Francesca Rudkin: Why does Jaws still have such a long-lasting impact?

This week, Steven Spielberg’s terrifying film Jaws turned 50. Yes, 50.  

Jaws was released in 1975, and on Friday afternoon I mentioned this on Newstalk ZB and shared how much it affected me when I saw it for the first time.  

We were having our first big family holiday - Mum and Dad took us to the Gold Coast to see family, and on the first night my cousin thought it would be a great idea to slip the Jaws VHS into the player to entertain his Kiwi cousins. We were there for two weeks to enjoy the beach and sunshine, and I refused to enter the water. I think I may have got in up to my knees at the beach, and then I would ask if we could go back to the apartment complex pool. My parents did not take me to Oz to swim in a pool.  

Even though I was scared senseless by the film, I was reminded by the chat on Friday that so was everyone else. People were calling to say Jaws had driven them out of the ocean for their entire lives.  

Not many films leave that kind of impression. It didn’t matter that we knew the shark wasn’t real. It didn’t matter that we knew it was a fictional story. It didn’t matter that we knew we were being manipulated for entertainment’s sake. Jaws simply had us all on edge in the water.  

Jaws also created a template many films have followed since. Alien was said to be pitched as Jaws in space, and in Nope, filmmaker Jordan Peele’s lead characters are stalked by a mysterious alien presence which doesn’t reveal itself until late in the film, much like the great white in Jaws.  

Withholding the shark’s appearance in Jaws until the second hour wasn’t intentional, but it worked brilliantly as a tension building device. What the audience conjured up in their imagination was worse than anything Spielberg could deliver. It turned out that Bruce, the mechanical shark, was a nightmare to work with. He hadn’t been tested in salt water and often wasn’t able to perform.  

So, Bruce appeared less than expected and also pushed the shoot out from 55 days to 159. This meant the film couldn’t open when scheduled, which was just before Christmas in 1974, and the decision was made to release it in the summer of 1975.  

Jaws didn’t just revolutionise the ‘creature’ genre. It was the first ever summer blockbuster and changed the way Hollywood releases movies. It also became the first film to cross the US$100 million takes mark at the box office. It was also a disservice to sharks!  

But as Friday’s chat proved, this pop culture phenomenon’s biggest achievement is probably that summers have never been quite the same.   

Thank goodness we get to commemorate the Jaws anniversary in winter.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from Newstalks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
So this week, Steven Spielberg's terrifying film Jaws turned fifty,
Yes fifty Jaws was Oh, oh, please stop it now, Carrie,
it's just bringing back memories. Jaws was released in nineteen
seventy five, and on Friday Afternoon I mentioned this on
News Talks EDB and shared how much it affected me
when I saw it for the first time. So we

(00:44):
were having our first big family holiday. Mom and dad
took us to the Gold Coast to see some family
and on the first night, my cousin thought it would
be a great idea to slip the Jaws vhs into
the player to entertain his Kei week cousins. I was ten.
We were there for two weeks to enjoy the beach
in the sunshine, and I refused to enter the water

(01:06):
and think I might have got up to my knees
at the beach and then I would ask if we
could please go back to the apartment complex pool. My
parents did not take me to Oz to swim in
a pool and look, even though I was scared senseless
by the film I was reminded by the chat on
Friday that so was everyone else. People were calling to
say Jaws had driven them out of the ocean for

(01:28):
their entire lives. Not many films leave that kind of impression.
It didn't matter that we knew the shark wasn't real.
It didn't matter that we knew it was a fictional story.
It didn't matter that we all knew that we were
being manipulated for entertainment's sake. Jaws simply had us all
on edge in the water. It also created a template

(01:51):
many films have followed since Alien was said to be
pictured as Jaws. In Space and in Nope, filmmaker Jordan
Peel's lead characters are stalked by a mysterious alien presence,
which doesn't reveal itself until late in the film, much
like The Great White and Jaws Now Worth Holding. The
shark's appearance in Jaws until the second hour wasn't actually intentional,

(02:14):
but it worked brilliantly as a tension building device. What
the audience conjured up in their own imagination was worse
than anything Spielbook deliver. It turned out that Bruce, the
mechanical Shark was a nightmare to work with, and he
hadn't been tested in saltwater and often wasn't able to perform,
So Bruce appeared less than expected in the film. And
he also pushed the shootout from fifty five days to

(02:37):
one hundred and fifty nine days, and this meant that
the film couldn't open when scheduled, which was just before
Christmas in nineteen seventy four, and the decision was made
to release it in the summer of nineteen seventy five.
So Jaws didn't just revolutionize the creature genre, it was
the first ever summer blockbuster and changed the way Hollywood
released movies. It also became the first film to cross

(02:58):
the one hundred million US taking mark at the box office.
It was also a disservice to Sharks. But as Friday's
chat proved, this pop culture phenomenon's biggest achievement is probably
that summers have never been quite the same. Thank goodness
we get to commemorate the Jaws anniversary in winter.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks a B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.