Jaws: Celebrating 50 Years

You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” It’s been fifty years since audiences first heard this famous line in the film Jaws, one of the most iconic quotes in the history of cinema. Released in 1975, Jaws went on to become a cultural phenomenon, and the line would become a popular American catchphrase, used when someone is faced with a situation that is much more challenging or complex than they initially anticipated.

Malfunctioning sharks

Directed by Steven Spielberg, Jaws is based on a novel by Peter Benchley and stars Martin Brody as a police chief, Richard Dreyfuss as a marine biologist, and Robert Shaw as a professional shark hunter. Together, the three men hunt a man-eating great white shark that has been attacking people at a beach community on the fictional Amity Island. 

Bad weather 

Mostly filmed on and off the island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, the film was marred6 by bad weather, causing it to go over budget and over schedule. Also, its three $150,000 animatronic sharks often malfunctioned, and so Spielberg had to mostly suggest rather than show the shark, which he did to great effect. 

BRUCE THE SHARK

Nevertheless, the problematic shark had such a presence on the film set that crew members named it Bruce, after Steven Spielberg’s lawyer, Bruce Ramer. The great white in the film was 25 feet long [7.62m] — a shark of that size would have weighed 4.9 tons in real life. In reality, however, the largest great white shark ever recorded was only 19.7ft [6m] long as measured in Ledge Point, Western Australia, when caught in 1987. 

HUGE SUCCESS

The film thrilled and terrified audiences worldwide, although the shark actually ‘only’ kills five people, including — spoiler alert — Quint, Robert Shaw’s character, and one dog. Made for less than $9 million, it made over $470 million, making it the highest-grossing film of all time — until the release of Star Wars two years later. It won three Academy Awards, including one for John Williams’ brilliant soundtrack and inspired three sequels, with an overall kill count of thirty people.