On August 14th, Jaws
made its debut on Blu-ray. Its arrival
has truly been a long time coming. Included
in the supplemental materials is a brand new documentary titled The Shark is Still Working: The Impact &
Legacy of Jaws. It chronicles the history
of Jaws as a cultural
phenomenon. Though I have been affected
by that phenomenon, I was a late comer to the party. Jaws
was released two years before I was born.
I wouldn’t “discover” the film until a good many years later. However, once I finally did, I became a
believer.
In the summer of 1983, I was six years old. Jaws
had become a full blown franchise by that point, and Jaws 3-D marked my first acquaintance with the brand. Despite that film’s pop cultural omnipresence
at the time, I was much more taken with an even bigger phenomenon: Return of the Jedi. My mother took me to see it twice at a
theater that was also showing Jaws 3-D. Though my imagination was enthralled by the Jedi,
the visage of that great white shark had firmly taken root in my subconscious
thanks to the film’s ad campaign.
The poster for Jaws 3-D was yet another variation of Robert
Kastel’s now classic painting of a voracious great white en route to devouring
a nubile young swimmer. To my young
eyes, it might as well have been the dreaded skull and crossbones. As a child, horror films represented a
cinematic no man’s land for me. Film’s
that centered on the murderous tendencies of wild animals fell firmly into that
category. A radio spot for the film
served to confirm my fears. Aside from
the ominous voice over by Percy Rodriguez, it featured eerie noises that I
mistakenly thought were coming from the title creature.
The film premiered on HBO the following summer. Despite my overly timid nature, I don’t
remember finding it all that scary.
Perhaps I was able to better compartmentalize it without the added
background noise of the TV and radio spots.
The only image I can clearly remember is the one that occurs during the
climax. In a laughably obvious 3-D shot,
the Jaws of the title creature pause in midair after said creature
explodes.
It’s important to note that I was at least somewhat familiar
with the work of Steven Spielberg at this point, though I didn’t yet associate
him with the Jaws brand. If I had, I probably would have been even
more apprehensive about it. As I have already
noted elsewhere on this blog, the films of Steven Spielberg traumatized me as a
child. They were designed as rip-roaring
adventures designed to appeal to adults and children alike. For me they played differently, as I always
sensed something more sinister at work.
Much of my apprehension centered around the subject matter, as Spielberg’s
earliest films centered on my deepest, darkest, childhood fears: killer
animals, aliens, evil spirits, and the wrath of god.
By the summer of 1987, my aversion to the films of Spielberg
had diminished considerably. This was
due in large part to my burgeoning obsession with action and sci-fi pictures,
which had grown considerably more violent by the late 1980’s. I began seeing TV ads for Jaws: The Revenge. By that
point, I saw Jaws as being no
different than other horror franchises such as Friday the 13th.
The poster was the final iteration of Robert
Kastel’s razor toothed behemoth. As with
the posters for Jaws 2 and Jaws 3-D, the creature’s maw now
appeared above water. However, this time
there was a key difference. The tables
had turned. The shark was no longer
predator, but prey. In the right hand
corner of the image, the bow of a boat was visible. Atop the bow was a woman who held a spear at
the ready. Both the ship’s bow and the
spearhead were aimed squarely at the underbelly of the shark. This image was echoed in the trailer, which
showed the shark leaping through the air like a trained dolphin, right in front
of a boat that was heading straight for it.
The interesting thing here is that both the poster and the trailer
telegraphed the film’s climax.
Though the ads for the film played up the action/adventure
aspects, I still wasn’t compelled to see it.
As with the summer of 1983, my attention was focused elsewhere. The summer of 1987 was the summer of Predator, Robocop, and Masters of the Universe,
all which placed much higher on my ten year old priority list.
I wouldn’t see the film until the following year, when it
premiered on either Showtime or The Movie Channel during one of their
free previews. Though my phobia regarding
horror films still lingered, I didn’t find it particularly scary. Overall, I was ambivalent, to the point of
not realizing just how silly the film’s plot was. Apparently, the events of the first film set
off an interspecies family feud that pits every great white shark in existence
against the Brody clan. The antagonist
of this film is so consumed with revenge that it follows Ellen Brody from New
England to the Bahamas.
By the summer of 1990, I was 13. My interest in movies had intensified yet
again. I had largely outgrown my intense
fear of horror films, thanks to my infatuation with Freddy Kruger. I’d even managed to overcome my intense fear
of the early Spielberg classics. Raiders of the Lost Ark had become a
personal favorite. I watched it
regularly, especially the wonderful bar fight in Nepal. Strangely, I still hadn’t found my way to the
original Jaws. That year, at a cousin’s house, I finally saw
a portion of it during an airing on television.
![]() |
Robert Shaw as Quint. |
I found the climax entertaining, particularly due to the antics
of the character Quint (Robert Shaw).
The overall experience was enhanced by the reactions of my family
members, who made jokes and puns throughout.
As much fun as the whole evening had been, the film still didn’t leave
that much of an impression on me. My
tastes still ran towards the ultra-violent action films of Schwarzenegger and the
like. Jaws didn’t contain enough heavy artillery or bloodletting for my
taste. Even the four star review in the
1991 edition of Roger Ebert’s Home Movie
Companion couldn’t convince me to give it a second glance.
I graduated high school in the summer of 1995. By then, my tastes in movies had become just
a tad bit more sophsiticated. Pulp Fiction had opened my mind to the
possibilities of crime films and independent cinema. It’s warm reception by the critics and press
had made me more curious about some of the Oscar contenders that I had always
dismissed as elitist tripe. I began
exploring the back catalogs of directors like Francis Ford Coppola, Michael
Cimino, Oliver Stone, Stanley Kubrick, and Sam Peckinpah. I even became more inquisitive about the directors
who I was already a fan of. Spielberg
was included in that group.
A week after my graduation, I got my first job at
Bloomingdales in White Plains. After
cashing my first paycheck, I headed to Waldenbooks
in the Galleria mall. I purchased The Films of Steven Spielberg by Douglas
Brode. It was a self-described “pictorial
study” of Spielberg’s oeuvre up until that point. TBS
decided to air Jaws around that same
time. Though I tuned in rather late, this
particular viewing would go much different than the last one.
![]() |
The Films of Steven Spielberg by Douglas Brode |
I tuned in during the the July 4th festivities in
Amity. That’s when the film’s famous “false
alarm” takes place. Two young boys take
advantage of the paranoia surrounding the recent shark attacks by playing a
practical joke with some scuba gear and a fake shark fin. Their little stunt causes the beach goers to
stampede. Martin Brody and his officers
pull the young offenders out of the water at gunpoint.
The shot of the young pranksters staring down the barrel of
a loaded rifle was striking, even in its “panned and scanned.” It convinced me to watch the rest of the
film. This turned out to be a life-changing
decision. The Spielberg that I had come
to know (and love) from the Indiana Jones
films was present in every frame. The
central conflict of the third act was fascinating in its simplicity: Three guys
in a boat trying to catch and kill a great white shark. I just had to see this movie in
full.
A few days later, I made a long trek up Boston Post road,
from New Rochelle to Mamaroneck. I bought
a “panned and scanned” copy of Jaws
from Blockbuster video. Upon bringing my
prize home and removing the wrapping, I noticed something interesting on the
back cover. Just beneath the plot
description was a warning. It had
nothing to do with bootlegging or copyright infringement. It pertained to the violence contained in the
film. It wasn’t an explanation of the
MPAA rating, which appeared elsewhere on the packaging. In fact, it seemed to point out the insufficiency
of that rating.
The warning served as a vindication for me. It confirmed my long held suspicions that
Spielberg’s films were a bit rougher than many realized. According to Jason Zinoman’s book Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders
Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Invented Modern Horror, the PG
rating given to Jaws in 1975 revealed
a clear bias on the part of the MPAA.
Had the film been a low-budget exploitation picture made independently,
it most certainly would have gotten an R.
The MPAA would make more concessions to Spielberg over the
next decade. Raiders of the Lost Ark was initially given an R, until some visual
alterations were made to its gruesome climax.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of
Doom, in conjunction with the Spielberg production Gremlins, lead to the
creation of the PG-13 rating.
Like Hitchcock before him, Spielberg was skilled at sneaking
subversive themes and ideas into mass entertainments. On the surface, Jaws is a simple adventure yarn with a few scary moments strewn
throughout. However, lurking just
beneath this modern retelling of Moby
Dick is an honest to god exploitation flick, albeit a slickly made
one. In some regards, it’s a forerunner
to John Carpenter’s seminal slasher film Halloween. Supplant the 25 foot great white shark with
Michael Myers and the seaside town of Amity with the fictional suburb of Haddonfield,
Illinois. In that light, the analogy makes more
sense. Both antagonists are forces of
nature, predatory and unclouded by conscience.
The childlike Myers is driven by a compulsion to kill. It obviously serves some primal need. Likewise, the great white shark kills to
satiate its own incessant hunger.
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One of the more violent and memorable moments from Jaws. Quint (Robert Shaw) meets his fate. |
It should be noted that Jaws
is more graphically violent than either Halloween
or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. From the close-ups of severed limbs and
decayed corpses to the sight of the shark chomping down on Quint, the film
clearly went well beyond what a PG rating should’ve allowed back in 1975. That is a testament to the abilities of
Spielberg (as well as the aforementioned biases of the MPAA), who unlike his
contemporaries (John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper) was able to help the material transcend
its origins. He made it palatable for
the masses. Hence, Jaws is beloved by many who normally wouldn’t set foot near a
horror/exploitation film. I am one such
viewer. I’ve never cared much for horror
films as whole, but simply adore Jaws. That
love only seems to grow with time. I now
see that this film was part of my destiny as a movie buff. It was only a matter of finding my way to it.
Brilliant piece, Scott, and one of your best. I saw parts 2 through 4 in the theaters. Part 2 I barely remember in the theater as I was but three years old. '83 was a big year for movies. I saw SUPERMAN 3, RETURN OF THE JEDI, JAWS 3 with my mom, and KRULL with a school chum that year.
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