Happy birthday, Bruce! Everybody’s favorite disobedient animatronic turns fifty today, and since thrashing onto screens in 1975 inSteven Spielberg’s summer masterpieceJaws,the notorious great white shark has been busy causing decades' worth of trauma.It’s strange to even consider a time when people could just swim in the ocean, without a care in the world about what may lurk beneath the murky surface, but apparently this is what the world looked like beforePeter Benchley’s infernal mind came along and ruined things for everybody with his novel about a man-eating shark.
Jawswas an absolute sensation, and itsclever marketing campaign built around a sinister voice urging you to “see it before you go swimming” deliberately tapped into the reality of its premise. Overnight, galeophobia, or a not-so-irrational fear of sharks, became widespread, and a veryreal battle between man and beast was waged. Much to Benchley’s horror, sharks were suddenly being hunted and killed in their thousands as a direct result of the fears he instilled, and hespent the remainder of his life working to protectthe poor creatures from such measures.
‘Jaws’ Has Caused Me a Lifetime of Trauma
I was something of a curious child, one might say masochistically so. My love for the horror genregrew out of a burning sense of morbid curiosityand pushing my little brain to its limits. Even as a seven-year-old, I knew ofJaws.Twenty-five years after its release, its influence was still everywhere, and the ominous presence of that poster—of an open-mouthed beast rushing straight up through the water towards an unsuspecting woman—piqued my curiosity. I had to see it! Given that it was only rated PG, this turned out to be one of the easier film-hunting endeavors of my younger years. Sure, back in 1975 there may have only been a choice between PG and R,but the ratings board had expanded in the years since,and in my native England, perhaps a 12 or 15 would have been more appropriate. But hey, the experts said this movie was no scarier thanToy Story,so what did I have to lose?
My sanity, apparently. Any sense of peace for the remainder of my life. The ability to even think about water without getting that sick feeling in my guts that says an ugly, terrifying force is about to appear out of nowhere and see me to a very painful and gurgly demise. I lost it all one summer day in 1999, when I sat and watchedJawsfor the first time.Swimming pools were suddenly sources of terror,bathtubs were no longer a relaxing place to be, and obviously the ocean could go f*** itself. Sure, science dictates that I am unlikely to cross paths with a man-eating shark in a tub of murky dishwater, but that’s not the point.Something about that movie had awakened in me a primal fear that would impose itself onto any scenario in my lifeand give me animmense feeling of unease.My vivid imagination would copy the image of that shark and paste it anywhere. There was no going back. I was damaged goods,and I had Steven Spielberg to thank for it.
Despite It All, ‘Jaws’ Is Still My Favorite Movie
So you’d think that with this visceral a reaction, I’d be a one-and-done viewer ofJaws, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, thatmorbid curiosity meant that now I’d seen it, I couldn’t get enough of it.As a young kid, obviously the shark was the exciting part. The boring stretches of people talking lost my interest, but I was sucked right back in as soon as the action moved to the water. There’s no denying that the shark,and all the bloody mayhem he caused,was the draw for me. Butas I got older, and my appreciation for film as an art form grew, I would regularly return to the movie and see it a little differently each time.Those talking scenes were no longer boring but actually very deep and carefully written character moments that told us all about these people and got us invested in their journeys. Quint’s famous Indianapolis speech, once the calm before the storm, was now one of the most menacing parts of the whole movie. This was actually a brilliant, engrossing, exciting, electrifyingcombination of horror, adventure, and character drama,and it balanced all its elements with finesse.
The 10 Most Enjoyable ‘Jaws’ Ripoffs, Ranked
Sharks, piranhas, crocodiles… killer animals galore.
Then I came to develop a fascination with how movies are made,and my appreciation forJawsonly grew further.This movie was nothing short of miraculous. In the hands of a 27-year-old novice director, the budget and shooting schedule had spilled over massively, there was tension among its actors, they were finding out the hard way that the sea is a cruel mistress, andthe damn shark was not working. When you break down the craft and labor that went into making the movie,it’s a wonder it ever even got finished, let alone turned out as one of the finest, most artisticallybrilliant films of the 20th century. It was dramatically paced, astonishingly filmed, astutely performed, and thematically rich. This terrifying monster movie that had shaken me to my damn core was a work of art, one that I continue to go back to and marvel over, time after time.
‘Jaws’ Still Impacts Audiences on a Deeper Level to This Day
Sure, at 33 years old, I still can’t sit in a jacuzzi without considering that its size and shape are perfect for a shark’s head to inexplicably emerge from, andI genuinely don’t think I will ever feel safe or at ease around water in my entire life,but I am grateful to Benchley and to Spielberg and to all the incredibly talented artists who made this unlikely hit.It was my first real look at what absolute cinema looked likeand how it could impact people on a deeper level. It opened my eyes to the realities of a film set and the functions of a finished movie, and it is very likely that were it not for my dark fascination withJaws, I would never have become the writer or film fanatic that I am today.So here’s to you, Bruce,and to many more years of trauma together.
