I’m usually not a fan of Universal’s Blu-ray transfers, as is publicly noted in most of my reviews for their titles I’ve reviewed, but Jaws seems to be one of the exceptions. While not absolutely perfect, for reasons that will be stated later, Jaws is about as perfect as we’re likely to ever see it on the small screen. 

 

Now unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past three plus decades and don’t have a clue what Jaws is, though I find it doubtful there is anyone who doesn’t, let me throw out the synopsis of the film for you:

 

A small fictional beach community known as Amity Island is about ready for its massive 4th of July festivities. Unfortunately a young college student has washed up on shore (well some of her anyway), the apparent victim of a shark attack. New Chief of Police Brody quickly begins setting up precautions to keep people safe, mainly closing the beach until further notice. That is until the towns Mayor stops him. The 4th of July weekend is make or break time for the community of Amity and they can’t afford to shut their beaches. Shark attack number two happens and suddenly the town is thrown into a frenzy with shark hunters galore looking to bag the beast. Brody, along with a member of the Oceanic Society and a mad shark hunter to boot, head out onto the open waters to kill the shark, but it won’t be so easy.

 

Universal has really outdone themselves with this transfer. Of course it also helps that director Steven Spielberg was on board to make sure it was handled to the best of the studio’s ability. The film is cleaned up and brought back to glorious life with only a few exceptions, which cannot be helped due to the shape of the source material. The 4th of July scenes, especially when the camera focuses in on Brody with the swell of people in the background, tends to look a bit soft and some scenes have a bit of noise in the black levels. Other then that skies are gloriously blue, the texture of the ocean is magnificently life like, and when the film is on it is truly spot on. Reference scenes would include the scene where Brody is confronted by the grieving mother of the second victim on the docks. It’s as if your looking directly through a window at the proceedings. The climactic battle at the end is also amazingly detailed and beautifully vibrant. Just an absolutely amazing presentation that’s just shy of being immaculate.

 

Audio comes in a revamped 7.1 dts-HD MA which provides surround sound owners with a superb at home cinematic experience that is worthy of the films remastered state. Every minute detail is given clarity, every channel provides life to the soundscape. Another option is a dts Digital Surround track which is decent as well. 

 

~The Shark Is Still Working - The Impact & Legacy of Jaws: An almost two hour feature on the film and it’s cultural impact on cinema and our fear of going into the water.

~Pocket Blu App

~BD-Live

~DVD Copy

~Digital Copy

~Ultraviolet Copy

~The Making of Jaws: A two hour documentary featuring Interviews with key cast and crew.

~Jaws - The Restoration: Really a must see bonus. You basically see the film from when they pull it off the shelves and process it towards its blu-ray release. Really amazing stuff like how they run the film through this special water when it’s too badly damaged which fills in the damaged area’s to make it look brand new. It also goes into detail about how they revamped the audio. If you only watch one bonus feature make it this one.

~Deleted Scenes and Outtakes: If you want to see how far the film has come picture quality-wise, watch this bonus feature. It shows the film as it looked before. 

~From The Set: An Insiders Look

~Storyboards

~Production Photos

~Marketing Jaws

~Jaws Phenomenon

~Original Theatrical Trailer