Jaws

In 1975 JAWS became as much an American phenomenon as the Peter Benchley novel that inspired it. The movie had summer moviegoers screaming in their seats and became the first ever to gross $100 million. It was a thrilling and surprisingly funny piece of entertainment back then, and age hasn't done it any great disservice. It has what no other movie in the Giant Vengeful Animal genre has since managed to produce: a witty, believable, and compelling script; notable performances by humans; and the directorial gunpowder of a young, ambitious Steven Spielberg. Any one of those attributes can pull a mediocre idea out of the chum bucket; JAWS has it all.

While stars Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss are standouts in their roles, the movie is impossible to imagine without Robert Shaw. Three parts Ahab, two parts Long John Silver, he redefines the term "salty" with his performance, and inspires the movie's greatest dread in a speech that he himself rewrote. "You know the thing about a shark," he says. "He's got lifeless eyes, black eyes--like a doll's eyes." Seeing all those uninformed vacationers bobbing in the ocean like so many fish food flakes is gripping stuff -- certainly to be avoided by children wrestling with water phobias. Three less accomplished sequels followed, the last one fun only in its absolute ineptness. If only National Lampoon had gone ahead with their proposed parody, the boxed set would be complete; supposedly it was to be called Jaws 5, Tourists 0.