In Amity, those in charge see the danger but fail to act swiftly. Brody, the local police chief (played by Roy Scheider), is wellmeaning but unprepared. After the first shark attack the self-important Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) persuades him to keep the beaches open to save the tourist economy; the men lock down only when three more people are killed. (Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister, once cited the mayor as a political hero for his boldness in weighing death against commerce.)

Experts disagree on how to overcome the danger. Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), a wisecracking academic, prefers brainy methods; Quint (Robert Shaw), a heavydrinking shark hunter, opts for brawn. Even in a film packed with memorable dialogue, Quint’s description of being torpedoed during the second world war, with its grim mortality statistics, stands out: “So, 1,100 men went into the water; 316 men come out. The sharks took the rest.”

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