NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Fifty years after 鈥淛aws鈥� sunk its teeth into us, we鈥檙e still admiring the bite mark.
1975 film, his second feature, left such a imprint on culture and Hollywood that barely any trip to the movies, let alone to the beach, has been the same since.
Few films have been more perfectly suited to their time and place than 鈥淛aws,鈥� which half a century ago unspooled across the country in a then-novel wide release accompanied by Universal Pictures' opening-weekend publicity blitz. 鈥淛aws鈥� wasn鈥檛 quite the first movie to try to gobble up moviegoers whole, in one mouthful (a few years earlier, 鈥淭he Godfather鈥� more or less tried it), but 鈥淛aws鈥� established 鈥� and still in many ways defines 鈥� the summer movie.
That puts 鈥淛aws鈥� at the birth of a trend that has since consumed Hollywood: the blockbuster era. When it launched in 409 theaters on June 20, 1975, and grossed a then-record $7.9 million in its first days, 鈥淛aws鈥� set the template that鈥檚 been followed ever-after by every action movie, superhero flick or dinosaur film that鈥檚 tried to go big in the summer 鈥� a sleepy time in theaters before 鈥淛aws鈥� came around.
And yet the 鈥淛aws鈥� legacy is so much more than being Hollywood鈥檚 ur-text blockbuster. It鈥檚 not possible to, 50 years later, watch Spielberg鈥檚 film and see nothing but the beginning of a box-office bonanza, or the paler fish it鈥檚 inspired. It鈥檚 just too good a movie 鈥� and too much unlike so many wannabes since 鈥撯�� to be merely groundbreaking. It鈥檚 a masterpiece in its own right.
鈥淚t supercharged the language of cinema,鈥� the filmmaker Robert Zemeckis says in the upcoming documentary 鈥淛aws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story,鈥� premiering July 10 on National Geographic.
That documentary, with Spielberg鈥檚 participation, is just a small part of the festivities that have accompanied the movie's anniversary. Martha鈥檚 Vineyard, where 鈥淛aws鈥� was shot, is hosting everything from concerts to 鈥淛aws鈥�-themed dog dress-ups. 鈥淛aws,鈥� itself, is streaming on Peacock through July 14, along with a prime-time airing Friday on NBC, with an intro from Spielberg. The 鈥淛aws鈥� anniversary feels almost more like a national holiday 鈥� and appropriately so.
But if 鈥淛aws鈥� is one of the most influential movies ever made, Hollywood hasn't always drawn the right lessons from it. 鈥淵ou're gonna need a bigger boat鈥� has perhaps been taken too literally in movies that have leaned too much on scale and spectacle, when neither of those things really had much to do with the brilliance of Spielberg鈥檚 classic.
For the film鈥檚 50th anniversary, we looked at some of the things today's Hollywood could learn from 鈥淛aws" 50 years later.
Local Color
Every time I rewatch 鈥淛aws鈥� 鈥� which I highly recommend doing on some projected screen, even a bedsheet, and preferably with an ocean nearby 鈥� I marvel at how much it gets from its Martha鈥檚 Vineyard setting.
Where U.S.-made film productions are shot has been . Various incentives often determine movie shooting locations, with set dressings, or CGI, filling in the rest. But 鈥淛aws鈥� shows you just how much more than tax credits you can get from a locale.
Spielberg was convinced the adaptation of Peter Benchley鈥檚 novel 鈥� inspired by Benchley鈥檚 childhood summers on Nantucket 鈥� shouldn鈥檛 be done in soundstages. After looking up and down the Atlantic coast, he settled on Nantucket鈥檚 neighboring island. Like his first film, the Mojave Desert-set 鈥淒uel,鈥� Spielberg wanted his mechanized shark to swim in a real, definable place.
鈥淚 felt the same way about 鈥楯aws,鈥欌�� Spielberg says in the documentary. 鈥淚 wanted to go to the natural environment so there was some kind of verisimilitude. So it needed to be in the ocean, out to sea.鈥�
It wasn鈥檛 easy. The budget for 鈥淛aws鈥� nearly tripled to $9 million and the shoot extended from 55 to 159 days. Spielberg would never again be under financial pressure on a picture, but the tortured 鈥淛aws鈥� production put him under a microscope. An AP report from 1975 began: 鈥淚t is news when a 26-year-old film director goes $2 million over budget and two and a half months over schedule and manages to avoid getting fired.鈥�
More than any other time in his career, Spielberg fretted.
鈥溾�楯aws鈥� was my Vietnam,鈥� he told Richard Schickel. 鈥淚t was basically naive people against nature and nature beat us every day.鈥�
It also infused every inch of the frame with smalltown New England flavor in the way that no soundstage, or CGI, ever could.
Less is more
When Spielberg was ready to start filming, his star attraction wasn鈥檛. The mechanized shark, nicknamed 鈥淏ruce鈥� after the director鈥檚 attorney, suffered frequent failures that forced Spielberg to find different approaches to shooting his shark scenes early in the film.
鈥淛aws鈥� instead became, to Spielberg, a kind of homage to Alfred Hitchcock鈥檚 鈥淧sycho.鈥� The suspense came less from the shark than the fear of the unknown and that spine-tingling question: What鈥檚 in the water? Spielberg, with the significant aid of John Williams鈥� instantly iconic score, delayed the appearance of his Great White until well into the film.
鈥淭he visual ellipsis,鈥� the critic Molly Haskell wrote, 鈥渃reated far greater menace and terror, as the shark is nowhere and everywhere.鈥�
Spielberg once estimated that Bruce鈥檚 mechanical delays added $175 million to the movie鈥檚 box office. On its initial run, 鈥淛aws鈥� grossed $260.7 million domestically in 1975. Adjusted for inflation, that鈥檚 about $1.5 billion. Nowadays, the shark would almost certainly be done, like most movie creatures, with computer animation. But 鈥淛aws鈥� showed that often the most powerful source of dread is our imagination.
Human-scale
This is the time of year when the fate of the world often hangs in the balance. All manner of summer movies have had no bones about destroying cities for a mere plot point. Yet for all its terror, 鈥淛aws" features only a handful of deaths. All of its drama is human-scaled. Compared to more swaggering blockbusters today, 鈥淛aws鈥� would be considered a modest, mid-budget movie.
That鈥檚 partially why you have to almost remind yourself that the movie has only three main characters in Martin Brody (Roy Scheider), Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and Quint (Robert Shaw). Casting director Sherry Rhodes peopled the cast with locals from the island, many of whom inject the film with little moments of day-to-day humanity. 鈥淛aws,鈥� in that way, feels more like a community than a cast.
Escapism with something to say
On the one hand, 鈥淛aws鈥� had little to do directly with its times. The Vietnam War had just ended. Watergate had just led to the resignation of President Nixon. The heart-stopping story of a shark off the Massachusetts shoreline promised escapism.
Yet 鈥淛aws鈥� has endured as a parable of capitalism, pulled out time and time again to illustrate those endlessly repeating clashes of cash versus social safety.
鈥淎mity is a summer town,鈥� says Amity鈥檚 mayor, Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) in the film. 鈥淲e need summer dollars.鈥�
The shark gets the theme song and the movie poster, but the real villain of 鈥淛aws鈥� wears a pinstripe suit and smiles for the cameras. 鈥淎s you can see, it鈥檚 a beautiful day and the beaches are open,鈥� he says. More than the predator in the ocean, he, and the town, feast on human flesh.
鈥楯aws鈥� is untouchable
There are boatloads of movies 鈥� including the three sequels that followed after 鈥� that have tried in vain to capture some of the magic of 鈥淛aws.鈥� But what happened in June 1975, let alone on Martha鈥檚 Vineyard the year before, isn鈥檛 repeatable. Even the greatest movies are products of a thousand small miracles. That title? Benchley came up with it minutes before going to print. The iconic poster came from Roger Kastel's painting for the book. Scheider, for instance, learned about the movie by overhearing Spielberg at a party. Williams relied on just two notes for one of the most widely known film scores in movie history.
But no ingredient mattered more on 鈥淛aws鈥� than the man behind the camera. Filmmaking talents like Spielberg come around maybe a couple times a century, and in 鈥淛aws,鈥� he emerged, spectacularly. What's maybe most striking about 鈥淛aws鈥� 50 years later is how much it still doesn't look like anything else.
___
Jake Coyle has been writing about movies for the AP since 2013. He's seen 鈥淛aws鈥� at least a dozen times, and screened it for his kids when they were debatably too young for it.
Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
