Jaws attacked 50 years ago, changing how we look at movies — and sharks

2 week_ago 18

Summers person ne'er been rather the aforesaid since June 20, 1975, and it's each acknowledgment to a "mindless eating machine" that terrorized moviegoers and beachgoers alike. That was the time Jaws deed theatres, ushering in the epoch of the summertime blockbuster and becoming a pop culture improvement that inactive resonates 50 years later. 

Steven Spielberg's classic tale of a large achromatic shark stalking the waters disconnected an land formation municipality successful New York authorities and devouring unsuspecting swimmers, broke records and became the archetypal movie to transverse the $100-million US people astatine the container office. 

The movie was credited with helping "revitalize" the movie scenery successful what was a slumping year, The New York Times reported astatine the time, arsenic radical lined up extracurricular cinemas for hours.

A achromatic  and achromatic  photograph  of a agelong  enactment     of radical   extracurricular  a movie   theatre with "Jaws" connected  the marquee.

Crowds lined up extracurricular a New York movie theatre to spot Jaws successful the summertime of 1975. The movie went connected to go the apical grossing movie of the year. (Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

Since its release, we've travel to expect a summertime chock full of action-packed films that thrill and chill. What sets Jaws apart, adjacent today, is however it influenced not conscionable the movie industry, but the existent world, too.

There's a crushed we're inactive talking astir Jaws, says Charles Acland, a communications studies prof astatine Montreal's Concordia University and writer of the book American Blockbuster: Movies, Technology, and Wonder

"It is an expertly constructed question picture," helium said, but it besides got into our heads and made it "hard not to deliberation astir sharks for a fewer years and possibly adjacent ever since."

WATCH | The authoritative trailer for Jaws:

Jaws made america imagine our deepest fears

Chris Lowe was astir 11 years aged erstwhile the movie came out. He grew up connected Martha's Vineyard, disconnected the seashore of Massachusetts where it was shot, swimming and sportfishing successful those aforesaid Atlantic waters that became the fabled hunting crushed for the ocean's astir notorious apex predator.

Jaws didn't frighten him due to the fact that helium watched it being made, and a batch of acquainted faces from his municipality made it into antithetic scenes. But helium surely got a footwear retired of however frightened others got.

Lowe besides knows a happening oregon 2 astir sharks: he's the manager of Shark Lab, astatine California State University Long Beach, and has been researching sharks for 30 years. He says the movie really influenced him and a batch of different shark biologists.

WATCH | Learning astir misunderstood predators successful Maritime waters:

Shark nerds are connected a ngo to uncover the 'jawsome' lives of Canada’s Great White Sharks

Did you cognize determination are large achromatic sharks successful Canadian waters? If you said no, you’re not alone. Shark sightings successful the Maritimes person risen and this squad went connected a ngo to larn astir these misunderstood predators. Watch Jawsome: Canada's Great White Sharks connected CBC Gem.

According to Lowe, very small was understood astir large whites astatine that clip — thing Spielberg played to successful the film. 

"What made that movie work, judge it oregon not, was the information that you seldom saw the shark and the storytelling allowed people's imaginations to tally wild," Lowe said. 

You don't really spot the shark, a 7.6-metre animatronic beast nicknamed Bruce, until 81 minutes successful — during that unforgettable, "You're gonna request a bigger boat" country (don't worry, it's embedded below). In total, it's lone connected surface for astir 4 minutes.

But Lowe says that was, and inactive is, capable to marque radical deliberation doubly astir going into the water. He says radical who've seen Jaws can astir perceive the eerie "dun dun" of the iconic people by John Williams erstwhile they spell for a swim, leaving them wondering what's lurking beneath the surface.

For Lowe and his friends, the panic Jaws inspired wasn't the worst happening successful the satellite successful the summertime of 1975.

"Nobody other would spell successful the h2o that summer," helium said. "So, we had a batch of the beaches each to ourselves."

WATCH | Chief Brody meets Jaws:

We're gonna request a bigger blockbuster

Jaws, based connected Peter Benchley's bestselling 1974 novel, came to specify what we present deliberation of arsenic a blockbuster.

It raked successful much than $260 million US worldwide during its archetypal merchandise — a immense sum for that time, and inactive a lot. Adjusted for inflation, that works retired to much than $1.5 cardinal US.

It was nominated for 4 Academy Awards, including champion representation (it mislaid to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), best editing, champion dependable mixing and champion archetypal people (all of which it won). 

For amended oregon worse, it spawned a bid of sequels and inspired an full genre of shark onslaught films — from the suspenseful Open Water, to the gory but implausible Deep Blue Sea, to the downright absurd Sharknado franchise (Lowe is simply a large fan). 

Three movie   posters, from near  to right; a poster showing a ample  shark fin successful  the h2o  with a antheral   and pistillate   swimming successful  the background; a poster with a pistillate   lasting  successful  h2o  with a ample  shark rima  down  her; a poster with tornado afloat  of sharks.

Jaws inspired an full genre of shark onslaught movies, including 2003's Open Water, astir a mates stranded successful shark infested waters during a scuba diving trip, 1999's Deep Blue Sea, successful which genetically altered sharks onslaught researchers astatine an underwater facility, and the Sharknado franchise astir a shark-infested waterspout wreaking havoc. (Illustration: L.J. Cake/CBC; Photos: Lions Gate Films/IMDB.com, Village Roadshow Pictures/IMDB.com, NBCUniversal Television/IMDB.com)

However, Acland says it's a misconception that the movie was the first Hollywood blockbuster.

Before Jaws, helium says, the connection blockbuster was a promotional word utilized to describe epic films like Lawrence of Arabia and Ben Hur.

Then, with its ubiquitous selling run and a singular 14-week tally astatine the apical of the container office, Jaws became an lawsuit for moviegoers young and old. Acland says the movie "colonized summer," which abruptly became a clip for an "entertainment dense movie." In its wake, horror, sci-fi and enactment flicks came to predominate the season.

LISTEN | Sharks are getting bigger and plots are getting weirder successful summertime shark flicks:

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Taking the bite retired of shark fears

Like blockbuster releases, sharks person go a fixture of summertime culture thanks to Jaws, says Lowe. 

The film has often been blamed for stoking fears about sharks and blowing the risk of attack out of proportion.  

"I deliberation Peter Benchley and Steven Spielberg some felt truly atrocious astir however it influenced people's attitudes toward sharks," Lowe said.

One of the archetypal  underwater pictures taken by a diver of a large  achromatic  shark successful  Canadian waters.

This underwater photo, taken disconnected the seashore of Liverpool, N.S., successful 2020, is 1 of the archetypal images of a large achromatic shark successful Canadian waters. (Submitted by Chris Harvey-Clark)

Fatal shark attacks are rare. The Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack File confirmed 47 unprovoked shark bites connected humans worldwide past twelvemonth — lone 4 were fatal. That's 1 little than the fig of radical killed in Jaws.

By the clip the movie came out, Lowe says, the large achromatic shark colonisation had already dwindled due to implicit fishing. He really credits the movie with bringing much attraction to the species, yet starring to conservation and extortion efforts that person seen populations turn since the 1990s. 

Sightings, including disconnected Atlantic Canada, person besides increased, which Lowe says is helping radical recognize that sharks aren't "as unsafe arsenic they've been made retired to be." 

Because of that, helium says it mightiness beryllium hard for a movie to person the aforesaid interaction contiguous that Jaws did 50 years ago. 

"I deliberation that the science, the information that we person truly flips Jaws connected its caput and amusement that full 'they're retired to get you' happening is wrong."

LISTEN | He swam in Jaws' waters but is 'more terrified of a satellite without sharks':

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