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50 years ago, ‘Jaws' scared us senseless. We never got over it.
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Name that theme song: Dunnn-dun. Dunnn-dun.
Dun-dun dun-dun dun-dun dun-dun.
Who are we kidding? That terrifying two-note John Williams creation of course conjures the opening shark strike in 'Jaws,' which turns 50 on June 20.
That's a half-century of scaring the bejesus out of generations of movie- and beachgoers. Five decades of us all scanning the horizon for fins while Hollywood thrashes about trying to replicate Steven Spielberg's blockbuster, from 'Shark Week' to 'The Meg.'
Full confession: Seeing 'Jaws' kept me not only out of the ocean for years but also out of a pool. I've even heard of people who were scared to get into a bathtub.
Irrational? Sure. Uncommon? Not really. That was the revelation provided by a deep dive into the realm of 'Jaws' fanatics, many of whom have long gotten over their fear of open water and swapped it for a churning mania for the movie.
The terror roars back this summer, with "Jaws" and its three (admittedly lesser) sequels airing on Peacock starting June 15, and NBC's three-hour presentation of the original film on June 20, featuring an introduction from Spielberg. There's also a big screen re-release on Aug. 29.
Is 'Jaws' the scariest film of all time?
Watch it once or hundreds of times and the scare seems fresh every time, says Dawn Keetley, editor of the journal Horror Studies and professor of English and film at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
"Spielberg presents this shark as a pure animal force that we run into at our peril," Keetley says. She notes that "Jaws" starts out a pure horror film, then morphs into a perilous and tense buddy film when the three protagonists head off in a boat in search of the beast that haunts them.
"Sharks stand in perfectly for wild nature that's at the edge of where humans can go, and as humans, we always push at the border," she says. "Sharks mark where we can't go very easily, maybe where we shouldn't go. To the dangerous and the forbidden."
Don't be scared of sharks − 'more people die from taking selfies'
Among the first moviegoers to be frightened by "Jaws" was Christopher Shaw Myers, nephew of Robert Shaw, who memorably played doomed shark hunter Quint. "While I'd read the book (by Peter Benchley), oh, my God, was it terrifying,' he says.
Myers was a senior in high school when he joined his mother, Joanna, Shaw's sister, in a darkened Philadelphia movie house crammed with theater owners who were considering showing the film. His favorite part? The haunting soliloquy by his uncle, who explains his hatred of sharks after they ripped apart fellow servicemen on a sinking Navy ship.
In defense of Carcharodon carcharias (aka, the great white), sharks aren't looking for humans. 'More people die from taking selfies than from sharks,' says Taylor Chapple, co-director of the Big Fish Lab at Oregon State University. 'But it's the uncertainty of it. The fear of the unknown. You think maybe there's a shark down there.'
'Jaws' tapped into that very primordial fear, which is chillingly encapsulated by Quint's famous USS Indianapolis speech: 'So, eleven hundred men went into the water. Three hundred and sixteen men come out, and the sharks took the rest.'
'The story is that the speech was very long, and Robert asked Steven if he could cut it back,' says Myers, author of 'Robert Shaw: An Actor's Life on the Set of 'Jaws' and Beyond.' When the actor delivered his version, 'there was dead silence in the room, and Steven said, 'We have our picture.' '
For Steven Spielberg, 'Jaws' was both his 'origin story' and almost his career killer
That moment of glee was rare for Spielberg, who at 27 was helming a movie based on a bestselling novel. Studio executives wanted not only a hit, but they wanted it fast.
Spielberg, who had made 'Duel' and 'The Sugarland Express,' feared the swift end of a promising career. He was over budget, shooting on open water and dealing with a mechanical shark nicknamed Bruce (after his lawyer) that kept malfunctioning. (Shaw's son, Ian, played his father in a Broadway show he co-wrote about the 'Jaws' debacle called 'The Shark Is Broken.')
The degree to which 'Jaws' traumatized its young director is evident in 'Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story,' a National Geographic documentary airing July 11 on Hulu and Disney+. Spielberg sat for director and friend Laurent Bouzereau and confessed: 'There was nothing fun about making 'Jaws.' '
In the documentary, Spielberg relates that long after the problematic 1974 shoot was over and the 1975 movie was a box-office smash, he had nightmares about the experience. He found solace in sneaking into Universal Studios theme park and curling up on the leather bench inside the Orca, the boat used for much of the shoot.
'I underestimated how traumatic it was for Steven. But he never wanted to give up, and that's one lesson from 'Jaws': Don't give up," Bouzereau says. " 'Jaws' is his origin story. But in our interview, I could feel the weight of that experience still sitting with him.'
Most 'Jaws' cast members were Martha's Vineyard locals, who still have stories to tell
For all the hardship of making the movie, 'Jaws' bit the culture hard and never let go. Helped by a PG rating that admitted many youngsters who had no idea of the horror in store, the movie raked in $1.5 billion, adjusted for inflation.
Matt Taylor summered on Martha's Vineyard as a kid, and at age 7 in 1979, he was deemed old enough to see 'Jaws.' Four years on, the line for the film still snaked around the block.
'It was probably one of the most exciting movie events of my life. My heart was pounding out of my chest,' he says. 'I love the water, but when I go in, I still have to face the horizon.'
Taylor's love of 'Jaws' eventually led him to compile photographs and memorabilia collected by locals during the shoot into the book 'Jaws: Memories From Martha's Vineyard,' which is being re-released this summer.
One of the crucial ingredients of 'Jaws' is the preponderance of islanders who had parts in the movie, which featured fewer than 10 Hollywood actors, including Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody and Richard Dreyfuss as shark expert Matt Hooper. Those non-actors lent a realism that shooting on a Hollywood lot with seasoned stars cannot replicate. Many of them still participate in "Jaws" meet-and-mingle events.
For a long time, the islanders kept their memories of 'Jaws' to themselves, 'but it seems to me like the Vineyard has reacted to its own fame in the past decade or so,' says Taylor, himself a local now. 'These days there's 'Jaws' merchandise in every shop, 'Jaws'-themed food dishes, 'Jaws' tours of the island, and of course those locals who were in it who share their stories.'
From fests to homemade 'Jaws' remakes, fans can't get enough of their favorite film
Stephen Duncan trekked from Los Angeles to Martha's Vineyard for the first JawsFest in 2005, but he's not sure he'll be able to return this year, instead perhaps taking in a 'Jaws: The Exhibition' display at LA's Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
'They've gotten wise, and it's gotten expensive" to attend the Martha's Vineyard confab, says Duncan, who works in the title insurance business but also runs a website dedicated to his passion for 'Jaws.'
'I've seen the movie maybe 300 times, enough so that if you said a line, I could say the next one,' he says.
Well, here's an easy one: 'That's a 20-footer,' Hooper gasps as the great white swims past the Orca. 'Twenty-five. Three tons of him,' Quint adds.
You know what's next − a catchphrase repurposed endlessly since 1975. Says a shell-shocked Brody: 'You're gonna need a bigger boat.'
Such inspired dialogue (Scheider improvised the line) coupled with Spielberg's Hitchcockian use of point of view – in that opening shark attack, we never see a shark – is what keeps 'Jaws' fresh half a century on, says Ross Williams, who started the U.K. site The Daily Jaws.
'I saw it with my mum when I was 5, and it's been my favorite movie ever since,' he says.
In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, Williams invited fans to co-create the "Jaws WeMake," a "Jaws" tribute of sorts featuring a pastiche of animation, Lego figures and home movie shoots of classic scenes. Fans from more than 200 countries contributed.
'In 1975, people thought they were watching a 'shark movie,' and they were,' he says. 'But 50 years on, we realize 'Jaws' is about family, home, duty, politics, the class system, the past, healing from trauma and so much more.'
For Williams, all of life seems to be captured in the oversized mandibles of Spielberg's enduring cinematic masterpiece.
'Like all classics,' he says, ' 'Jaws' is the movie that keeps on giving.'
