Jaws

Apparently, now that it’s been five whole years since the last special anniversary-edition Jaws DVD, we’re ready for a new one. And apparently this anniversary, the 30th, isn’t so special. The two-disc set comes with a bland little booklet—er, pardon, “commemorative photo journal”—and an almost redeeming on-set interview with Steven Spielberg, among other recycled featurettes. It comes without, alas, an audio commentary. But there is the film itself, handsome in widescreen and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround. Excepting a few mildly sadistic moments, it seems quite likable for a killer-shark thriller that, as you’ve probably heard, was the first modern summer blockbuster and by extension the ruin of civilized independent American filmmaking—not to mention the ruin of civilized summers on Martha’s Vineyard, whose tourist population, the booklet explains, tripled after the movie’s release.