Retrospective - Jaws (1975)

In the quaint seaside town of Amity Island, a beach campfire is surrounded by mellow youth as they laugh and amble on guitars, followed by two strangers locking eyes, gesturing to a more private setting. In an excitable haze, the woman, Chrissie (Susan Backlinie), runs towards the ocean for a late-night swim, whilst her intoxicated acquaintance stumbles behind. With all the makeup of a soon-to-be romantic movie, Chrissie dives into the water high on life. The shot then flips to the underwater view looking up at the now lonesome swimmer. A harp chimes in playing a delicate crescendo, before a low, darkening hum lingers in the background, all whilst Chrissie swims away in the supposedly barren sea. Thanks to the whimsical but somewhat increasingly foreboding aural and visual landscape, a stark horror begins to grow, and then all of a sudden, a two-note motif plays, a now familiar "dun-dun dun-dun", that signals deadly trouble. 

The dual notes cease, and a frightening violin sharply roars as Chrissie thrashes in the water, desperately clinging onto a buoy screaming for God to save her, before being viciously dragged into the ocean to her gruesome death. The visceral horror is brutally interrupted by a deadly silence. With this, 'Jaws' begins. 

 Although Jaws now enters its fifth decade, with the film celebrating its 50th anniversary last year, the film has only aged with commendation, becoming a classic in every sense of the word. Its success surpasses the standard franchise legacy marks, with Jaws even obtaining multiple theme park rides, video games, musicals, Lego sets, cinematic tributes, and most monumentally, the film entered the National Film Registry for preservation as selected by the United States Library of Congress. How exactly Jaws achieved this status is both simple and complicated. The film is outright enjoyable, fun, scary and intense, lending itself to be innately memorable, but more so than that, the film revolutionised the potentials of horror cinema.

The story behind Jawsbegan when Universal Pictures producers read its source material, a novel of the same name written by Peter Benchley in 1974. Inspired by the thrilling tale of nature versus man in the 'big blue', the studio purchased the adaptation rights just before the book was released to the public, hoping to score on the eventual buzz that the book inevitably received. During this crucial pre-production stage, landing on a filmmaker to direct the soon-to-be-hit was crucial, with various directors being considered in the process, however, none of them could stick the landing that the book had captured so effortlessly. At the same time, before he was a household name, the up and coming director Steven Spielberg caught whiff of the production and insisted on his involvement. Despite his initial spark of intrigue, Spielberg did express some hesitancy, having previously directed 'Duel' (1971), an action film that mainly follows a cat-and-mouse plot involving a semi-truck driver. As such, going from action-packed trucks to gnarly sharks, Spielberg was weary of a b-movie reputation - a feat that for many horror fans sounds like an exciting and promising filmography. 

However, with the promise that this film would allow Spielberg to go on to direct whatever story he wished, plans went ahead, and the inception of Jaws was set in stone. Benchley's vision of a shark lying in wait for its prey was littered with soap-like drama and a plethora of sub-plots, and whilst the effect of such a composition was juicy with theatrics, Spielberg hoped for a more serious undertone, in turn scrapping the additional dramas throughout the novel. As part of gaining the rights to adapt the book, it was assured that Benchley would be heavily involved with the screenplay, however, as with many adaptions, this did not necessarily manifest in the way Benchley initially thought, particularly as it has been reported that Spielberg was keen to change quite a lot of the dynamics. The contrasting opinions of the pair is rich with dramatized scandal, similar to that of Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick's contrasting visions on 'The Shining'(1980). Any aggravations arisen from the complex relationship between Benchley and Spielberg is beside the point, what is however relevant is that these thematic decisions that bloomed from the book and transformed into the screen created a film that would go on to be incredibly significant to the history of horror. 

This fusion of ideas created magic on screen, primarily at the hands of the richly developed characters whose casting was instrumental in forming this lasting impression. Although Jaws is a horror film about sharks and the deadliness of the ocean, how it arrives at this point is far from being rooted in the discourse of bloodthirsty cartilaginous fish, instead, this brooding tension and eruptions of sheer panic are catalysed by the interplay of the main characters. In fact, the shark barely receives much runtime for the first hour, with the film focusing on the nuance of Amity Island's characters. The foundation of the film is composed by the town officials realising that a shark is roaming the otherwise trouble-free waters, leading to the police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) and Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) colliding over whether to close the beach or not. The law attempts to convince Mayor Vaughn of the potential dangers, but greed takes precedence as he fears the potential loss of tourist income if the beach is closed. All of this red tape comes to a head when resident intense shark hunter, Quint (Robert Shaw), and methodological oceanographer, Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), alongside Brody venture out to sea on Quint's boat, the 'Orca', in hopes of capturing the deadly shark. 

The unlikely trio of Quint, Hooper and Brody are what make Jaws the award-winner that it is. Not only is the chemistry electric to watch on-screen as they form their own amity of clashing personalities and comradery, but it also serves to add a level of nuance and conflict that seeks to create long sequences of genuinely affective psychological horror that makes the instances of jumpscares, high-stakes action and scenes of killer sharks even more powerful. As the film develops and adapts these characters, what is happening in the background is a growing sense of isolation and fear, with the audiences becoming aware that these intrinsic and unique characters are more than just movie-meat, they are instead integral to the thematic structure of the film.  

Whilst Jaws owes much of its success to its character dynamics and depthful writing, one of the most important characters by far is the shark itself. In retrospect, it is rather bizarre to learn that the creatives behind Jaws initially were going to forgo animatronics and planned to train a real great white shark for the film. Luckily enough, this wild idea was abandoned, with the production opting for several pneumatically operated faux sharks made of steel skeletons and a plastic skin overlay. The incredible production of these massive beasts is worthy of immense praise, with the sharks demanding thousands of hours' worth of work from countless technicians to make the cut. However, besides the mesmerising visual result of these props, behind the scenes, Jaws waded in murky waters. 

As the film was shot in the ocean rather than in a controlled body of water in a studio like many other ocean-based films, the production suffered from its fair share of halts. Water-logged cameras, sinking boats, malfunctioning props, seasick crew and weather problems all plagued the tiresome shoots, with Spielberg even noting that his quest for realism and perfectionism may have caused the initial shooting schedule of 55 days to go at least 100 days over schedule. Meanwhile, whilst Spielberg and crew were getting continually splashed by the salty ocean on these long days, composer John Williams was mustering up what would go on to be one of cinema's greatest ever scores. Jawsaforementioned two-note theme has become somewhat of a foundational pillar in all walks of cinema, often referenced in common media as a warning signal of impending doom. The symbolic score is a key component of the film being a cinematic staple, with the music working to ramp up incredible amounts of tension in such a short amount of time. 

Woven within cinema's tapestry is Jaws' infamous tonalities, particularly the unscripted quote, "you're gonna need a bigger boat" and the creepy tagline, "you'll never go in the water again". This lasting reputation was not retrospectively earnt, with the film being an instant hit the minute it hit screens. Jaws theatre run surpassed any and all expectations, with the film beating records with box office scores in its first weekend alone grossing over $21 million, not only easily earning its budget back, but also propelling the concept of a summer-blockbuster into the 'wishlist' of every production studio. The film ran for countless weeks, nearly a year to be exact, before continuing its release overseas, and then like clockwork, returning for a re-release the next summer. Even to this day, Jaws still reels in heaps of audiences, including none other than an exclusive screening hosted by Dead Northern. Tickets are selling out extremely fast, catch the details below for your last chance to book this unmissable immersive experience. 

CELEBRATE SPIELBERG'S MASTERPIECE JAWS WITH AN UNFORGETTABLE SCREENING… ON THE WATER!

On Saturday 25th April 2026, step aboard The River Prince at Kings Staith Landing, York. Boarding begins at 6:45pm, with the cruise departing promptly at 7:00pm. As we sail along the River Ouse, you'll experience one of the greatest thrillers of all time in the most atmospheric setting imaginable.

The evening runs until around 10:00 pm, with a fully stocked pay-as-you-go bar available throughout the cruise.

Tickets: https://www.deadnorthern.co.uk/jaws-screening-on-a-boat