Jaws
Universal Pictures | Release Date: June 20, 1975 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
87
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
CineVueJohn Bleasdale
Importantly, Spielberg instinctively knows exactly when to keep his camera still and allow what's in front of it to take precedence. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Spielberg balances terror on the water with a rich portrait of an island police chief (Roy Scheider) torn between public-safety concerns and a community that thrives on the tourist dollar. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterArthur Knight
Perhaps the most perfectly constructed horror story in our time. Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsKathleen Carroll
It is a stunningly effective thriller, as cleverly engineered by director Steven Spielberg (with considerable assist from film editor, Verna Fields) as the mechanical sharks that everyone knows by now play the great white shark. Read full review
100
The TelegraphMartin Chilton
The terror, panic and small town politics are all brilliantly done but this is also a film about bravery and friendship and the scenes in which the trio bond as they sit out at sea waiting to fight death itself are moving and witty. Read full review
100
Washington PostGary Arnold
The movie version of Jaws is one of the most exciting and satisfying thrillers ever made. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter Bradshaw
This is a suspense classic that leaves teeth-marks. Read full review
100
Time Out LondonTom Huddleston
Best of all is Steven Spielberg’s direction: the camera moves like a predatory animal, gliding eerily across the surface of the vast Atlantic, creating sequences of almost unbearable suspense. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
One of the most effective thrillers ever made. Read full review
100
EmpireIan Nathan
It was the complete nightmare that invented the "summer blockbuster", launched the genius on a global scale and delivered an astonishingly effective thriller built on a very primal level: fear. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyTy Burr
Steven Spielberg overcame the lumpy plotting of Peter Benchley's novel to create an efficient, graceful fright machine in Jaws. Read full review
100
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The first is the best. When it comes to this kind of thriller, no movie has been able to top Jaws, although many have tried. And, as the years go by, it seems increasingly unlikely that anything will come close. Read full review
100
VarietyA.D. Murphy
Robert Shaw [is] absolutely magnificent as a coarse fisherman finally hired to locate the Great White Shark; and Richard Dreyfuss, in another excellent characterization as a likeable young scientist. Read full review
100
CineVueMartyn Conterio
Jaws is still terrific and has lost none of its bite. Read full review
90
TimeStaff (Not Credited)
What sets Jaws apart from most of the other ceiling busters and makes it a special case, like "The Godfather," is that it is quite a good movie. For one thing, it is mercifully free of the padding—cosmic, comic, cultural—that so often mars "big" pictures. In that sense, the movie is very like its subject. If the great white shark that terrorizes the beaches of an island summer colony is one of nature's most efficient killing machines, Jaws is an efficient entertainment machine. Read full review
80
NewsweekArthur Cooper
Jaws is a grisly film, often ugly as sin, which achieves precisely what it set out to accomplish - scare the hell out of you. As such, it's destined to become a classic the way all truly terrifying movies, good or bad, become classics of a kind. [23 June 1975, p.54]
80
The New York TimesVincent Canby
If you think about Jaws for more than 45 seconds you will recognize it as nonsense, but it's the sort of nonsense that can be a good deal of fun, if you like to have the wits scared out of you at irregular intervals. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
From the outrageously frightening opening--in which a beautiful young woman skinny-dipping in the moonlight is devoured by the unseen shark--to the claustrophobic climax aboard Quint's fishing boat, Spielberg has us in his grip and rarely lets go. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneGene Siskel
What this movie is about, and where it succeeds best, is the primordial level of fear. The characters, for the most part, and the non-fish elements in the story, are comparatively weak and not believable. [20 June 1975] Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesCharles Champlin
While I have no doubt that Jaws will make a bloody fortune for Universal and producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown, it is a coarse-grained and exploitive work which depends on excess for its impact. Ashore it is a bore, awkwardly staged and lumpily written. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderDave Kehr
Steven Spielberg's mechanical thriller is guaranteed to make you scream on schedule (John Williams's score even has the audience reactions programmed into the melodies), particularly if your tolerance for weak motivation and other minor inconsistencies is high. Read full review
More From This Movie

87 Critic Reviews

8.6 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL