It's safe to go back in the water: ‘Jaws' turns 50.

Boston Globe

16-06-2025

This was the place where I met films like 'Alien,' 'On Golden Pond,' 'The Color Purple,' 'My Favorite Year,' 'Porky's,' and the movie that cemented the concept of the summer movie season, 'Star Wars.' In fact, I saw the entire original 'Star Wars' trilogy there.
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Like Framingham's theater off Route 9, where 'Jaws' also opened, the Hudson Mall's theater was run by General Cinema. Decades before Nicole Kidman's evil AMC Theaters ad, General Cinema ran an unforgettable reminder that you were at one of their theaters: they showed an animated bumper of a projector made out of a G and two rotating C's.
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If you've ever been to one of these theaters, you're probably hearing
I dwell on these details to highlight how seeing an influential movie can sear the experience into your memory forever. I once asked my mother what it was like to see 'Psycho' in 1960, and some of my younger friends have inquired about my opening day audience's reactions to 'Star Wars' and 'Alien.' You never forget these moments.
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Based on Peter Benchley's best-selling 1974 novel, '
But success didn't seem so evident at the beginning. Keep in mind that, before 'Jaws,' the summer months were what January and February are now — that is, a dumping ground for movies released with little fanfare. Big prestige movies like 'The Exorcist' opened around Christmas. 'Jaws' was initially scheduled to premiere in December, 1974. Fate had other ideas, and by the time Verna Fields got the footage she'd edit to an Oscar-winning tee, the original deadline had passed.
'Jaws' was a troubled production whose original 65-day shoot took 159 days. The guy behind the camera was a twentysomething newbie named Steven Spielberg who had directed one modest big screen feature and a really good TV movie called 'Duel.'
Plus, poor Mr. Spielberg was dealing with a temperamental star, and I don't mean Richard Dreyfuss. I'm talking about Bruce the Mechanical Shark. Not only did Bruce refuse to work, it sank to the bottom of the ocean off Martha's Vineyard once it was pressured to do its job.
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Bruce's moods forced Spielberg to work around the shark, which, in hindsight, was a blessing in disguise. Keeping Bruce hidden for much of the runtime made the film more terrifying, especially when the shark was represented by its
This leads us back to June 21, 1975. I distinctly remember hearing the opening notes of Williams's immortal theme during the opening credits. It's become familiar now, but imagine hearing, for the first time ever, those familiar opening notes rumbling through speakers cranked up to 11. My theater vibrated with an ominous sense of foreboding.
Williams is an expert at
None of those compares to 'Jaws' in this regard, however. Dinosaurs are extinct, Indy is fictitious, and the verdict is still out on whether aliens exist. Sharks, on the other hand, are very much part of our world. So, the theme from 'Jaws' is a wonderful bit of cinematic shorthand and brainwashing. You hear it, and you immediately envision a shark.
The 'Jaws' music is so effective that, once I went down the Jersey shore and, as a joke, played the theme through my boombox. I kid you not — people got out of the water. Some of them leapt out like Bruce was underneath them.
Bruce, or rather,
the idea of Bruce
, was definitely under poor Chrissie (Susan Backline), the film's first victim. Without any blood or gore, 'Jaws' gives us a brutally violent and terrifying opening scene. You see nothing; everything happens below the surface of the water.
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The poster for 'Jaws' warned that the film 'may be too intense for younger children,' with the word 'intense' underlined for emphasis. This scene is clearly what they meant. Chrissie's death convinced me that I'd rather see carnage than have to imagine it. Because my mind would craft something far worse than anything a movie could show me.
With that in mind, there's a great story (or legend) I once heard about a test screening conducted by Universal in Los Angeles. Somebody, perhaps it was the producers, Richard Zanuck and David Brown, was standing in the lobby when a guy stumbled out of the theater. He wobbled over to a trash can and threw up. Then, without missing a beat, he turned around and went back into the theater.
That was when Universal knew they had a hit.
Fast forward to April 26, 2025. Nearly 50 years after I first sat through 'Jaws,' I attended the TCM Film Festival anniversary screening at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. Lorraine Gary, Mrs. Brody for you fans,
My audience was privy to a gorgeous, pristine Technicolor print—it looked better than the movie did back in 1975. I sat in the front row, drinking in Bill Butler's cinematography and enjoying Robert Shaw's perfect take on the shark-hunting Quint.
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Quint's speech about the USS Indianapolis received thunderous applause, as did Scheider's improvised line, 'You're gonna need a bigger boat.' When Brody finally got revenge on Bruce, cheers rocked the theater.
The movie played just like it did 50 years ago.
Revisiting 'Jaws' with an enthusiastic audience reminded me that there's something awesome about having been present when the cinematic universe was changed by a movie. Even if you were only five years old.
Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.