This is the original summer blockbuster, and will remain unmatched. Jaws was a big thing in Norway too at the time, my brothers talked about it, and made their little brother envious. Because when it came out, I was a few years too young to watch it at the theater. My older neighbor however did, and I still remember him telling about the experience. He took me through the whole film and gave everything away, finishing it all off with the now famous «Smile, you son-of-a-bitch!» BOOM!! I didn't mind at all, knowing there were no chance that I would [ever] see it, in four years it would be off the big screen and I had never heard of home video. It's a bit weird that I remember all this in vivid detail, but can't remember exactly when I first saw the film myself. Chances are it didn't happen until I was eighteen and joined the army. We watched a lot of videos there.

Anyway. I'm not embarrassed to say that I still pull my feet up in the couch when watching this. I know exactly who dies and when, but it doesn't matter. For instance, when Hooper exits the water after diving down on the wreckage? Pretty sure the shark may show up there.
OK. So Quint is a bit cartoonish. When they are rigging the ship to leave the harbor, I'm pretty sure he manages to reel off every single sailor phrase there is. But being the wonderful actor Robert Shaw was, and also given some very good dialogue, he actually manages to get us rooting for him in the end. The Indianapolis speech is one of cinemas great, by the way («Anyway, we delivered the bomb»). One of my favorite scenes is a tiny, seemingly insignificant one. Brody pulls Mayor Vaughn aside in the hospital and makes him sign Quint's contract. In an attempt to justify himself for his [lack of] actions, Vaughn utters: «Brody, my kids were in the water too!» Murray Hamilton is brilliant there - in the following silence his eyes tells it all, he is way off course and he has lost. But there are so many good scenes, in fact the film doesn't drag a bit, it's trimmed to the bone, it is Steven Spielberg's Masterpiece.

I have no idea have many times I've seen this movie, but this was the first time in High Definition. It looked really beautiful. The colors seemed perfect, and the image the right amount of grain. I just noticed one single sequence where Brody and his wife are standing on the balcony of their home, making me able to see the edges around their bodies against the false background. A minor restoration detail, overall the transfer has improved tremendously compared to the SD.