Bite Me..
This summer sees the 45th anniversary of a film about a killer shark that went on to become a classic of American cinema. Robert Taffurelli takes another look at Jaws, its lasting appeal and why we all need to get back in the water
I remember it as if it were yesterday. The arguments, the tears, the screaming, the crying. Forty-five years later, it’s still so clear. No matter how much I cried, how much I pleaded, my parents would not allow me to see Jaws. Through tear-filled eyes I watched my older sisters, brother and cousins as they made their way to the beautiful art deco Plaza cinema in Port Talbot, to watch the cultural event of the year.
In 1975 you didn’t wait six months for a film to be streamed. No, I waited six arduous years for the TV premier – ITV, 8 October 1981 – I remember that clearly too. The wait had been worth it, the film scared, delighted and entertained me and I was captivated. To be fair, at 10 years-old I was probably still too young to watch (the film originally had an A certificate) and I remember my sister having to explain to me what a taxidermist was, and why he was about to have a heart attack. Quint’s colourful dialogue aside, how many people said, “I am never going swimming again” after seeing the film – and there I was, 10 years-old and drinking it all it.
“Just when you thought it was safe to get back in your armchair” proclaimed the front cover of that week’s TV Times, and with over 23 million viewers (one of the largest British audiences ever for a film) it felt that night like everybody was watching Jaws.
Looking back, it seems like a peculiar scheduling choice to premier the film on a Thursday night, but in 1981 what else was there to do? The next morning the school bus was buzzing with excitement, everybody had watched it – even the bus driver and his grumpy assistant who just seemed to stand at the front of the bus complaining about “bloody kids”. But this time his frown was replaced by a hint of a smile as he too was captivated by the film.
Forty-five years later, the film is still adored by me and fans the world over. But why? It has after all a rather unremarkable story about a great white shark which terrorises a small beach community.
It has a very simple three act narrative structure: equilibrium (Amity Island prepares for 4th July celebrations), disruption of the equilibrium (shark eats people), return to equilibrium (shark is killed). So why has Jaws become one of the truly great and lasting classics of American cinema?
Many argue that with Jaws Spielberg laid the template for the modern summer blockbuster and changed the face of cinema forever, something critics and academics are still debating. Some see the film as a comment on masculinity in crisis, while for others it is a comment on post-Watergate corruption. In an interview for the BBC’s Culture Show, however, Spielberg said, “I always thought that Jaws was kind of like an aquatic version of Duel,” referencing his first feature-length movie about a largely unseen driver of a truck who terrorises a man driving a car. Like Jaws, on paper the film sounds awful, but it’s one of his best.
“I always thought that Jaws was kind of like an aquatic version of Duel,”
Steven Spielberg
Legendary B-movie director Roger Corman certainly understood the origins of Jaws. With films such as Attack of the Crab Monsters, She Gods of Shark Reef and Creature from the Haunted Sea, Corman was a major influence on the young Spielberg. “When Jaws came out, Vincent Canby of The New York Times said, ‘What is Jaws but a big-budget Roger Corman film?’ He’s half right,” Corman told Reuters in 2011. “It was a big-budget Roger Corman film but it was also better. And that was the key, it was bigger and better.”
I truly cannot say how many times I’ve watched Jaws. It’s a film I keep returning to and it’s a film that never fails to live up to my expectations, even after all these years and all these viewings. Why? Well, it’s perfect. The film is tight, not a scene, a line of dialogue or piece of action out of place.
Superbly directed, it’s often forgotten how beautiful the film is to watch and who can forget that dolly zoom shot on Chief Brody where the viewers’ perception is toyed with – influences of Hitchcock as well as Corman. Wonderfully acted, with three leads raising the others’ game – Roy Scheider was a much, much underrated actor. And the dialogue. “Mr Hooper, that’s the USS Indianapolis.” How many summer blockbusters can match that?
“Mr Hooper, that’s the USS Indianapolis.”
Not forgetting the soundtrack. Da-dum da-dum… The hairs on the back of the neck stand up and I’m back as a young boy sitting in the bath in a darkened bathroom, because my brother thought it funny to turn the lights out and blast the Jaws theme through the bathroom door. Baths would never be the same again. John Williams’ iconic theme even entered the charts and my brother still has that 7inch vinyl.
If you haven’t seen Jaws, watch it. If you have seen it, watch it again. Coronavirus has meant the summer blockbusters for 2020 have been put on hold, but with the film industry slowly returning to production, what can we look forward to seeing? Avatar 2, Jurassic World: Dominion, Mission Impossible 7.
I’m going back in the water.
Words: Robert Taffurelli