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Calgary Herald
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Calgary Herald
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water: Jaws turns 50, but still resonates — and terrifies
Article content Jaws is a powerful reminder that excellence in filmmaking isn't always equated with mega budgets. At the time, Jaws grossed $100 million US within 60 days, which was a record achievement back then. It broke box office records previously set by other movies of the early 1970s, such as The Exorcist and The Godfather. Jaws ultimately grossed $470 million US around the world, after being made for under $9 million US. It was the highest grossing movie in history until Star Wars took that title a couple of years later. Article content The movie not only led the way for the creation of the aforementioned summer blockbuster; it proved the power of suspenseful shows in terms of being able to attract significant audience and significant revenue. Article content Jaws also demonstrated the irreplaceable feeling of watching a big movie on a big screen alongside a few hundred strangers. To have hundreds of others occasionally jump or scream at the same movie moment is a unique feeling. Just ask anyone who saw Jaws in a movie theatre 50 years ago. Article content Article content Another claim to fame for Jaws was its effective use of music. The theme song, based on the repetition of two notes being played one after another, became recognizable around the world. The composer, John Williams, won an Academy Award for the movie's musical score and the American Film Institute many years later ranked it as the sixth-greatest movie score. Article content Article content Other bits and bites from Jaws Article content Jaws won a total of three Academy Awards; the aforementioned Best Original Dramatic Score award and the awards for Best Sound and Best Film Editing. It also garnered a nomination as Best Picture, but lost to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. At one point before production on the movie started, producers debated the idea of trying to train and use a living great white shark in the movie. It quickly became apparent the idea would never work. Instead, the shark used in most of the scenes was actually one of three mechanical sharks, nicknamed Bruce. Up to 40 special effect workers spent time producing the sharks. Sometimes, those sharks didn't work perfectly, leading some workers on the set to call the movie Flaws, according to a Roanoke Times article published on the 30th anniversary of the movie. The movie also contained footage of real sharks, filmed in Australia. To make sharks in that footage appear larger, a short actor in a smaller-than-usual shark cage was used in shots. The three principal actors in Jaws spent so much time on the water shooting scenes that they often got seasick. The movie was originally scheduled to shoot for 55 days. Instead, it took 159 days, leaving Spielberg to tell journalists it left him worrying this would ruin his career. Spielberg told costume and set designers on the movie to avoid using anything red in terms of backgrounds or the actors' wardrobes so that when red blood would appear in a dramatic scene, it would be even more jarring to someone watching the flick. Spin-off merchandise from the movie has included everything from Jaws-theme purses and beach bags to tub toys and whisky glasses. One of the strangest items, a Japanese bath bomb, is shaped like a little blue boat, but as it dissolves in bath water a toy shark appears, along with an ample supply of blood-red liquid. In 2016, Tragically Hip lead singer Gord Downie sported a Jaws T-shirt for some performances during the band's final tour before his death. Why? Well, some speculated the shark represented the cancer that would ultimately take his life. His stylist told media the T-shirt was a personal item that Downie decided to wear. Craving more shark content? Don't worry. Discovery channel's Shark Week is only a few weeks away, July 6-13, 2025.
USA Today
26-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Eight-time PGA Tour winner J.C. Snead, nephew of Hall of Famer Sam, dead at 84
Eight-time PGA Tour winner J.C. Snead, nephew of Hall of Famer Sam, dead at 84 My longtime friend on the PGA Tour, JC Snead, just left us. RIP Goose — Tom Watson (@TomWatsonPGA) April 26, 2025 Although he never won a major championship, J.C. Snead had top-3 finishes in the Masters, U.S. Open and the PGA Championship. He was one of the most reliable players in the game, amassing a dozen wins between the PGA Tour and the Champions circuit and playing on three Ryder Cup teams. And he was an accomplished baseball player, toiling for a bit in the Washington Senators' farm system before starting his career in professional golf at the age of 27. Snead, who was born in Hot Springs, Virginia, but spent much of his life in Florida, died at the age of 84, according to his longtime friend Tom Watson. The PGA Tour confirmed Snead's death. While his career was an unmitigated success, Snead often lived in the shadow of his uncle, Sam, a World Golf Hall of Famer who won 81 times. J.C. Snead often battled with Watson, Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino during a stretch in the 1970s when pro golf became a fixture on network television. "If my name had been Jones or Brown, maybe I would have been better off," Snead told the Roanoke Times in 1990. "I know I was not a great player, not a Nicklaus. When I was at my best, so were Nicklaus, Trevino and Watson. But I played as well as some of these guys who are your everyday heroes. "Nowadays, they write stories when a guy sets a record for most money won without winning a tournament. I finished second four times in 1974 and nobody said a word. I set the record two years in a row for money won without winning a tournament." In 1973, Snead finished second to Tommy Aaron at Augusta National, during a wild weather week that pushed the finish to Monday. He finished third later that year in the 1973 PGA Championship at Cleveland's Canterbury Golf Club, five shots behind Nicklaus, who claimed the title. And Snead finished in a tie for second at the 1978 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills Country Club as Andy North went on to victory. At times, Snead was referred to as gruff and uncooperative, but he insisted he was simply quiet and allowed people space. 'I have gotten a reputation for being a hard-ass,' he told Golf Digest, 'and I think it is undeserved.'
