Everything to Know About Jaws – 50 Years Later

This June, Steven Spielberg’s Jaws turns 50. It’s a milestone birthday for one of the most influential and successful films of the 1970s, and the celebration by fans everywhere is sure to draw new audiences to the film for the very first time, introducing a new generation to what many consider to be the original summer blockbuster.

But if you’re new to the Jaws game, you might be wondering: What exactly is this movie, how and when was it made, and why is it so important in the grand scheme of blockbuster cinema in the 20th century and beyond? Well, we’re here to help out. For Jaws newbies, here’s everything you need to know about the film that’s still making us think twice about going in the water, 50 years later.

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What is Jaws?

You might know this one already, but just in case: 1975’s Jaws is an adaptation of Peter Benchley’s 1974 bestselling novel of the same name, about Amity, a small coastal tourist town on Long Island, New York that’s tormented by a human-eating great white shark. As the shark attacks begin, the town is preparing for the peak of summer tourist season, and local officials are hesitant to close the beaches when so many out-of-towners are about to show up to spend money. While the mayor holds back, a local police chief (Roy Scheider), a scientist (Richard Dreyfuss), and a grizzled old shark hunter (Robert Shaw) go in search of the great white, to try and put an end to the carnage.

When and where was Jaws made?

To direct Jaws, producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown chose Steven Spielberg, then a relative unknown who’d found some success with small films like Duel and The Sugarland Express. Filming on Jaws began in the spring of 1974 in Massachusetts, with Martha’s Vineyard standing in for Long Island. Universal Pictures’ production was the first major motion picture released by a studio to deal with such extensive photography on the ocean (as opposed to tanks on soundstages), and was plagued with various setbacks caused by the climate, including issues with the mechanical sharks who played the great white. 

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Principal photography dragged on for roughly five months, almost three times what was originally intended, but the eventual payoff was enormous.

How did they make the Jaws shark?

Jaws is famous for its use of a mechanical shark to stand in for a real great white, but it’s even more famous for all the times Spielberg and company had to work around the mechanical creatures, because they simply weren’t working. Production designer Joe Alves supervised the creation of three different mechanical sharks for different angles of photography, and the original intention was to use them often, showing the shark in the opening sequences and continuing to track it throughout the rest of the film. When those sharks began to break down in the sometimes harsh conditions of the ocean, Spielberg turned to more suggestive methods of photography, using tracking shots in the ocean, a dorsal fin popping up out of the water, and other effects to simulate the presence of a shark. The film’s restraint, showing the shark itself only in key moments, eventually became a defining feature of Jaws, and added to its suspense.

The legacy of Jaws

Jaws was based on a bestselling novel, but it was also a film released by a relatively unknown director, after a troubled production that saw its budget soar. Despite the troubles with principal photography, though, the film was enthusiastically received by audiences. In less than two weeks, it made back its production costs, and went on to be the number one movie in America for more-or-less the entire summer of 1975. By the end of its run, it was the highest-grossing movie of all time, a record it held until Star Wars came along two years later. 

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Jaws made Spielberg into the hottest filmmaker in Hollywood at the time, a guy who could deliver spectacle and who could tell stories that captured the public imagination, and more hits soon followed. In the years following Jaws he directed films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, all of which were box office smashes that set new records and built the filmmaker’s reputation as a blockbuster machine. Jaws also spawned three sequels and countless imitators, launching a new wave of animal attack movies that included Piranha, Grizzly, Alligator, and more. 

Today, Jaws is more than just a piece of blockbuster cinema history. It’s 50 years old, but it still plays like a film that could have been released yesterday, a masterclass in suspense and payoffs that’s topped off by one of the most gripping setpieces in genre cinema history. If you still haven’t seen it, you should make the time, because 50th birthdays only come around once. 

Jaws (and its three sequels) are currently available to purchase via Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.