railing furthest up, people behind it, and the moon in the background so clear you can almost touch it. Even watching characters have dinner, the 3D makes everything feel a bit more real and personal.

But the best 3D scenes take place in the water— w hich, it being freaking Jaws , happens a lot. When the camera frames the water at eye level, the theater almost becomes an aquarium. What do I mean by that? Well, imagine holding an aquarium in your hands and moving it left and right. How the water goes up the sides of the structure but doesn’t tip out. It’s restricted yet beautiful. That’s what Jaws feels like in those scenes. The water seems as if it wants to pour into the theater. And these scenes are all throughout the film. Anytime people are on the beach in the first half and, of course, when Quint, Brody, and Hooper go out into the water in the second half.

As one might expect, the 3D effects are even better once Jaws becomes the three men on the water. You get that aforementioned aquarium effect at times but the angles on Quint’s Orca boat are what really shine. When the captain is hanging off the front of the boat, you can see how exposed he is, and feel his vulnerability. When Brody climbs up the mast, there’s an added fear of heights on top of the fear of killer sharks. And when those yellow barrels pop up in the front of the frame, no matter how far back the boat looks like it is, it’s never enough.

This weekend, you can see 11 extra minutes of Spider-Man , watch the new film from George Miller , or revisit Top Gun: Maverick for the 5th time. All are solid options. But if you love Steven Spielberg and/ or Jaws , seeing it in 3D is a wholly satisfying, worthwhile experience.

Jaws in Real D 3D opens in select theaters Friday for one week only to start. Head here for showtimes and tickets . (It’s also opening this weekend in IMAX, which is not in 3D but should be pretty damned cool too.)

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV , and everything you need to know about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power .

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

A giant thirty-five-foot shark becomes trapped in a SeaWorld theme park and it's up to the sons of police chief Brody to rescue everyone. A giant thirty-five-foot shark becomes trapped in a SeaWorld theme park and it's up to the sons of police chief Brody to rescue everyone. A giant thirty-five-foot shark becomes trapped in a SeaWorld theme park and it's up to the sons of police chief Brody to rescue everyone.

• Peter Benchley
• Richard Matheson
• Carl Gottlieb
• Dennis Quaid
• Bess Armstrong
• Simon MacCorkindale
• 374 User reviews
• 88 Critic reviews
• 27 Metascore
• 5 nominations

• Dr. Kathryn Morgan

• Philip FitzRoyce

• Calvin Bouchard

• Kelly Ann Bukowski

• Shelby Overman
• Silver Bullet
• Tunnel Guide
• Bob Woodbury
• (as John Edson Jr.)

• Mrs. Kallender

• Leonard Glass
• (as Archie Valliere)

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia According to the book " Roy Scheider : a film biography" (2002) by Diane C. Kachmar, Scheider, who starred in the first two Jaws movies, once said, "Mephistopheles couldn't talk me into doing (it). They knew better than to even ask." Reportedly, Scheider agreed to make Blue Thunder (1983) in order to ensure that he was definitely and contractually unavailable for this film. Scheider had made Jaws 2 (1978) reluctantly due to a contract issue with Universal Pictures, whereby he owed the studio two films after withdrawing from The Deer Hunter (1978) . To get out of this situation, he opted to do Jaws 2 (1978) , a movie on which he didn't want to work, in exchange for the studio releasing him from his contract.
• Goofs When the shark in the public observation pool gets sick, Kathryn jumps in and starts stroking the shark's skin back and forth. That should've hurt her hand; shark skin is smooth from nose to tail, but rough from tail to nose. Carpenters once used shark skin as an abrasive.

Kathryn Morgan : Overman was killed inside the park. The baby was caught inside the park. Its mother is inside the park.

• Crazy credits In the original 3D version, the Universal Pictures Logo is in 3D. Plus the title "Jaws 3D" comes "toward" the viewer, clamping together as if it was like a shark's mouth.
• Alternate versions The UK cinema version was cut by 7 secs by the BBFC to edit closeup scenes of Overman's mutilated body and to remove a shot of a sea worm emerging from his mouth. The cuts were restored in the video version and the certificate upgraded to a '15' ('12' for the DVD release).
• Connections Edited into Cruel Jaws (1995)

User reviews 374

• Apr 25, 2010
• How long is Jaws 3-D? Powered by Alexa
• What is 'Jaws 3' about?
• Is 'Jaws 3' based on a book?
• How many characters from the first two "Jaws" movies return in "Jaws 3"?
• July 22, 1983 (United States)
• United States
• Universal Owned Property, Orlando, Florida, USA (now Universal Studios Florida)
• Universal Pictures
• Alan Landsburg Productions
• MCA Theatricals
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $20,500,000 (estimated)
• $45,517,055
• $13,422,500
• Jul 24, 1983
• $87,987,055

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 39 minutes
• Dolby Stereo

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Movie Reviews

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So the police chief famously informs the shark hunter, right after the first brief appearance of the man-eater in "Jaws." It's not simply a splendid line of dialogue, it's an example of Steven Spielberg's strategy all through the film, where the shark is more talked about than seen, and seen more in terms of its actions than in the flesh. There is a story that when producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown first approached Spielberg with an offer to direct the film of Peter Benchley's best seller, he said he would do it on one condition: that the shark not be seen for the first hour. Viewing the movie's 25th anniversary DVD, I was surprised to realize how little the shark is seen at all.

In keeping the Great White offscreen, Spielberg was employing a strategy used by Alfred Hitchcock throughout his career. "A bomb is under the table, and it explodes: That is surprise," said Hitchcock. "The bomb is under the table but it does not explode: That is suspense." Spielberg leaves the shark under the table for most of the movie. And many of its manifestations in the later part of the film are at second hand: We don't see the shark but the results of his actions. The payoff is one of the most effective thrillers ever made.

The movie takes place over the Fourth of July weekend on Amity Island, a tourist resort that feeds off the dollars of its visitors. A famous opening sequence establishes the presence of a man-eating shark in the coastal waters; a girl goes swimming by moonlight and is dragged under, screaming. All evidence points to a shark, but Mayor Vaughn ( Murray Hamilton ) doesn't want to scare away tourists, and orders Brody ( Roy Scheider ), the police chief, to keep the beaches open. "If people can't swim here, they'll be glad to swim in the beaches of Cape Cod, the Hamptons, Long Island," the mayor tells Brody, who spits back: "That doesn't mean we have to serve them up a smorgasbord." But the mayor strides on the beach wearing a sport coat and tie, encouraging people to go into the water. They do, with predictable results.

A town meeting is interrupted by the second of the film's central characters, the rough-edged, narrow-eyed Quint ( Robert Shaw ). He gets attention by scraping his fingernails down a blackboard that displays a drawing of a shark and offers his services as a bounty hunter: "You all know me. Know how I make a living." Soon after, Brody sits at home paging through books on sharks, a device that allows Spielberg to establish the killer in our minds as we look at page after page of fearsome teeth, cold little eyes and victims with chunks taken out of their bodies. (One of the photos shows a shark with a diver's air tank in its mouth, possibly suggesting where Brody gets his bright idea for killing the creature.)

The third key character is Hooper ( Richard Dreyfuss ), an oceanographer, brought in as an adviser, and useful to the movie because he can voice dramatic information. ("What we're dealing with here is a perfect engine. An eating machine.") Brody is convinced the beaches must be closed and the shark killed; the mayor stalls, and then after the shark makes the TV news, a $3,000 bounty is offered, and Amity is crawling with reckless fortune hunters.

It's here that Spielberg uses one of his most inventive visuals for suggesting the shark. Three or four men gather on a wooden pier, hoping to catch the shark. One has stolen his wife's beef roast to use as bait. They put a fearsome hook through the roast, fasten the chain to the pier, and toss in the bait. The shark simply pulls the end of the pier loose from its moorings and drags it out to sea. Effective, but even more chilling is the next shot, in which we see the floating pier turn around and move back toward shore.

Floating objects are used all through the movie to suggest the invisible shark. After Brody, Quint and Hooper put out to sea in Quint's leaky boat, they fire harpoons into the shark. The harpoons are roped to floating yellow kegs, designed to tire the shark with their lift and drag. In the crucial action sequences at the end, we are often looking at kegs and not at a shark, but the premise is so well established that the shark is there.

The screenplay, by Spielberg, Benchley and Carl Gottlieb , with contributions by Howard Sackler and a crucial speech by Shaw, does not twist itself into parables. The characters all have straightforward motivations. A little dialogue goes a long way. Individual lines stand out for hard-edged terseness:

"I'm not gonna stand here and see that thing cut open and see that little Kintner boy spill out all over the dock. "

"I pulled a tooth the size of a shot glass out of the wrecked hull of a boat out there, and it was the tooth of a Great White. "

"The thing about a shark, he's got lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes. When he comes after you, he doesn't seem to be living until he bites you, and those black eyes roll over white. . . . "

After all of the shark-establishing and curtain-raising scenes, the heart of the movie is in the long passage at sea, where Hooper and Brody (who is afraid of the water) join Quint on his boat. Brody is right, they need a bigger boat. Quint's boat is terrifyingly inadequate, leaky, with an engine that produces clouds of black smoke, a bridge that seems designed to topple a crew member overboard, and a harpooning platform jutting out from the bow so that a man standing on it looks like an appetizer on a kebab stick.

The best scene in the movie is the nighttime scene in the galley, where the men drink apricot brandy and Quint and Hooper compare scars. Finally Quint launches into a moody monologue, telling the World War II story of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. He was one of its crew members. Of the 1,100 men who went overboard, he says, sharks ate all but 316 before rescue arrived: "They averaged six an hour."

When the shark does appear for its closeups, it is quite satisfactorily terrifying, and most audiences are too startled to ask why the shark seems prepared to inconvenience itself so greatly, at one point even attempting to eat the boat. The shark has been so thoroughly established, through dialogue and quasi-documentary material, that its actual presence is enhanced in our imaginations by all we've seen and heard.

Spielberg's first big hit contained elements he repeated in many of his movies. A night sea hunt for the shark provides an early example of his favorite visual hallmark, a beam of light made visible by fog. He would continue to devote close attention to characters, instead of hurrying past them to the special effects, as so many 1990s f/x directors did. In "Jaws" and subsequently, he prefers mood to emotional bludgeoning, and one of the remarkable things about the picture is its relatively muted tone. The familiar musical theme by John Williams is not a shrieker, but low and insinuating. It's often heard during point-of-view shots, at water level and below, that are another way Spielberg suggests the shark without showing it. The cinematography, by Bill Butler , is at pains to tell the story in the midst of middle-class America; if Spielberg's favorite location would become the suburbs, "Jaws" shows suburbanites on vacation.

"Jaws" was released in 1975, quickly becoming the highest-grossing picture made up to that time, and forever wresting the summer releasing season away from B movies and exploitation pictures. The major Hollywood studios, which had avoided summer, now identified it as the prime releasing season, and "Jaws" inspired hundreds of summer thrillers and f/x pictures. For Spielberg, the movie was the launching pad for the most extraordinary directorial career in modern movie history. Before "Jaws," he was known as the gifted young director of films such as "Duel" (1971) and " The Sugarland Express " (1974), After "Jaws," " Close Encounters of the Third Kind " (1977) and " Raiders of the Lost Ark " (1981), he was the king.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Jaws (1975)

124 minutes

Roy Scheider as Brody

Robert Shaw as Quint

Richard Dreyfuss as Hooper

Lorraine Gary as Ellen Brody

Murray Hamilton as Mayor

Directed by

• Steven Spielberg

Produced by

• Richard Zanuck
• David Brown

Screenplay by

• Peter Benchley
• Carl Gottleib

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Welcome to an exciting year-long project here at The Nerdy. 1983 was an exciting year for films giving us a lot of films that would go on to be beloved favorites and cult classics. It was also the start to a major shift in cultural and societal norms, and some of those still reverberate to this day.

We’re going to pick and choose which movies we hit, but right now the list stands at nearly four dozen.

Yes, we’re insane, but 1983 was that great of a year for film.

The articles will come out – in most cases – on the same day the films hit theaters in 1983 so that it is their true 40th anniversary. All films are also watched again for the purposes of these reviews and are not being done from memory. In some cases, it truly will be the first time we’ve seen them.

This time around, it’s July 22nd, 1983, and we’re off to see Jaws 3 and Mr. Mom .

Quick side note: Since we launched this series this year, we’ve discovered that Vintage Video Podcast is doing the exact same project with two differences: First, it’s audio (naturally), and second, they are doing every major film. We’ve listened to numerous episodes and it’s fun checking off their thoughts against my own. Check them out over at Vintage Video Podcast.

Jaws 3 is another one of those films I’ve always heard was horrible, but I went into it with an open mind. Just as I did with Staying Alive last week.

The funny thing? I actually didn’t hate Jaws 3 .

No, I’m not here to tell you it’s some magnificent film, it’s just… harmless.

Yes, it’s silly these are supposed to be the kids from the original film all grown up as it has been less than a decade since that film. But other than that, it’s just your average underwater monster movie, it just happens to have the name “Jaws” attached to it.

I did watch the film in 2-D despite it being originally released in 3-D, and let me tell you, there is no mistaking where the 3-D was supposed to be. The effects are so bad that they are laugh-inducing.

Jaws 3 is… “fine.” It’s not horrible, and it’s certainly not good, but it is at least mildly entertaining at times.

I swear there was a point on HBO in the early 1980s when Mr. Mom was on every night. I have seen this movie so many times, but it was long ago at this point. I probably haven’t seen it now in close to 30 years. I was curious how it would hold up with the way the world has changed and so on.

I am happy to report I still laughed.

This film is so incredibly engrained with 1980s sensibilities (A man staying home to take care of the kids?!?), but timeless all the same. And, thankfully, nothing seems dated in this film, such as the blackface scene in Trading Places from a few weeks ago. In general it’s just a family comedy that displays Keaton’s comedic chops.

It’s interesting how much this movie was cited as to why he shouldn’t play Batman in the 1989 film, but when you look at some of the more unhinged moments in the film you can see why he would do well in the role.

Mr. Mom is a fun film, an enjoyable watch, and well worth your time to catch it if you’ve never seen it.

1983 Movie Reviews will return on July 29, 2023 with Krull , National Lampoon’s Vacation , and Private School !

Fun Jug Media, LLC (operating TheNerdy.com) has affiliate partnerships with various companies. These do not at any time have any influence on the editorial content of The Nerdy. Fun Jug Media LLC may earn a commission from these links.

Sean P. Aune

Sean Aune has been a pop culture aficionado since before there was even a term for pop culture. From the time his father brought home Amazing …

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Jaws Reviews

A miraculous achievement from all aspects, Spielberg weaves together drama, humor, adventure, and horror expertly and plays the audience like a fiddle. The main trio of stars are tremendous in their roles.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 24, 2023

Jaws is the pinnacle of shark movies, one of the greatest films ever made and still as wholly terrifying and relentlessly fun as it was when it came out in 1975.

Full Review | Aug 4, 2023

Anchored by performances by Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider, and the inimitable Robert Shaw, the film is a poignant character study of men with vastly different reasons for embarking on a mission into the great unknown.

Full Review | Jul 18, 2023

Not that it doesn’t pack scares and thrills, but it has a peculiarly ’70s appetite for small character detail.

Full Review | Original Score: A+ | Aug 25, 2022

Rivetingly obvious special effects, marginal acting by Robert Shaw, and an Academy performance by the shark, if you like animal acts.

Full Review | Jul 13, 2022

A carefully composed and genuinely great piece of filmmaking Steven Spielberg accomplished through unimaginable circumstances.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 23, 2022

It's immortalized for good reason. Between the thematic score, its perfect cast, and gut-punch of a thrill, Jaws is still very much alive.

Full Review | Oct 14, 2021

Jaws (1975) is a classic that defined the modern Summer Movie Blockbuster as we know it. It still plays like gangbusters and will make you deeply nervous around water.

Full Review | Sep 10, 2021

A relatively inexperienced director Steven Spielberg found a "less is more" visual approach heightened suspense in the movie's early scenes. Characters to care about helped, along with spot-on editing by Verna Fields.

Full Review | Aug 10, 2021

Jaws may be Steven Spielberg's greatest achievement. Sure, Schindler's List may get more critical kudos and Indiana Jones may be more iconic - but Spielberg's 1975 adaptation of Peter Benchley's aquatic thriller is a masterpiece from start to finish.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 24, 2021

I have always been a fan of "creature features" and monster movies and Jaws is that and so much more. It is endlessly rewatchable and fun.

Full Review | Mar 24, 2021

The father of all blockbusters, Steven Spielberg's film is a masterpiece under and above water. To this date, still makes me scared of swimming in the sea. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 23, 2020

Jaws remains a classic not just for how it changed the film industry, but because it is an exquisitely made monster movie that tapped into universal human fears and did so with iconic style.

Full Review | Nov 19, 2020

It can be appreciated entirely for its extraordinary entertainment value, nail-biting suspense, sense of adventure, and old-fashioned Hitchcockian scare-tactics.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | Aug 30, 2020

Even decades after its blockbuster release, Jaws is still horrifying, as well as terrifyingly prescient about the current public health and safety crisis.

Full Review | Jul 27, 2020

Here is the moment that would forever change how movies are made, marketed, and watched.

Full Review | Jul 16, 2020

The beauty of Steven Spielberg's 1975 classic is that you can choose how to watch it: as a summery, shark-bitten thriller or as an allegory about the failed leadership of institutions...

Full Review | Jun 25, 2020

...more interesting is where the political and personal intersect... which fits nicely with what the movie as a whole does so well, mixing the horror and adventure with the personal.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 19, 2020

Jaws was just the beginning of an ever-amazing career for Spielberg and has left audiences with a number of quotable lines including the very popular, "You're going to need a bigger boat".

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jun 1, 2020

Master filmmaker Steven Spielberg doesn't show much of the most famous shark of all time, but you can always sense he's never far away.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 16, 2020

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Common sense media reviewers.

1970s shark horror tale still has scare factor.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Trust your instincts if you feel something is wron

Martin cares about protecting people and takes res

All characters are White, apart from a few Black t

Several people are graphically eaten by a shark, i

Couples kiss, talk in bed, and joke about "fooling

"S--t," "son of a bitch," "damn," "bastard," and "

Many characters casually smoke cigarettes and pipe

Parents need to know that Jaws is director Steven Spielberg's classic blockbuster about a great white shark that attacks swimmers vacationing in a New England beach town. Based on Peter Benchley's novel and released in the 1970s, the film is still nightmare fodder for more sensitive viewers. While the shark…

Positive Messages

Trust your instincts if you feel something is wrong. Human life is more important than money. Teamwork is sometimes the only way forward. On the flip side, the film sends a negative message that violence can be a good solution in scary situations.

Positive Role Models

Martin cares about protecting people and takes responsibility for not acting faster. Other main characters exhibit bravery and quick thinking in the midst of dangerous situations: Matt wants to stop the shark from hurting others and Quint helps, too, but for selfish reasons. Town leaders try to cover up the attacks for financial gain and encourage risky behavior.

Diverse Representations

All characters are White, apart from a few Black tourists in the background. A White character refers to someone as a "Chinese fella." Women fall into traditional gender roles as supportive wives, mothers, or secretaries. Class tensions are brought up in arguments between Matt -- who's wealthy and educated -- and working-class Quint.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Several people are graphically eaten by a shark, including a child. Lots of blood (some human, some fish). Graphic displays of severed legs, hands, heads, and entrails. Photographs of human bodies injured by shark attacks. A dead body emerges from the inside of a sunken ship. Weapons used against the shark include explosives, guns, harpoons, and knives. People are trampled trying to escape the water. Talk of a historical tragedy where hundreds were eaten by sharks.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Couples kiss, talk in bed, and joke about "fooling around." People wear swimsuits on the beach, and men are shirtless. A character makes sexual jokes about "swimming with bowlegged women" and "rubbers." Brief nudity -- while skinny dipping, a woman's breast is shown from the side, but her body is heavily shadowed.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"S--t," "son of a bitch," "damn," "bastard," and "half a--ed." "Jesus Christ" and "for Christ's sake" used as exclamations. Name calling includes "kook." A character makes a rude arm gesture that means "up yours."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Many characters casually smoke cigarettes and pipes and drink beer, whiskey, wine, and moonshine. Several characters get drunk. The three lead characters drink heavily on a sailboat. Drinking in a bar.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Jaws is director Steven Spielberg 's classic blockbuster about a great white shark that attacks swimmers vacationing in a New England beach town. Based on Peter Benchley's novel and released in the 1970s, the film is still nightmare fodder for more sensitive viewers. While the shark itself doesn't look very realistic by today's standards, the discussions about shark attacks can be just as frightening as when characters are actually attacked, bitten, and killed. Expect to see severed limbs, lots of blood, and frenzied panic. There's also lots of casual smoking and drinking, and several characters get drunk. Language includes "s--t," "son of a bitch," "damn," "bastard," and "half a--ed." Men are shirtless on the beach, and a woman's breast is shown from the side (her nude body is heavily shadowed). People of color are absent from the film's main and supporting cast, and women are mainly there as supportive wives, mothers, or secretaries. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (101)
• Kids say (462)

Based on 101 parent reviews

Terrorized my 6 year old

What's the story.

At the start of JAWS, during a late-night beach party, a girl disappears while swimming. When her remains come ashore, Police Chief Martin Brody ( Roy Scheider ) believes it was a shark attack. The mayor ( Murray Hamilton ) is worried about the effect such news might have on the tourist trade and covers up the incident. After a few more high-profile attacks, some local fishermen catch a shark. The mayor ignores warnings from ichthyologist Matt Hooper ( Richard Dreyfuss ) that this shark was too small to have been the one in the attacks. Another fatality sends Brody, Hooper, and local fisherman Quint ( Robert Shaw ) off to find the great white shark. While they're an unlikely group to work together -- Quint is simply doing it for the money and clearly disrespects Chief Brody's inexperience, as well as Hooper's college education -- the three slowly begin to bond when they realize that the shark is larger and much more vicious than they could have ever anticipated.

Is It Any Good?

This film remains a horror classic that effectively transcends the genre and the time in which it was released. Though Jaws is one of Steven Spielberg 's early films, his adept building up of the tension -- heightened by the now almost universally known two-note "shark attack" music provided by John Williams -- shines in both the shark attack scenes and in the spaces in which the story and the characters have room to develop. Even with a shark that doesn't look terribly realistic by today's standards, the film still delivers suspense and terror and is a textbook study on how to escalate tension for maximum payoff.

In terms of the acting, the chemistry between Scheider, Dreyfuss, and Shaw is still a delight to take in. But the movie does feel dated due to its entirely White cast and cliched female characters. Nevertheless, at the time of its release, it was the highest-grossing box office movie of all time and it continues to remain a pop culture staple.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the violence in Jaws . Is it necessary to the story, or does it simply provide added scares and horror for viewers?

How is music used to build suspense in this movie? What are some other examples of well-known horror movie soundtracks?

Do you think this movie still works today, or is it too dated? Why?

Do you think it's scarier when you see violent things like shark attacks or when you only hear about them and use your imagination to fill in what you don't see?

Movie Details

• In theaters : June 20, 1975
• On DVD or streaming : June 21, 2022
• Cast : Richard Dreyfuss , Robert Shaw , Roy Scheider
• Director : Steven Spielberg
• Studio : Universal Pictures
• Genre : Horror
• Topics : Adventures , Book Characters , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires , Ocean Creatures
• Run time : 125 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : violence
• Last updated : February 16, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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