May 25th, 2012
01:10 PM ET
The Throwback: 'Jaws' the 'Quint'-essential summer blockbusterMemorial Day weekend signals the unofficial start of summer, and one tradition that's up there with barbecues, beaches and camping trips is the summer blockbuster. And while "The Avengers," "The Dark Knight Rises" and "Men in Black 3" may spring to mind when you hear that phrase, we're thinking of the ultimate summer movie: "Jaws." Based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name, "Jaws" opened on June 20, 1975 and quickly chomped through box office records. On opening weekend alone, it netted over $7 million in tickets sales. Incidentally, the film's entire budget was $7 million. It remained No. 1 at the box office for a staggering 14 weeks in a row and became the first-ever film to make over $100 million.
The opening scene is set a few days shy of the 4th of July on the fictional Amity Island (filming took place on Martha's Vineyard). When a local young woman is killed via shark attack, the new police chief, Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) wants to shut down the beach in the interest of safety, but Mayor Larry Vaughan (Murray Hamilton) wants to keep them open because the resort town's livelihood depends on summer tourism dollars. (As an aside, let the record state that Mayor Vaughan's anchor-patterned jacket is actually stylish now - and yes, the jacket has its own Facebook page.) But back to the movie: Following more fatal attacks, Brody enlists the expertise of oceanographer Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) who reluctantly agrees to enlist the help of Quint (Robert Shaw), a local shark hunter and a bit of a His walls are adorned with full sets of shark teeth the way others might decorate with stencils and tapestries. We get it: Dude hates sharks. (Spoiler alert: Karma literally bites him in the you-know-what.) The trio sets off on a high-seas adventure - except, they actually don't go that far out. The point was that the shark was keeping close to shore, but director Steven Spielberg purposely made sure no land appeared onscreen during the shark hunt portion of the film to signify that the men were officially on the shark's "turf," so to speak. The result is a movie that has held up through the decades, and although some in today's generation may scoff at the mechanical sharks in Spielberg's classic, audiences are still returning to the quintessential summer hit. Case in point: On Wednesday, the Cannes Film Festival featured a "Jaws" screening - on the beach, no less. Last month, New York City's TriBeCa Film Festival featured "Jaws" in its Drive-In series. The beachside thriller is also one of movie fans' most-requested Blu-ray discs, and their wish will come true this summer. Universal Pictures realized they were "gonna need a bigger boat," and they put together a digitally-remastered "Jaws" whose full restoration was personally supervised by Spielberg. The restoration process involved - among other preservation elements - retrieving the film's original negatives and 35mm print from "the vault"; eliminating dirt and scratches; and careful color-balancing. Spielberg approved final picture and sound and ensured that the integrity of the original film remained intact. The Blu-ray, out August 14, will also contain two feature-length "Jaws" documentaries, among other features. My favorite "Jaws" scene is, without a doubt, Quint's U.S.S. Indianapolis speech. Not because it's also Spielberg's favorite scene, but because my husband's friend forewent the wedding What about you? Do you have cherished "Jaws" memories? What is it about "Jaws" that |
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permanent disconnection..that's about it. whoever it is–
barf
Thanks! I like this site. The content keeped me reading for a while. This is interesting stuff. I will be checking for new posts daily.
Love the movie still, but, as a child (I probably shouldn't have been allowed to watch) I remember the shooting stars....love the shooting stars. Today I appreciate the whole endeavor.
You want scary???
Search " mother mother ocean" on you tube
In addition to being the first movie to break $100 million, Jaws I think must hold some sort of record for the number of people who saw it, after all, tickets were $1 when I went to see it in my small town theatre.
Jaws is an absolute masterpiece of everything involved in making a movie; music, editing, direction, pacing, etc etc. It is presently in my dvd player, coincidentally....
They don't make them like JAWS anymore.
Great realistic acting by great actors.
Most of todays flicks that would be marketed under to a JAWS like audience feature little more than hot babes and good looking young male actors – all unbelievable and totally forgetable.
Also, and this is a big one too – JAWS was filmed almost entirely ON LOCATION in a real New England town (Marthas Vinyard of course) and in and on those real New England waters and beaches.
The film even employed tons of locals.
It all adds up to a you are there realism.
This would never be done again in todays market, where everything, the shark, the water, probably even most of the boats and sets would be CGI.
I am 47 years old and to this day Jaws is my all time favorite movie, bar none, despite having so many favorites. Disregarding the mechanical shark and the vengeful nature of an animal the characters, overlapping dialogue, the settings and the behavior of the characters I tihnk are about as realistic as acting in any movie can get. Without excessive drama and predictable interactions the characters are believeable and human. There is so much subtle background dialogue to enjoy going on behind the main characters in any one scene and it's almost comedy! Just something as almost imperceptable as the deputy waving to Brody after he tosses a handful of gravel at the window to get his attention or the same deputy wondering "what's wrong with my printing" makes it more simple and believeable. Plus, any afficiando of the movie knows the disaster it was for Spielberg as a rookie director from day one and all of the thinking on his feet he had to do to get it done. Best movie ever!!!
Come on people...Jaws is a cool fun flick, a true classic... it's a great story with a realistic looking shark..with all the problems involved in making that movie nobody but Spielberg could successfully pull it off....I often wonder if Spielberg made this movie for the first time in the 90's if Tom Hanks would have been apart of the cast...lol
I WOULD PAY MONEY TO SEE VIDEO OF YOUR HUSBAND'S FRIEND GIVING THAT SPEECH AT THE WEDDING!!!
My fav moment is also Quint talking about the USS Indianapolis, but, seriously the entire movie made me afraid of the water...still does to a degree
A decent article, but Quint did not "hate" sharks. He had what he considered a respect with and an admiration for them. Many fishermen collects shark jaws on hang them on their wall for decoration. I wear a shark's tooth around my neck as the Great White is my favorite creature.
This was a bit of a bad assumption on the writer's part...
I have very fond memories of Jaws.....it was my first date with my husband!
Who's at the top of the food chain NOW!
I was 9. My misguided teenage aunt took me and I'll never forget that head popping out from the boat underwater. I also remember trying to look real close to see if the girl in the opening was naked.
Jaws is bad.
hands down jaws is a great movie well put together I cant wait for the blue ray dvd and to watch the new release. awesom I love it. it still scares me at the age of 38. love it!
12 yr old is a troll.lol
For a 12 old she seem to have a mouth on her. Are you sure she is 12? If she really is 12, she seems to be a little brat and she should get b!otch slap with a mouth like that.So how about you stfu yourself. Is that better?
Yar jaws is a good mates. Heres to dancing wit bow legged women. yar. i know a few beotches ya can call jaws. will suk a mans know dryer then a hot summer in texas. yar. i tells dem beotches. shutup woman and fix my food. wash dem clothes...git on dem knees and suk...dats right yar
dear cnn...
have we as a human race so devolved that a reputaple news agency allows adults to respond to the post of a twelve year old girl with "stfu... little b"? forget about the jaws article, comments like that make me asamed to admit that i even visited this website.
Hahaha!! Poor thing... Seems like u'r typing from some of the experiences u've gone through growing up and/or still may be encountering as an adult. (Purchasing & passing a fresh box of Kleenex to TK2s' mom) Hahaha!!!
Dang looks like we have some tension up in here.! Lol. Let people express there feelings. Don't be a psycho!:). Lol I'm out peace.
@Tk2, thank you, thank you very much c ocksucker. Did you run out of kleenex and your mommy wasn't around to suck you off.
Stfu u stupid little b! tch. Leave the blogs for us mature adults. now go help ur mother do the housework.
Are you serious people? whats the point on commenting if you hate it so much! im a twelve year girl and you no what haters? go freakin suck it! peace out suckas!
U'r just another Richard Cranium of the world, u pathetic little person. LOL!!!
Speaking of "sharks", why did they cancel "Shark" with James Woods? I loved that show!
When my daughter was 3 she saw Jaws and loved the movie but cried when they killed the shark. Later that year we went to Universal Studios and rode the Jaws ride. The kid operating the ride warned us that it might scare her sitting on the end next to the water. When Jaws popped out of the water to his surprise our daughter roared at the shark and laughed at it but when the guy pretended to shoot Jaws she yealled at him and started crying for killing the poor shark. To this day it is still one of her favorite movies
Thanks, I've never seen Jaws, good to know the shark dies at the end. Way to ruin a classic film for me.
Yeah people all over the world are starving and dying and we as a country have the time to spend millions or billions on spiffing up an old movie about a shark. Yay.
This is Hollywood at its best. This is Spielberg at his best. This is Shaw, Dreyfuss & Scheider in roles they were born for. The beast wasn't seen for, what, 45 minutes? We all knew what it was. John William's music in the chase scene was stunning. You can keep your vampires & zombies. This is fear & the excitement it causes. I am 60; I never saw anything like it before & have seen nothing like it since.
humberto n the guy spouting off about obama: what the f-*% r u talking about? how does what ur saying tie into the topic of "jaws"? is the common thread that this is ur only way to run ur "jaws" about something u think is others r interested in cuz u have ppl's attention? whatever! n yes "jaws" scared a lot of ppl. i know of 1 chick who was scared of bathtubs! bathtubs! but maybe that was her excuse for not taking a bath. there will never be another "jaws"! even sequels didn't measure up.just enjoy!
Harvard students also did nothing about seperate but but equal.
Roberts does it again, A jury finds a person innocent of 1st degree murder but can't decide on manslaughter and could not proceed to wrongfull death – Whats the charge against this person ?? That's Double Jeopariy right there –
for it to get that far was no error -
not to go into the theft of public funds involved in their eloquent frauds -
F you CNN
I think all of us have been in several conversations where the topic arrises of what is the scariest movies ever? Some will say Exorsist or some other horror flick which is understandable yet to me a little silly. I tend fo lean to something like Schindlers list or similar based films on true events of our past they scare the hell out Of me cause for the most part they were real. If cornered to pick one movie that truly has stuck in my mind it would have to be Jaws though . I live at the beach and in the water if not daily then weekly and every single time I enter the water i cant help but hear John Williams beautiful yet eerie soundtrack in the back of my head. I'm willing to bet when you come to the beach the same happens to you. Over the years it has stood the test of time and kept many men women and children ankle deep when it comes to the going ocean That's scary!
Remember seeing this at the theatre with my Dad. When the (spoiler alert – has anyone NOT seen?) dead guy in the little rowboat floated down to the hole open in the hull, my Dad went down out of his seat on one knee! An avid fisherman, I know this movie got his attention!
I've never seen Jaws. I'm not really into scary films though.
one of the best movies I have ever seen!!
This article does little more than summarize the movie's plot and make reference to expressions used in the film . Not once does the writer talk about the film's innovative camera use, it's score, it's best picture nomination or the evolution of the blockbuster since this film was released. This is a good idea article with no substance to back it up.
agreed. Why write a summary of a movie as "news" or "editorial" it is neither. This reminds me of that annoying person at the water cooler who talks about nothing, in detail, all day.
Lushrimfire! Bravo!
I'm watching Dinoshark and it's more funny than scary. I'm actually lmao when the people get eaten.
I was traumatized as a child while watching this movie...not because it was scary or horrific or anything in that regard. I was traumatized when my mother covered my eyes and I didn't get to see him sliding down the boat and into the sharks mouth. Even now I watch up to that point and after that scene I stop watching
on people?! Seriously?! I was a kid myself when I saw this and you actually say this movie scared you that much that it affected you so that you won't go into water afterward. Omg..silly people. I'm sure you're all afraid of the closet monster as well.
This movie inspired the mass slaying of great white sharks because of the fear it created...people get killed by sharks yearly, so it was the realistic threat that created the fear unlike your "closet monster"
I have seen Jaws probably more than 50 times. Every time I get something out of it. At the beginning it was scary, I guess, but the characters are so inspiring and realistic at the same time, that I always hope to find a little bit of them in myself.
Saw the moive with two friends. Didn't even want to go to the ladies room...there's water in the toilet! hahahaha! Live at the beach in South Carolina and STILL don't go into the water. I tried therapy. Didn't work.
Best movie ever made for real.
One of the major thinks that JAWS did that a lot of the summer blockbusters fail to do now is that it had still but did sacrifice the substance nor did it treat it audience like it was stupid!
Greatest movie of all time !!! No other affected the minds of people all over the world...people hear shark and they still get terrified...I've loved sharks ever since seeing this at 9yrs old at the drive-in with my parents in 75'
@Roni, ok pu$$y. Thanks for sharing.
...and what a jerk you are!
The music right before the shark showed up that was scary
I was 6 when my dad took us 2 c Jaws & it scared the hell outta me. We lived on a lake & I thought there was sharks in the water after c'ng Jaws. (@ the time I didn't know the difference) My brothers & myself had no problem swimming b4 the movie but after the movie I remember my dad had 2 throw us in the water 2 get us back swimming again. LoL!! Now that I think of it, I've never taken my children 2 a beach (wow) but they did have an inground pool. I guess it affected me more than I realized, LoL!!!
We cannot wait for the movie releaease.
Jaws is my all-time favorite movie.
Awesome movie
I'll take the sharks over some of the bottom-feeders posting comments here !
Lol! Good one!
I concur!
saw Jaws the night before we went on vacation to cape cod in 1975. couldn't go in the water all week
Why would I want to purchase old movie on blu ray dvd?! Crazy!
Shark attack is back!!!
sorry couldnt resist
DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADADADADADADA DDDDDAAAAA AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH MOMMY HELP ME I JUST GOT HALF OF MY BUT BIT OFF! AAAAHHH MY LEG (splasing splashing) gurgle gurgle (quietness)
Joe, and you may want to learn the difference between gross and net.
jaws was and still is one of best shark movies ever. sure it was a fake shark no way in hell a real one coulda been used. but todays bullship b rated movies with thier horrible exagerated cg graphics still can't compare to jaws. only shame is where are all the good directors at? and yes my name is mr krabbz from bikini bottom!
i think the scuba diver story was a joke. That's what I thought anyway. I got a chuckle from it.lol
JAWS is an epic movie, that scared me to death!! Of course I was only 7! Living in Hawaii we are surrounded by the ocean and all its many creatures. If you really think shark attacks dont happen then you live in a dream land. When discussing a classic movie you need to remember the technology that was available at the time. Personally the "horror" movies made today make me laugh!
I agree. Today's "horror" movies rarely scare me at all. They are all predictable and I usually end up laughing. They just don't make them like they used to.
People just don't have any sense of humor. They will come on here and complain regardless. No pleasing some. They're are stuck in they humdrum lives and don't know how to laugh, joke. Complain, complain, complain. All they want to do is stay on the boring topic.
Don't you know by now that trolls say stupid things to annoy you just to be annoying. Ignore them and they will stop.
Do any of u really care about this classic movie or just enjoy talkin out your ass...........to the woman that laughs at jaws then goes scuba diving......that is just plain ignorant......jaws is an american classic an deserves some respect ..hey theres something missing now a days......respect ....i was at the beach last year an the guy next to me caught two sharks in his net by accident........so maybe you should rethink your statistics
Me too! I once saw a sea monster that look like a dragon. I was so scared bc I was in a little row boat doing some fishing and it swam by but he wave with a grin. He was headed for the bigger ship where he could get more food (people). Since then I never went back in the ocean.
How rude! Don't call my bigfoot a damn old school truck. It has big wheels and stuff. You're just jealous you ain't have one. The nerve of some people.
You need to check your facts. Plenty of films grossed $100 million prior to jaws.
Only if inflation is taken into account. You need to get your logic checked.
Nope 100% wrong. Gone with the wind made almost 200 mill in 1939 unadjusted. Look it up idiot.
JAWS left a life long impression on me – it made me aware that there are "monsters" in the ocean. Anytime I go in the ocean I always scan the area. Sure I know the chances of me getting killed by a shark (or any kind of "dangerous" sea creature) is slim to none, but I'm vigilant. Jaws also got me interested in sharks and they are awesome! Thank you Peter Benchly and Steven Spielberg!
From the music to the great fish!! What a film!!!!!
Great acting in this film. Everyone was so young! Including me! Look how advanced technology has gotten today! No comparison; but the scenes fighting that shark were every bit as good as Moby Dick w/ Gregory Peck. Pretty beachy scenery made it feel like summer. Love the Dryfuss line where they're comparing scars, he opens his shirt to reveal a broken heart!
Mary Ellen Moffet,
she broke my heart.......
just wanted to say that commment about the stool softener made me chuckle out loud! readin the news on my phone in my quiet living room here...
Marty would you like to join us on our ride on the big boat when we go looking for Jaws? I think you need a swim. We will use you as bait.
To honor Labor Day, I'm going to plow through groups of Obama's supporters with my bigfoot truck! Watch for me on the news!
That's a really small and ineffective threat over the internet Seabass!!!, it's always easy to talk nonsense when there is noone in front of you, Including Super aggressive Obama Supporters that would just smash your damn, old school Truck and ideology to a small heap of nothingness. Damn I thought this was supposed to be about one of my favorite movies coming to Blue ray lol!!!
It's Memorial Day not Labor Day you Idiot. And like the shark you have a BIG MOUTH!
Anyone that supports Obama is a clueless muthaphucka. They are aggressive in their defense of their own ignorance. 4 more years of this insanity will weaken our country even more. B O has got to go! B O has got to go!
go get 'em Bigfoot!
Were gonna need a bigger boat...
Speaking of B-movement...Whatever happened to tracie?
You have to be careful of the pool also. Did you not see what happened to that guy on Final Destination 4? The guy got his organs sucked out his butt from the pool sucktion. ouch!
That is truly a risk. In fact, Sen. John Edwards made his fortune as a trial lawyer on a personal injury case re: defective pool drain cover that created such a powerful suction an 8-year-old girl died, disemboweled by the drain. Now pool drain covers are regulated. You should check with your public pool to see if it is in compliance with proper drain covers installed each season before swimming. Should a child become stuck on one, an adult should slide fingers between child's body and the drain to break the suction's seal slightly, then SLIDE the child sideways toward you on the floor for a few feet until clear, then break upward.
I will always love this movie!
'Jaws' is my wife's favorite movie! Of course, she thinks it's a comedy. On our scuba diving trip to Cozumel, she watched it on the plane, chuckling all the way! It doesn't keep her (or me) out of the water.
Come on people, don't be haters. This is journalism at its finest. Lol
I've been wondering when Jaws was going to finally be released on Blu-ray. FINALLY! I can't wait to enjoy it on my big HDTV.
"That's some bad hat, Harry."
I loved the movie and enjoyed reading this article. Thank you. All the poo-pooers are a waste of fish-food.
Lol! You are SO right, Bruce!
Jaws jacked up a generation.
What was the point of this wasted article ?
I hear your mom said the same thing... only about you, not an article.
I hear you need a board across your behind, so not to fall in, mounting your wife.
This was a treat to read. Had a great bowel movement right after reading this. Who needs stool softeners when a simple 2nd grade analysis of an almost 40 year old cheeseball of a movie does the trick. Happy Friday to me!
Katie, thanks for such in depth journalism. What compelling garbage.
You realize this is the Entertainment section, right? Of course you do, troll. I guess it says a lot for Katie's journalism that you made two negative comments with TOTALLY different usernames. Mommy ate it and then she ate a lot. Just like you. You read the column once. And then you read it a lot.
The truth is the truth, It is garabage Marty.
I can't go in the ocean bc of that movie. I don't like lakes bc of lake placid. I'm a floridian pool girl!