JAWS is Fifty Years Old |

Jaws is Fifty Years Old

What can you write about a movie that has already been examined, discussed, dissected, and studied in minute detail for fifty years?

It is an incredible film that still stands up today. I am indeed aware of some criticisms (mostly by the younger generations), but they are easily explained: The shark, largely hidden until the third act, was never shown in enough detail to really be considered fake. The unique fashions at the time can be explained away now as being historical (!), and the political desire to protect the economy rather than people has now been proven to be one hundred percent based on reality.

Find my article on the most iconic book covers in Thriller/Suspense/Sci-Fi genres HERE. Yes, Jaws is included.

Find my article about movies that turned fifty this year. Jaws is one of them.

I’ll say it again: the movie still stands up today. In many ways, it’s like Alien. The way it’s filmed, with gritty realism and sudden flashes of skin-peeling horror, which feed on our primal fears of being devoured by an apex predator, works. Jaws is simply an amazing film.

Here are some of my ramblings about it. As mentioned, everything about the film has already been said somewhere on the internet, so these are my more personal connections with the property, things I’ve heard or read over the years, anecdotes, and odd pieces of trivia I’ve come across.

Here’s my copy of Jaws. It’s well-worn; I’ve read it at least five times. It is indeed, “A Novel of Relentless Terror,” as promised.

I read Jaws when I was in Grade 8. I was 12 years old. It was a watershed year for me, because I also read The Amityville Horror and The Exorcist the same year. Also Cujo, The Thing, and various Edgar Allan Poe stories.
The book is fantastic. There is far more character development than in the film, and the violence is also more graphic. There is also a storyline involving Ellen Brody contemplating an affair with the marine biologist, Matt Hooper.
The book is the kind of reading that should be required in high school. This is the kind of novel that creates lifelong readers, which should be the goal of literacy programs in schools.
Peter Benchley also wrote Beast, about a giant squid tormenting a fishing town in Bermuda. It’s a great book and the giant squid, although it does indeed exist, remains a mystery because of its preferred deep-sea environment.
The stories about the mechatronic shark that didn’t work properly are myriad. Because of the malfunctioning shark, Spielberg shot around “Bruce” and didn’t really show it much until the third act. It was a fortunate occurrence, because it ramped up tension. Instead of showing the shark, there were more character moments and reactions, and also scenes from the shark’s perspective, ‘looking up’ at potential victims, playing on our fears of deep water. It was highly effective to keep the monster hidden.
The name “Jaws” has now become iconic in popular culture. The ‘jaws’ are best demonstrated in this scene, which was a clever Spielbergian shot, and foreshadowed that final tragic act at sea:

The diving scene at night, when Hooper discovers Ben Gardner’s submerged corpse, is one of the movie’s great scares. Spielberg filmed this reveal multiple times, using different lighting for the appearance of the head with the missing eye. Apparently, Spielberg used his own money to reshoot different versions of the scene, then selected the one that had the most visceral reaction during test audience screenings. According to CBR, he spent $3,000 of his own money on these reshoots. It’s an incredibly tense scene … just going in the open ocean at night is scary enough, but the added possibility of a nearby predator ramped up the fear. And of course, the screech increases reactions:

The casting of Matt Hooper. I’m still hesitant about it. I like what Dreyfuss did, but Matt Hooper in the book is a very different person. He’s more alpha, more compelling, more domineering. In the film, Hooper takes a backseat to Quint.
… which brings us to Robert Shaw. The story he told on board Orca at night is true. Indianapolis is a famous tragedy which really did happen. It was a feeding frenzy in the warm South Pacific waters. The stories about filming this scene are very well known: Robert Shaw was too drunk to film effectively during the first attempt. Apparently, he called Spielberg to apologize, showed up the next day ready to film, and nailed it.
Shaw and Dreyfuss apparently did not get along on set, and this played into the two characters perfectly. How much acting was really going on?
John Williams. It’s a great score, simplistic in nature, but now iconic. I remember hearing about it at the time, and I was only four years old. If you listen to the score, however, you can also hear an early iteration of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (the preparations for the space battle sequence). Don’t believe me? Listen to this:

Some of the scenes in the shark cage were filmed on the other side of the world, in a smaller cage, using a smaller-sized actor. The result was remarkable. It was a real shark trying to get into that cage, and it mimicked what was happening to Matt Hooper perfectly.
The fears of swimming in dark water, open water, or deep water are very real. The film capitalizes on this again and again. What is down there? What is beneath me, right now, watching me? Does it see me as food? It’s a wonderful fear to emphasize, and Peter Benchley and Steven Spielberg were there at the perfect time to bring this work to the page and the screen.
The movie poster and the book cover are iconic. Read one of my favourite blog posts about the most iconic book covers in the Thriller/Suspense/Sci-Fi genres HERE.
This was the first Summer blockbuster. It started a trend, and Spielberg changed the film industry with Jaws. People were lined up outside of theatres to buy tickets. They stretched down the street and around the corner, hence the term “Blockbuster.”
This is one of the first films that spawned a franchise. There were many sequels. Part 3 was actually in 3D, which was a trend in the 1980s, and it starred Dennis Quaid.
Part 4, The Revenge, is famous because it’s one of the worst movies ever made. Michael Caine was in it, and he reportedly apologized for it, but took the job because he was paid a million dollars for two weeks of work and used the money to buy his mother a house.

In this movie, Ellen Brody has moved to the Caribbean, but a shark has followed her. The ending is famous, because she rams the shark with a sailboat, and for some reason the shark blows up. It boggles the mind. Scenes of the sinking carcass are straight from the original film. (Apparently there is an “original ending” to this movie where Ellen Brody simply spears the shark with the prow of her boat and kills it that way. For some reason, producers changed the ending to have the shark explode. If anyone knows more about this change, please enlighten me.) Here’s the climactic end from Jaws: The Revenge; note that Ellen Brody has a flashback to an event she was not even at. Also look for Lance Guest, star of The Last Starfighter:

I hope you enjoyed this look at Jaws today at Life After Gateway, along with some of my ramblings about the film and book.

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In other Jaws-related news, I stumbled across this YouTube video that you might enjoy. It’s a “movie-reaction” video of two people watching Jaws for the first time. Cassie and Carley watch the film, scream at all the right scenes and hide their eyes at others. Watching their reaction, you can clearly see why the film continues to impact audiences. It’s from the channel Popcorn in Bed on YouTube.

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A Blanket of Steel by Timothy S. Johnston and from Fitzhenry & Whiteside, LTD. is the recipient of the 2024 GLOBAL Thriller Award GRAND PRIZE and the 2024 CYGNUS Award First in Category.

— Timothy S. Johnston, 7 August 2025

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Praise for Timothy S. Johnston’s A Blanket of Steel

“Fans of Clive Cussler’s NUMA Files will be delighted with Timothy S. Johnston’s undersea novels. Truman McClusky and Dirk Pitt are cut from the same adventurer’s cloth.” — Nick Cutter, author of The Deep and The Troop

“Action that ranges from close range combat to torpedo-fueled attacks. The result is a thriller that keeps moving from confrontation to confrontation … with constant danger and the vast depths of the ocean as a setting, there is always reason to keep reading.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Read the book and prepare to be blown away by one of the best writers I have ever had the pleasure to read. Timothy S. Johnston is simply amazing.” — FIVE Stars from Readers’ Favorite

“A Blanket of Steel is not simply a ‘daring do’ thriller … It’s prescient.” — Amazing Stories

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“Innovative technology, Mac taking risks no one else would dare and thinking his way through to brilliant solutions … But the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been before. This is it. The countdown to the final battle … Johnston does an excellent job of keeping the tension taut as he plays with the reader’s perceptions of characters we thought we knew and trusted …” — SFcrowsnest

“Expect to be left breathless. Trust me here. Please. I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN.” — Michael Libling, author of The Serial Killer’s Son Takes A Wife and Hollywood North: A Novel in Six Reels

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A BLANKET OF STEEL is out now!

WATCH THE GRIPPING BOOK TRAILER HERE.

FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE

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A Blanket of Steel from Timothy S. Johnston and Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Ltd.

Book Cover & Jacket Copy:

AN UNSTOPPABLE THREAT!

A mysterious assassin has murdered Cliff Sim, Chief Security Officer of the underwater colony, Trieste. Cliff was a mountain of a man, highly trained, and impossible to defeat in combat. And yet …

Someone brutally beat him and left his broken body in a secret Chinese facility at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

And included a calling card for Truman McClusky, Mayor of Trieste.

Taunting him.

Mac has led the underwater colonies in their fight against the world’s superpowers. Climate change has devastated the surface; nations suffer famine, drought, rebellion, rising waters, and apocalyptic coastal flooding. But now, as Mac leads the underwater colonies to freedom and independence, he’s faced with the gravest threat of his life: a Russian assassin, hellbent on killing Mac and everyone he cares for. Now Mac must uncover the identity of the killer, face him in combat, and at the same time lead people in battle against the largest underwater force ever assembled. It’s Mac’s final test, and to win the war, he must use every tool at his disposal, including the most surprising and devastating underwater weapons ever invented.

If Mac fails, all hope is lost for the future of human colonization on the ocean floors.

But the assassin could be anyone …

Watch your back, Mac.

A Blanket of Steel is the most gripping thriller yet in The Rise of Oceania.

FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE

The other books in The Rise of Oceania series by Timothy S Johnston:

The War Beneath 9781771484718
The Savage Deeps 9781771485067
Fatal Depth 9781554555574
An Island of Light 9781554555819
The Shadow of War 9781554556007