Several people are graphically eaten by a shark, including a child. Lots of blood (some human, some fish). Graphic displays of severed legs, hands, heads, and entrails. Photographs of human bodies injured by shark attacks. A dead body emerges from the inside of a sunken ship. Weapons used against the shark include explosives, guns, harpoons, and knives. People are trampled trying to escape the water. Talk of a historical tragedy where hundreds were eaten by sharks.
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Many characters casually smoke cigarettes and pipes and drink beer, whiskey, wine, and moonshine. Several characters get drunk. The three lead characters drink heavily on a sailboat. Drinking in a bar.
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"S--t," "son of a bitch," "damn," "bastard," and "half a--ed." "Jesus Christ" and "for Christ's sake" used as exclamations. Name calling includes "kook." A character makes a rude arm gesture that means "up yours."
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Couples kiss, talk in bed, and joke about "fooling around." People wear swimsuits on the beach, and men are shirtless. A character makes sexual jokes about "swimming with bowlegged women" and "rubbers." Brief nudity -- while skinny dipping, a woman's breast is shown from the side, but her body is heavily shadowed.
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Trust your instincts if you feel something is wrong. Human life is more important than money. Teamwork is sometimes the only way forward. On the flip side, the film sends a negative message that violence can be a good solution in scary situations.
Positive Role Models
a little
Martin cares about protecting people and takes responsibility for not acting faster. Other main characters exhibit bravery and quick thinking in the midst of dangerous situations: Matt wants to stop the shark from hurting others and Quint helps, too, but for selfish reasons. Town leaders try to cover up the attacks for financial gain and encourage risky behavior.
Diverse Representations
very little
All characters are White, apart from a few Black tourists in the background. A White character refers to someone as a "Chinese fella." Women fall into traditional gender roles as supportive wives, mothers, or secretaries. Class tensions are brought up in arguments between Matt -- who's wealthy and educated -- and working-class Quint.
Parents need to know that Jaws is director Steven Spielberg's classic blockbuster about a great white shark that attacks swimmers vacationing in a New England beach town. Based on Peter Benchley's novel and released in the 1970s, the film is still nightmare fodder for more sensitive viewers. While the shark itself doesn't look very realistic by today's standards, the discussions about shark attacks can be just as frightening as when characters are actually attacked, bitten, and killed. Expect to see severed limbs, lots of blood, and frenzied panic. There's also lots of casual smoking and drinking, and several characters get drunk. Language includes "s--t," "son of a bitch," "damn," "bastard," and "half a--ed." Men are shirtless on the beach, and a woman's breast is shown from the side (her nude body is heavily shadowed). People of color are absent from the film's main and supporting cast, and women are mainly there as supportive wives, mothers, or secretaries. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.
I feel like a terrible mom. I let my 6 year old watch this and he has seen Jurassic Park and other adult movies so I thought this would be ok. I had forgotten how gory it was. The scene where they went scuba diving and saw the dead guy absolutely terrorized my son, I’ve never seen him scared like that EVER and he cried after that scene. I felt so bad and mad at myself. My husband and I took turns with him because he couldn’t sleep that night. Anyways not okay for small kids :(
This movie doesn’t have that much violence but it’s still intense there is moderate language but it isn’t to much for young teens this is how I rank blood some blood fair amount of blood lots of blood tons of blood plenty of blood and then stuff like very bloody extremely bloody violence 6%10 early in the movie someone is eaten there’s lots of blood little boy is eaten some blood a dead body emerges from a sunken ship and i think you might see his eye plucked out some one is eaten blood coming out of his mouth shark shot huge explosion and blood spatters I now there’s moderate language but I don’t remember the words this is how I rank language some language moderate language frequent language lots of language tons of language constant language and this movie also has some sex sex 3%10 a girl gos swimming naked but I don’t remember seeing anything bad and there’s also some kissing thanks for reading my review my next review will be for jaws 2
What's the Story?
At the start of JAWS, during a late-night beach party, a girl disappears while swimming. When her remains come ashore, Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) believes it was a shark attack. The mayor (Murray Hamilton) is worried about the effect such news might have on the tourist trade and covers up the incident. After a few more high-profile attacks, some local fishermen catch a shark. The mayor ignores warnings from ichthyologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) that this shark was too small to have been the one in the attacks. Another fatality sends Brody, Hooper, and local fisherman Quint (Robert Shaw) off to find the great white shark. While they're an unlikely group to work together -- Quint is simply doing it for the money and clearly disrespects Chief Brody's inexperience, as well as Hooper's college education -- the three slowly begin to bond when they realize that the shark is larger and much more vicious than they could have ever anticipated.
This film remains a horror classic that effectively transcends the genre and the time in which it was released. Though Jaws is one of Steven Spielberg's early films, his adept building up of the tension -- heightened by the now almost universally known two-note "shark attack" music provided by John Williams -- shines in both the shark attack scenes and in the spaces in which the story and the characters have room to develop. Even with a shark that doesn't look terribly realistic by today's standards, the film still delivers suspense and terror and is a textbook study on how to escalate tension for maximum payoff.
In terms of the acting, the chemistry between Scheider, Dreyfuss, and Shaw is still a delight to take in. But the movie does feel dated due to its entirely White cast and cliched female characters. Nevertheless, at the time of its release, it was the highest-grossing box office movie of all time and it continues to remain a pop culture staple.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the violence in Jaws. Is it necessary to the story, or does it simply provide added scares and horror for viewers?
How is music used to build suspense in this movie? What are some other examples of well-known horror movie soundtracks?
Do you think this movie still works today, or is it too dated? Why?
Do you think it's scarier when you see violent things like shark attacks or when you only hear about them and use your imagination to fill in what you don't see?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
suggesting a diversity update.
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
