JAWS

Directed by Steven Spielberg (Universal) and ; ■

SHARK'S TREASURE

Directed by Cornell Wilde

1975 has been the year of the sharksploitation epic. Not so much because of some greedy abundance of films on the subject (there's only two that I know of, Jaws and Shark's Treasure), but moreover because there is a deeper need satisfied by the shark's recent star billing on and off the screen as the sleek silent killer: the wish to experience some good old-fashioned fear. Fear is a shark's best friend. It follows that the two should become natural components in a campaign to shock and titillate a public yearning for soothing atrocities. The media discovers a new winning combo, and the banner headlines of a sleazier tabloid last summer bears this out: SHARK MAULS MAN, AS WIFE WATCHES; panels of psychiatrists ponder about the psychological attraction of The Fish With The Dorsel Fin. Back in the movies, especially in the box office smash, Jaws, the shark has become a satisfying way for millions to get the fear. If you've got to surrender to the purifying forces of terror, it beats becoming a complete Mansoniod idiot drinking dog's blood.