‘You’re gonna need a bigger screen’: the ‘Jaws’ anniversary reissue takes a bite out of the original
IN 1975, a little-known filmmaker named Stephen Spielberg traumatized a generation of moviegoers with his thrilling masterpiece of tension and terror: Jaws. I remember my own father often telling the story of seeing Jaws for his tenth birthday and subsequently being terrified of going into the ocean (or even a bath) for a year after. Now, fifty years later, the classic blockbuster has returned to cinemas to remind audiences why they should think twice when next considering that refreshing sea-swim. Though I have seen the film a number of times at home, seeing it in a darkened theatre as it was always intended with a live audience, felt like stepping into a time machine and travelling back to 1975 to relive the terror those initial audiences felt. Suffice to say, Spielberg’s masterpiece looks exceptional for its age.
It is difficult to review Jaws in isolation without taking into account its fifty-year legacy and the impact it has had on modern cinema. It is one of the few films that anyone you speak to will have seen or at least recognise. The entire film is one dread-inducing exercise in suspense. Whether it’s the iconic image of that dreaded dorsal fin piercing the water, the litany of memorable quotes or John Williams’ instantly recognisable, blood-curdling score – Jaws is a piece of pop-culture history that has been burned into our collective subconscious as a society.
Ink need not be wasted on explaining the plot of Jaws in any great detail. Based on the novel by Peter Benchley, who also wrote the screenplay, it tells the classic tale of a small sea-side town terrorized by a giant great white shark and the three men who take on the daunting task of killing the beast. Spielberg famously discovered the then-unpublished novel on a desk during an office meeting and was immediately captivated. The twenty-six-year-old director quickly set his sights on making Jaws his next project. Having only worked primarily in television before this, with his most notable work at the time being the television movie Duel, tackling a project of this scale would be no easy task for the ambitious filmmaker. And it certainly proved to be anything but easy.
The making of Jaws was plagued by so many production problems that the exhausted crew took to calling the film Flaws. Working with a tight budget and an even tighter schedule, the special effects team, led by Bob Mattey had to achieve the impossible in bringing Spielberg’s shark to life. Bruce, the mechanical shark rarely worked as the crew intended. According to production executive Bill Gilmore, “Every single day the shark was put in the water, something went wrong”. At the machine’s mechanical mercy, Spielberg was forced to work around these setbacks and only show the shark sparingly, when absolutely necessary. For much of the film, he decided to only hint at the leviathan’s presence, which proved to be all the more effective. Something that modern filmmakers seem to have forgotten is that what we don’t see is far more terrifying than anything they could ever show us. While Spielberg may not have initially planned for a “less is more” approach, Bruce the Shark taught him this lesson.
Of course, what helps to sell the terror of the great white are the performances of the entire cast. It is often reported that acting legend Charlton Heston showed interest in playing the role of the police chief, but Spielberg declined, having no desire to cast big names that may detract from the real star: the shark. Roy Schreider instead was cast as police chief, Martin Brody and it is now almost impossible to imagine anyone else in the role. Schreider so brilliantly brings the character to life with his quiet intensity and undying devotion to his duty as protector of his town and family. As the horror unfolds, every agonizing fear is etched onto Brody’s face as he struggles to come to terms with the harrowing events. Alongside Schreider, Richard Dreyfuss stars as marine biologist Matt Hooper and Robert Shaw complete the trio as the abrasive, Ahab-like fisherman Quint. Together, the three leads share electric chemistry on screen that has made for some of the most frequently quoted scenes in film history. “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” has become such a recycled and parodied line in various movies since, that to see the original scene unfold on the big screen was almost surreal.
Aside from the main cast, the supporting cast are also tremendous in their roles. The mass panic and hysteria felt on the beach when another victim washes up could not have been achieved without the intense performances of the dozens of extras or the close-up shots of horrified mothers and fathers as they search for their child in blood-red waters. In fact, Peter Benchley who wrote the novel and screenplay makes a cameo appearance as a news reporter on the beach and Spielberg himself makes a very brief appearance as the voice of a radio dispatcher who calls the boat, Orca, when Brody is hunting the shark. These nuggets of trivia, while inessential, serve to further the appreciation of an already flawless film.
While credit must be given to Spielberg’s masterful direction and the casts’ powerful performances when discussing Jaws’ success, it cannot be argued that the not-so-seceret ingredient in Spielberg’s seminal film is John Williams’ indelible score. That simple, two note piece of music that opens the film immediately sets the tone for what’s to come. What is most extraordinary about Williams’ score is that when Spielberg first heard it, he laughed, dismissing the piece as a joke. Unable to see the genius in the music, the director feared he had hired the wrong composer and that the film had been hit by yet another disaster. However, when Jaws opened in the summer of 1975 and the sinister dun-dun notes began to play, audiences were instantly met with a sense of primal dread. Fifty years later, that music is still synonymous with tension, fear and unadulterated dread.
When Jaws was unveiled to the world in June 1975, the future of cinema changed forever. Becoming the first “summer-blockbuster”, it grossed nearly 500 million dollars at the world-wide box office and was the recipient of three academy awards. It made both Stephen Spielberg and John Williams household names, launching their careers into the stratosphere. In 2025, Jaws has not lost one ounce of its potency as a masterpiece of filmmaking. I would be telling a lie if I said I did not jump with fright at least once during the film. With summer having come to an end, a visit to the cinema to relive a piece of film history may well be in need for many. Let us all be glad that beach season is behind us for now.
Film reviewer John Davis is a 23-year-old law student from Ballybrittas
