Jaws is my favourite movie of all time. It's perfect and in particular the second half is just incredible.
Amen brother, me too.
The issue I find is that people usually see it late on ITV2 when they're young and it looks like a silly, b-horror movie, they tell me the shark looks terrible and it's not scary. People usually laugh (well, non-Movie people at least) when I say it's my favorite film.
I think once you realize the story isn't about a shark, well not really as the shark could be anything, a tornado, an alien, etc, but about facing your fears, the unknown, heroism, teamwork, doing the right thing, etc, it becomes so much more.