Jaws is arguably the reason for most of the world’s fear of sharks, and it began isolating or perhaps even creating that fear exactly 43 years ago.
Jaws was directed by Steven Spielberg and followed the story of a great white shark that terrorises a New England resort town.
It became an instant blockbuster and also held the mantle of the highest-grossing film in movie history until it was bested by 1977’s Star Wars.
Jaws was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Picture category and took home three Oscars, one each for Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Sound.
The film, a breakthrough for director Spielberg, then 27 years old, spawned three sequels which failed to emulate the success of the first by a really long way.
The film starred Roy Scheider as principled police chief Martin Brody, Richard Dreyfuss as a marine biologist named Matt Hooper and Robert Shaw as a grizzled fisherman called Quint.
It was set in the fictional beach town of Amity, and based on a best-selling novel which was released in 1973 by Peter Benchley.
Subsequent water-themed Benchley bestsellers also made it to the big screen, including The Deep (1977).
With a budget of $12 million, Jaws was produced by the team of Richard Zanuck and David Brown, and would far surpass its budget and box office predictions, earning itself $260 000 000 at the domestic US box office, and $470 653 000 in total worldwide (a lot of money for 1975).
Filming, which took place at Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, was plagued by delays and technical difficulties, including malfunctioning mechanical sharks.
Jaws did however put now-famed director Steven Spielberg on the Hollywood map.
Spielberg, largely self-taught in film-making, made his feature-length directorial debut with The Sugarland Express in 1974.
Following the success of Jaws, Spielberg went on to become one of the most influential, iconic people in the film world, with such epics as Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), ET: the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Jurassic Park (1993), Schindler’s List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998).
If you feel like reliving the horror from the deep, you can re-watch the original trailer below:
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at northsider@caxton.co.za (remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 955 1130.
For free daily local news on the West Rand, also visit our sister newspaper websites
