50th anniversary of Jaws

RIP Chrissie

I'm sorry, OP. I must disagree with you on Lorraine Gary. Talk about your nepo careers. Her husband was a big shot and she was a god awful actress.

An Oscar...? HAHAHAHA.

I saw it here. The trailer had been showing the previous months and it was brilliant. They just showed the image with *that* music under it and finally Coming This Summer. It was an eagerly anticipated movie.

As has been stated here many times, it’s so much better than the book. The shark is front and center in the film and we have none of the bad subplots.

Scarier than a million Exorcists. I could stay away from demonically possessed children.

But Mom and Dad loved vacationing at the beach.

“Everyone in the water!”

I was young when it was released and was afraid to even swim in a lake or pond after seeing it.

Everyone has that first movie that scared the bejeezus out of them. This was mine. And I BEGGED my parents to let me watch it when it was first aired on TV.

It's a great movie, but fuck you Bruce. Fuck you.

I fell in love with Robert Shaw in this. His Indianapolis monologue is one of the best things ever put on film.

Holy mackerel, I watched Jaws and Jaws 2 back to back on Tubi yesterday. Was shocked to see OP’s thread as they’re both still fresh on my mind. Had no idea it was the 50th anniversary (must be why Tubi just added them).

With so much home entertainment to choose from today, it’s hard for films and TV shows to keep my undivided attention. But with Jaws I was locked in. It’s such a great film with a perfect cast.

I was born over a decade after the movie came out so I spent my life watching films with more advanced special effects before I ever watched Jaws, and til this day that shark remains terrifying. This is one of those movies that makes me envy everyone in 1975 who got to experience the thrill and hype and anticipation then finally watched one of the most epic flicks in an air conditioned theater with some popcorn to beat the summer heat.

My all time favorite movie. Saw it when I was five at home and loved it. The part with Charlie and his buddy and the holiday roast and the busted jetty is what had my heart pounding!

A whaaaaaat?

I don't think that's funny at all.

Fantastic movie, has not aged at all. I was 11 when it came out and it was such an intense experience to be in a dark theater, especially the scenes in the hull of the boat where it felt like you were IN the boat with them.

Lee Fiero should have been nominated. Her one small scene changes the entire movie and it's an interesting moment because Scheider tried to close the beach but the Mayor wouldn't let him, yet the mother thought it was his fault.

To me, there may be better movies that were released in the summer (Nashville, the same year, for one) but Jaws will always be the quintessential “summer movie.”

My two friends were 14 and 13 when the movie was made on Martha's Vineyard, and they showed up every day to watch it being filmed (the lived on MV all summer long). A few times, they were used as 'extras' on the beach scenes. The 14 year old went on to study films (he's a film archivist now) because watching 'Jaws' being made left such an impression on him. He always said, 'Who knew I was watching one of the greatest movies of all time being made ?'

When we get them silly bastards down in that rock pile, it'll be some fun, they'll wish their fathers had never met their mothers. When they start takin' their bottoms out and slamming into them rocks, boy!

It’s a great movie and that story about The Indianapolis terrified me. I thought there was no way it could be real, but it IS REAL!

And I still scream “GO! SWIM!” When the shark attacks Richard Dreyfus in that shark cage. Scared the shit out of me.

Without Jaws there would be no...

[quote] To me, there may be better movies that were released in the summer (Nashville, the same year, for one)

How pretentious!

Saw it the weekend it opened; back in the olden days when you had go stand in a long line to buy your tickets.

Went back the very next weekend to wait in another long line to see it again.

I just watched it (yet again) last fall and it still holds up as a perfect, crowd-pleasing movie.

Saw it within a week of its release. I was 16. I was really shocked when the kid got eaten.

Martha’s Vineyard still to this day commemorates the movie as though it were filmed last year. I guess anything to get rid of the stench of Chappaquiddick.

The Fourth of July is supposed to be a week away but in some scenes, like when Richard Dreyfuss first arrives in Amity, the trees are bare and everyone is bundled up in winter clothes.

R3 That's where I saw it, too! I went with my family on the July 4th holiday, then after we saw Jaws, we drove up Colorado Boulevard to The Continental Theater and saw The Hindenburg.

R9 I saw it in the theater when I was 13 years old and I vividly remember the scene where Richard Dreyfus is diving underwater and looking through the sunken boat and the dead guy's head pops out. Everybody in the theater, including me, let out a collective scream.

[QUOTE] And I still scream “GO! SWIM!” When the shark attacks Richard Dreyfus in that shark cage. Scared the shit out of me.

I always forget the exact moment when the shark pops up after Hooper goes underwater. I’ve seen this movie about 20 times and still it shocked the hell out of me last week when the shark just nonchalantly came out of nowhere and bumped the cage. 😱

R9

It was THRILLING! I was nine and we all watched it over and over that summer, became obsessed with sharks, and yes, was afraid to swim in my own pool. My Halloween costume that year was Jaws.

My small town had a theatre that I absolutely adored but was torn down. I also watched Star Wars over and over there. So much fun.

[QUOTE] Saw it when I was five at home and loved it.

What was wrong with your parents, r10?

My mom was at work and my dad didn’t give a shit. He was a permissive parent. I watched all the R rated action and horror movies I could! I grew up on them. Alien, Predator, Terminator, Robocop, Hellraiser, all favorites.

He actually took me, my brother, and our friend to see Jaws 4 in theatres a few months after I saw Jaws, and I was pretty let down about the roaring shark.

Sure, SS went on to make other great movies. But there is something about certain artists that emerges before there are any expectations. From that freedom comes true genius.

I grew up in a small town in rural North Carolina. My mother and I went to Charlotte (50 miles away) for shopping at least once a month. We usually caught a movie to make a day of it.

I would have been about 11 when Jaws came out in July 1975. The movie was getting lots of buzz, so we decided to make that our movie one Wednesday when we went to Charlotte shopping, about a week after it has come out. We went to a 1 p.m. showing of Jaws and the theater was PACKED. Not an empty seat in the house. For a 1 p.m. screening!

We were used to a few dozen people in the theatre for an afternoon screening. Never before had we experienced a full theater on a Wednesday afternoon! Especially a 1 p.m. showing!

This was back in the days when a movie only played in one or two theaters in a city.

But the movie was fantastic. Seeing it in a packed theater with 400+ people, everyone screaming at the scary scenes, just made the whole thing even better. Definitely a communal experience.

When we left, there was a giant line of people waiting for the next showing. We were thankful we'd chosen the 1 p.m. show and didn't have to wait in that line.

Great movie. The beginning of the summer blockbuster! I've seen it multiple times since then, both on TV and on the big screen, and it continually holds up !

[quote] What was wrong with your parents,

Jaws is rated PG. They didn't have PG13 back then, although on the poster under the PG it said "some scenes may be too intense for younger children" which I believe was pretty unusual.

R31

I think because he didn’t yet have full carte blanche, he had to come up with ideas on the fly - turns out, he was really, really good at that. Not every director is but he’s so creative and has such a good sense of humor that it really worked with Jaws. To me, it’s a superlative movie.

Famed director Steven Spielberg has filmed a new, special introduction to his landmark 1975 film “Jaws,” which will air over three hours on June 20 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC — the exact 50th anniversary date of when it was released. The NBC screening and Spielberg’s introduction are just some of the plans NBCUniversal has to mark the anniversary.

It made me afraid of my parents' waterbed for a long time.

Seeing Jaws on the big screen for the first time changed my life. I was 12 years old in the summer of ‘75. It blew my little sheltered mind and created a life-long movie addiction.

It almost didn’t get made. The shoot went way over budget, took far longer than expected, the mechanical shark shorted out in salt water (they only tested it in fresh water), and they almost lost the sound recordings. Lew Wasserman, the head of Universal, wanted it shut down but Syd Sheinberg saved the movie, saved Spielberg’s career (it was only his third film and his first big budget production), saved Universal, and introduced the summer blockbuster.

Laraine Gary's turn in Jaws was similar to Meryl's in Kramer versus Kramer. She should have won an Oscar like Meryl did.

R27, I first saw Jaws with a friend and we snuck in some snickerdoodle cookies to eat. We were both in mid bite when that head popped out. We both put down the cookies and couldn't eat anymore. I think of that scene whenever I eat snickerdoodles.

Jaws is another one of those movies that I will always stop to watch if I come across it while surfing.

Lorraine Gary was interviewed on TCM. She looks pretty good for 88, although I suspect she's had a stroke or something. Her one eye is kind of droopy, her speech is kind of slurred, and she has a cane.

But her mind seems sharp, and I love the fact that she was honest about not liking either Roy Scheider or Richard Dreyfuss and admitting to having a crush on Robert Shaw.

Lorraine Gary was good in it but I don't see an Oscar-worthy role or performance.

Most of the toenspeople who play roles in the movie are such bad actors they really stand out.

There are some things I don't like, and they're typical Spielberg. Like the guy who says, at the meeting--is the reward in cash or check?, then laughs, and some other people laugh. It's a small community and a kid has just been horribly killed by a shark. Nobody would be making jokes about it. It's a very "movie" thing rather than a real thing. If anyone did make such a joke, everyone would turn on him. But nobody really seems to think it's all that horrible.

Lorraine Gary isn't a lesbian? I could have sworn she was, but was married to her husband for 63 years. Guess I've thought wrong for years.

I saw it during the opening weekend. I was 12 years old. We waited outside the theater on a really long line. Then we had to split up inside because there were only single seats left. Who knew then that history was being made? What a great movie.

I've told this story on another Jaws thread, but I once had a work assignment at a bank in Martha's Vineyard. Inside the bank they had the plaque that was put on the outside of the building when Jaws was filmed - Amityville National Bank.

One of the women who worked at the bank told me she was an extra in one of the beach scenes. She said most of the scenes were filmed in the off season during the winter, so it was cold as hell. She said it was about 50 degrees on the warmest days, and everyone had to sit on the beach in their bathing suits and try not to shiver, and it was even worse when they had to get in the water. When the AD yelled "cut," crew members would be standing there with giant blankets to wrap the extras in when they came out of the water, then they'd rush them over to these huge heaters to warm them up. If you watch closely in those beach scenes, especially when they show people in the water, some of them look like they're really shivering.

This woman said she still had fun doing it, but never thought the movie would end up being the classic that it is today.

Nah, there's no way all those people would get into the water in bathing suits on Martha's Vineyard in the middle of the winter. That water would be freezing. I just looked it up and it says the movie was filmed from May to October.

R41 Thanks for sharing that interview. That interviewer Ben M doesn't know how to conduct an interview - at all. He's trying to be 'funny' but he's not. He starts most every sentence with 'ummmm'. Horrible.

I didn't notice anything about the actress - her speech wasn't slurred, her eye didn't droop. Don't think she had a stroke. I think it's just signs of aging, as she's pushing 90.

Anyway, in winter there's be snow on the beaches and on the streets.

R47 Yes, it's cold in Martha's Vineyard in October.

There's always at least one on every thread...

[quote] Laraine Gary's turn in Jaws was similar to Meryl's in Kramer versus Kramer. She should have won an Oscar like Meryl did.

Why be so modest?

It was more like Meryl's in "Sophie's Choice," except even better.

Garry's performance should be the absolute gold standard for all women's performances in film since then, rather than Meryl as Sophie.

Laraine's performance in the movie was fine. Certainly not Oscar worthy, but then again, she was basically playing the devoted wife. There wasn't a lot she could do with the part.

One of my best friends of the past 40 years always tells me the story that she and her three cousins (all 13 at the time) were down in Edgartown watching them film in the summer of 1974. Her family owned summer homes out there, and they would get to the island when school let out in June and stay through the end of August. On a few days, they were used as extras (though I've ndever spotted them when I watch the film) - she remembers they earned $10 each on the days they were used and earned $100 that summer (anyone over 16 got more money). The four of them were told to 'play on the beach and be noisy'. When I first started going out to the island to visit her in the late 80s, she would always bring me to the location where she and her cousins were hanging around watching the movie being filmed. One of her cousins, whom I was friends with in the 80s and 90s, was so moved by the film and Dreyfuss' character, he himself went to school for marine biology at URI and got a job at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (same as Dreyfuss' character).

American Film Institute write up for Jaws indicates filing ran from May 2 1974 to early November 1974 at a cost of $8 to $10 million.

R8 Robert Shaw sings (Farewell and adieu to you fair) "Spanish Ladies" 18 years before Jaws.

God he was gorgeous.

R55 the true miracle that is Robert Shaw’s acting skill…he was drunk off his ass for much of filming, including the “Farewell and Adieu” scene. Yet he was still enough in character that he changed “…for Olde England” to “back to Boston” as befit his Eastern Seaboard role. He regularly did that kind of thing with half his brain tied behind his back.

R12, I think she was the best of the townspeople. She even pops up in “Jaws 2”.

And unlike R43, I like how they used Vineyarders as extras. They give it that unpolished, 70s feel when people in movies looked much more authentic.

I grew up in California, went to the beach almost every day during the summer, sometimes during the winter. Sharks never scared me until I saw this move. Even now, when I go in the ocean, I still think about it thanks to Jaws. Although I will say this, I never knew a single person who loved the beach to go swimming at night.

[quote] Most of the toenspeople who play roles in the movie are such bad actors they really stand out.

I read this little typo as “transpeople” and I wondered what I’d been missing.

[quote] The Fourth of July is supposed to be a week away but in some scenes, like when Richard Dreyfuss first arrives in Amity, the trees are bare and everyone is bundled up in winter clothes.

The film was produced by Paul Junger Witt, Tony Thomas and Susan Harris

R50 October isn't winter.

R61 See R54

I didn’t know Jaws had such a negative impact on sharks.

[QUOTE]”When Jaws came out, it put sharks on the map, but not necessarily in a good way,” recalled Dr. Steve Kessel, shark researcher, Shedd Aquarium.

[QUOTE]“Their populations really did take a big hit back then and Jaws was partly responsible for that. They were able to see that, particularly in the Northeast, they became the big trophy fish following the movie. You can see a genetic bottleneck in the population following the release of Jaws, very problematic.

[QUOTE] “Peter Benchley felt very guilty about the negative effects to sharks after he wrote the book and the subsequent film, and he spent most of the rest of his life pursuing shark conservation and advocating for sharks traveling around the world.”

[QUOTE]Dr. Kessel says the species has significantly recovered.

[QUOTE]“Since then though, particularly in the U.S. and Australia and South Africa, they have received protections and right now we are seeing a really big resurgence in their population. It is a combination of more effective protections for the species and the marine mammals that are also protected.”

Yep, I remember people were so freaked out by the idea of being eaten by a shark there were lots of boats going out on shark hunting missions much like the movie itself.

Thank god that's all calmed down and now there is a better understanding of sharks in the wild. Thank you Shark Week.

I don't know what you're talking about. Originally, I was replying to R46, who wrote:

[quote] One of the women who worked at the bank told me she was an extra in one of the beach scenes. She said most of the scenes were filmed in the off season during the winter, so it was cold as hell. She said it was about 50 degrees on the warmest days, and everyone had to sit on the beach in their bathing suits and try not to shiver, and it was even worse when they had to get in the water.

I originally replied that people can't swim in the Atlantic on Martha's Vineyard in the winter. (They'd freeze.) Then Someone replied to me:

[quote] Yes, it's cold in Martha's Vineyard in October. There's always at least one on every thread... —sigh

Then someone else (or the same person) said filming took place until early November.

October and November aren't WINTER. Winter is from mid-December until mid-March.

So Peter Benchley sparked the shark slaughter and the Discovery Channel helped end it a decade later.

[quote] Most of the toenspeople who play roles in the movie are such bad actors they really stand out.

Whaaaaaaaat?

It was constantly sold out in Hyannis and my parents weren't any help.

I ended up taking the bus (alone) to the New Seabury Cinema and was traumatized.

I was 9. Times were very different.

You took the bus alone at 9? Who are you, Lisa Simpson?

It’s not exactly cross-country, R69. Hyannis and Mashpee are 10 miles apart.

Some places do on the water screenings.

This would be a classic "You can have my stuff" situation for me.

Where in the fuck is that, R71? That looks awesome! I’d love to be out there at night watching the movie.

The best local actor in the movie was Lee Fierro as Mrs. Kintner. The scene where she slapped Roy Scheider was great.

I always thought she looked to old to play Alex's mom, but she was only 46 at the time.

R72 Texas

Don´t pee in the water

Fritizi Jane Courtney (Mrs. Taft, the motel owner) stole this movie and it's sequel. Don't know why she wasn't in more after this.

^ She was in Jaws: The Revenge as well!

Is Mrs. Taft the woman in yellow with the big glasses who says, "I don't think that's funny... I don't think that's funny at all"? She is amazing.

Mrs. Kintner is good slapping Scheider at the funeral, but it always throws me that her mourning clothes are so formal, which was a little surprising for the time (especially at a beach community in high summer).

R77 that's her! I still do that line as Mrs. Taft to my mom all the time!

R78 Is she the same lady who's on the beach with her family and the Brodys and says, "Ellen, if you weren't born on the island, you'll never be an islander?"

Is she the one that has jungle fever?

She has a New York accent, though.

R79, yes that's her! If nothing else she should have gotten the opportunity to star in a Jacqueline Susanne biopic. I'm not familiar enough with the region to discern whether she has a New York or local accent that just sounds similar to a NY one. Also the film was shot on Martha's Vineyard but in the book the town is supposed to be located off of Long Island. They never specify in the film whether they are in New England or New York.

R82 I think the mayor (in the movie) has a line about "what if this happened on Long Island?" so we know it's not happening on Long Island.

She has a New York accent. I am from the region (Mass.) so I know it's not a Mass. accent and I'm familiar with a NY accent.

"Fritzi Jane Courtney was an American actress. The only daughter of Joseph and Rose Jassem, she was born in Harlem and was raised in Brooklyn. She graduated from Brooklyn College. While attending drama school, she was employed by a tie company in New York City." --Wikipedia

He says people will be happy to swim on the beaches of Long Island, Caped Cod, The Hamptons if they close the beaches.

Mrs. Taft has an NYC accent but every other local in the film has an Eastern New England accent. Brody and his wife even poke fun of the local accent in the beginning and their son (another Vineyard local) says, “Look mom, I’m a vampiah!”

R84, but he doesn’t say “The Vineyard”. Amity in the movie is the Vineyard in all but name.

R84 Yes, thank you, that's what he says. Exactly. I didn't remember it correctly but I knew he mentioned Long Island.

What was strange to me about what the mayor says, that people will be happy to swim on the beaches of Long Island, the Cape, and the Hamptons if the beaches are closed on Amity Island...is that the beaches of Long Island and the beaches of Cape Cod are hundreds of miles away from each other. Roughly a 5 hour drive.

The Mass. beaches north of the Cape, as well as the beaches of New Hampshire and southern Maine, are much closer to Martha's Vineyard than New York. That's where people would go.

People from the area, anyhow. I guess tourists from New York do go to Martha's Vineyard as well.)

I can remember seeing the movie when it came out in ‘75. I went to see it with my brothers and a friend. I was 10 and my brothers and friend were 9. We sat in the back row. When Quint started sliding down the boat into the sharks mouth and the shark began eating him, my friend ran out of the theatre screaming.

I saw it for the first time on my family’s small black and white TV in 1979, the year it aired on TV. My dad had to keep leaving the room during suspenseful moments. I didn’t even like to take a bath for several months after. I kept imagining sharks coming up the bathtub drain.

[QUOTE] When Quint started sliding down the boat into the sharks mouth and the shark began eating him, my friend ran out of the theatre screaming.

😂😂😂 Holy shit.

I’m sorry, I know Lee Fierro was locally famous as a stage actress in and around New England, but she is terrible in “Jaws,” seems like a rank amateur and has the wrong look to play the mother of a young boy. I always squirm with embarrassment over how awful she is.

According to Wikipedia, Richard Dreyfuss had done “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz,” and was sure it would be a flop. He wasn’t wild about doing “Jaws” but thought he’d better take it because he might not get another chance at a movie role (Jon Voight, Timothy Bottoms, Jan-Michael Vincent, Joel Grey and Jeff Bridges were all considered). Then “Duddy” opened to excellent reviews amd food business and that’s when Robert Shaw developed a loathing for Dreyfuss, either out of envy or perhaps because Dreyfuss quickly became insufferable with success. Their offscreen tension helps their performances, I think, with Scheider as the referee.

R92 I was only 17 when this came out and I was doing high school and local theater in the Boston area, but I never heard of Lee Fierro. That doesn't mean anything, but Wikipedia says nothing about her being an actress in and around New England, or famous. Only that she had been an actress at one point, but was an acting teacher on Martha's Vineyard for years who taught thousands of kids.

R92 What did you think was so awful about her performance? I found her to be quite a capable and believable actress.

Yes, she appeared to be too old to be a young kid's mother, but she was actually only 45 when she made the movie. Her son in the move was probably around 10 years old, so her character could have easily given birth to him when she was 35.

r26, I could have written your post. I, too, was 13 and that scene was something you never forget. I was eating Jordan Almonds at the time and those still in the box wound up in the rear of the theater when the head appeared.

I don't understand why Fierro never played Billie Jean King in the film of her life. The resemblance is uncanny, I half expect her to start going down on Fritizi Jane Courtney when they'r at the beach!

R31: "Sure, SS went on to make other great movies. But there is something about certain artists that emerges before there are any expectations. From that freedom comes true genius."

I feel this so strongly about George Lucas and AMERICAN GRAFFITI. He made other films that were good, entertaining, fun, etc., but he never made another GREAT film. A.G. is a truly great film.

I always wondered what they wanted the movie to look like with a working shark.

But because the shark didn't work so often, it's rarely seen in the film - which adds so much to the build up and excitement. This unseen threat that you only get glimpses of.