Tonight, a scarlet moon hung over the seaside resort of Amity Island, New England. On the beach, a group of young hippies were dancing and drinking around a fire. One of the girls decided to leave the party and go for a midnight dip. As she laughed and splashed in the warm, inky water, something unexpected surged to the surface. In the blink of an eye she had disappeared, leaving only a stream of blood behind her. The next morning, her remains were found washed up on the beach. The beachgoers were horrified, and the holidaymakers were shaken by this sudden, unexplained attack. They called in a forensic pathologist, who concluded the girl had been the victim of a shark attack. Martin Brody, the town’s new chief of police, closed the beaches. The mayor, Larry Vaughn, persuaded Chief Brody to reverse his decision, fearing the town’s summer economy would suffer. Nobody really knew how the girl’s remains had ended up on the beach, he argued – what if she’d been hit by a boat engine? It was possible, they reasoned, until the day a little boy named Alex Kintner was killed in broad daylight on a crowded beach. An enemy was among them, and he was hungry. He did not seem to fear man. A reward was put up for anyone who could kill the shark, sparking a frenzy among amateur fishermen. Quint, a local shark hunter with a brusque and eccentric manner, offered his services for $10,000. Oceanographer Matt Hooper examined the girl’s remains and confirmed that she had been killed by a shark that was bigger than anything he’d ever seen. It was the beginning of an adventure – a shark hunt.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, this film is now known to cinephiles not only as one of the greatest thrillers ever put to screen, but also as the precursor of the modern summer blockbuster. For Steven Spielberg, everything was riding on this next shot, and he sat behind the camera with his heart pounding. He looked over at his team. Around an hour and twenty minutes into the movie, chief Brody is throwing chum into the water to attract the shark, while talking to Quint over his shoulder. In this scene, the audience gets its first full glimpse of the shark. It’s a spectacular moment, and one that would linger in the nightmares of several generations. The next scene shows Brody, his cigarette trembling between his lips, backing slowly into the Orca’s cabin. “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” he says. This would become one of the most iconic lines in cinema. In fact, the line did not feature in the original script – actor Roy Scheider, who played Chief Brody, improvised the line unintentionally, creating a moment of levity in an otherwise terrifying scene. It was the perfect balance, and a moment of pure cinema that still resonates with viewers around the world.
Jaws was the movie that started the trend for Hollywood summer blockbusters. The film was due to be released during the 1974 Christmas holidays, but various production delays pushed back its release to the summer of 1975. Many assumed this would be the film’s death knell, as summer releases traditionally did not perform well. To everyone’s surprise – Spielberg included – Jaws became the first movie to make $100 million at the box office, a record it would hold until 1977, when the first Star Wars was released. This turn of events would change the movie business forever. Still today, most studios continue to schedule their biggest releases for the summer.
Alan Alfredo Geday