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Not before or since has a film instilled the collective terror that Jaws did in 1975.
People stopped swimming in seas across the world. Cries of 'Is it safe to go in?' could even be heard on beaches built next to land-locked lakes.
John Williams' spine-tinglingly infectious score - dur-rum . . . dur-rum . . . dur-rum - instilled mass hysteria, even if it has subsequently become a cliche.
More significantly, the film put Steven Spielberg on the cinematic map.
Sadly, the sequels are vastly inferior and tonight's Jaws III (Pearl, 9.30pm) verges on the farcical.
The film is made with a 3-D facility, which is lost on television screens, but the effect adds little to the scariness and that's what people want.
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