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'Jaws' influenced filmmaking, Cape theater attendance. 'Seeing it, loving it'
Killer sharks, then killer bunnies.
The movie "Jaws" started a "huge thing that we had never seen before," said film director John Waters. "It became a genre, and it got more and more ridiculous. First it was sharks, then it was killer bunnies."
With the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Steven Spielberg's blockbuster on June 20 comes reflections on the movie's influence. It has spawned a genre. It has become a shared love across generations. It has moved viewers from extreme fear to curiosity, according to Cape Codders associated with three independent Cape cinemas.
The movie has also revived and boosted cinema attendance 50 years later.
"There aren't many movies that you can play again and again and it would still do business," Cape Cinema president Eric Hart said.
The Chatham Orpheum Theater will be showing "Jaws" at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. daily from June 27 to July 1, and then at 9 p.m. from July 2 to July 6. The theater will also screen the documentary "Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story" from June 27 through July 1. Cape Cinema in Dennis intends to screen the movie as well.
After seeing "Jaws," no one has ever gone swimming and not thought of it, Waters said. "Every time you go in the water you think DUH-nuh," he said, mimicking the famous movie theme in an interview on May 19. "The music's on their mind."
Waters, a part-time Provincetown resident, is on the advisory board for the Provincetown Film Society, which is associated with Waters Edge Cinema. He directed films such as "Pink Flamingos" in 1972 and "Cry-Baby" in 1990. He was on the Cape when "Jaws" was released in 1975.
"I remember seeing it, loving it and being like the rest of America," he said.
Waters said he likes to be scared, but when asked if there was ever a push for him to create films like "Jaws" after the film's success, he said no. "I'm afraid Divine was my shark," he said, of the drag performer and star of "Pink Flamingos."
"A lot of people in this community saw it in 1975 in the theater," said Kevin McLain, executive director of the Chatham Orpheum Theater, during a May 23 call. "Now they're bringing their children and grandchildren to the theater to see the movie."
The Orpheum, which originally opened in 1916 and reopened in 2013 after more than 20 years of closure, has a close relationship to "Jaws" and director Steven Spielberg, McLain said.
The first movie shown at the reopening was "Jaws," McLain said. "We said to the community, 'What do you want us to show first? It's your theater. What do you want to show first?"
The answer was resounding.
And, a fear of sharks has given way to curiosity, he said.
In 1975 when "Jaws" came out and someone yelled "Shark!" on a beach, people ran away — but what's happened since then, "Jaws" has become socially acceptable as a character, McLain said referring to T-shirts and even plush toys for children. "It's kind of been kidified."
"Now when you yell 'Shark!' on the beach, people run to the beach! They want to see them!" he said.
A boy around seven or eight years old came to see the movie, McLain recalled. "He was a Jaws freak. He had a Jaws T-shirt on. He had a Jaws stuffed animal and he was going with his dad. There was no stopping him. And when he came out of that theater his face was ashen white."
That experience of watching the film in theaters has also contributed to why the film is still so popular, according to McLain. "Experiencing the energy, experiencing the drama, experiencing other people's emotional connections to this, it creates an experience that is completely unlike one that you would have sitting in your house and watching 'Jaws.'"
"It's an example of why theaters matter and why movies in movie theaters matter," he said.
Agreed. The only real way to watch "Jaws" is in theaters, said Hart at the Cape Cinema in Dennis. Hart was also on the Cape when the film premiered in 1975.
"It wasn't really something that sort of caught on, it was an instant hit," he said.
Since the summer audiences were rotating every two weeks, the film played all summer long, according to Hart. "So it was an even bigger sensation because it stayed incredibly popular for a really long time."
Of course, he added, because it was filmed so close to home — just a ferry ride away, to Martha's Vineyard — "Jaws" will always hold a special relationship to Cape Cod.
Desiree Nikfardjam is a reporter covering breaking and trending news. She graduated from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. You can reach her at DNikfardjam@
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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Keeping cinema alive: 'Jaws' continues to be a Cape Cod favorite
