The dunes are alive with the sound of screaming as a monstrous, ravenous fish terrorises a seaside community – but this is not a film about a sharkSee the other classic missed films in this seriesThe best arts and entertainment during self-isolationJaws is not a film about a shark. I knew this before I watched it because, every few months for the best part of two decades, Mark Kermode has reminded me on his Wittertainment radio show. But not until I watched it did I understand the extent to which Jaws is not a film about a shark, and it would still elude me now had I not watched it when I watched it.
You can’t come cold to Jaws, but everything you think know is irrelevant once the opening sequence is under way. Set in the ocean around Amity Island to John Williams’ brilliant, horrendous score, it submerges the viewer with an oppressive helplessness that is intensely familiar. Death is imminent, and all we can do is wait.