Jaws (film)/YMMV


 * Adaptation Displacement: The novel was made before the film, yet is not as known.
 * And You Thought It Would Fail: Jaws was initially picked up as a script treatment by Universal Pictures, but ran into problems almost immediately. A rookie director who only had one other feature film — that bombed in theatres — to his name was chosen to direct the film. An actor who believed he was now box-office poison because of his prior work signed up as one of the main characters. Filming ran overbudget and overtime, with executives denying funding for key reshoots (which then had to be paid out of pocket). There were accusations that the practical effects were cheap and laughable, forcing the filmmaker to improvise by keeping it offscreen for most of the runtime. Yet, contrary to Steven Spielberg and Richard Dreyfuss' beliefs, Jaws became the first film to see wide-release distribution, became one of the highest-grossing films of all time and ushered in a new wave in American filmmaking.
 * Artistic License Biology: Sharks. Do. Not. Roar. Nor are they able to swim backwards. Also, sharks do not usually attack you unless you provoke them or they can smell your blood in the water. But they will attack you if you look like a seal or a turtle, which the little kid just happen to look like, but they won't eat you whole -- so that's a relief.
 * Maybe the sharks are just that evil!
 * Award Snub: Spielberg himself threw a fit in broadcast TV once he didn't get nominated for Best Director.
 * You can watch it here.
 * Awesome Music: Da-DUN. Daaaa-DUN. The shark's Leitmotif is one of the most famous in film history.
 * Even better when
 * Fanon Discontinuity: What allows the original movie to be untainted by the sequels.
 * First Installment Wins: Not that there is any competition over this.
 * Funny Moments: Now with its own page.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: Richard Dreyfuss stated that Spielberg looped the screams of the opening sequence by diving Susan Backlinie's head into a water bucket - what's basically torture today.
 * I Am Not Shazam: "Jaws" is not the name of the shark. It had no name, except maybe Bruce.
 * Jumping the Voodoo Shark: Jaws: The Revenge is the trope namer for Voodoo Shark, as noted below. This also counts as Jumping the Shark. Thankfully, it is only mentioned in the novelization, and not in the films themselves.
 * Harsher in Hindsight: In Revenge, Judith Barsi plays Michael's daughter, who is almost killed thanks to Michael neglecting to warn his family that there's a shark nearby. She almost died because of her father, yeah...
 * Nightmare Fuel: Wanna go for a swim ?
 * Only the Creator Does It Right: Spielberg only directed the first movie, and the sequels are generally believed to get progressively worse.
 * The Problem with Licensed Games: Jaws Unleashed was not great. At least they let you play as the shark. For some there is a lot of amusement to be had from biting down on a scuba diver and dragging him at high speed through the water while he screams in terror before tearing him to pieces. And then there's the fact that the license included the use of the iconic theme tune. It's sequel, Ultimate Predator, however is an entirely different story.
 * And of course the infamous NES game, which mostly consists of swimming around harpooning innocent and harmless sea creatures.
 * Sequelitis: To a ridiculous extent. But to be fair, Jaws 2 ain't all that bad. Even Jaws 3 has a handful of decent moments. The fourth film, however...
 * Serial Numbers Filed Off: The Italian rip off L'Ultimo Squalo (also known as The Last Shark and Great White) from 1981. Shark's leitmotif was good though.
 * This was why that movie didn't have an official release in America back then. Universal saw it for the rip-off it was and successfully sued to keep it out of the States.
 * Special Effect Failure: Every shot of the shark in Part 3, particularly the scene in which it breaks the aquarium's glass shield.
 * The very obvious models used when the shark explodes in Revenge.
 * Straw Man Has a Point: The mayor isn't completely wrong that news of a shark could ruin the town - all "summer tourist" towns are extremely dependent on seasonal income. He's extremely wrong, however, in the degree to which he ignores the evidence. Also, his refusal to cut open the shark, possibly spilling the remains of it's latest victim (a young child), is completely right. Why they couldn't both agree to wait until everyone left and cut it open late at night (what Brody and Hooper do anyway) is anyone's guess.
 * And in the second film, when the town council again wants to ignore evidence of a shark problem, for the same reasons as in the first film, but are completely right in their decision to fire Brody over his extremely reckless actions on the beach--screaming at people, firing his gun--that could have left someone seriously injured or even dead. Brody's lack of remorse for what he did don't help his cause much.
 * Tear Jerker: Mrs. Kintner's confrontation with Brody over keeping the beaches open after Chrissie's death, resulting in her son being killed.
 * Voodoo Shark: The Trope Namers, specifically regarding the novelization of Jaws: The Revenge.