Jaws (1975)
#19 on my Top 100 List
If the story is told right, nature can be really frakking scary. This movie is certainly done right. Like Hitchcock's The Birds, what is most frightening about the man-eating shark in Jaws is that the audience has no idea why it has become a killer (even the shark expert played by Richard Dreyfuss admits that the shark is acting unnaturally). John Williams' famous score, the no-holds-barred shark-feeding scenes, and the fact that we as the audience are only given teasing glimpses of the shark itself make the ultimate big reveal all the more awesome. The one main character who is killed in the end is given an appropriately grisly and terrifying death. The Jaws ride at Universal Studios is one of the best and, up to this point, has survived their efforts to "upgrade" (a.k.a. ruin) the park. Also worth noting is Quint's monologue about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis - one of the most haunting film speeches ever written. RIP Roy Scheider, who will be forever dubbed "the Jaws guy."
My Netflix rating: 5 stars
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