My “Jaws” Story

Today, June 20, 2025, is the fiftieth anniversary of the release of the movie Jaws. The film not only shot Steven Spielberg into stardom as a director, and moved John Williams into fame as a composer and director, it brought about things such as the terrible knockoff Orca, Saturday Night Live’s long running skit Landshark, a bad guy in a couple of James Bond films called Jaws, the Sharknado enterprise of six movies, and Shark Week on the Discovery Channel. People who were not alive fifty years ago recognize the ominous sound of “duuuuh duh….duuuh duh…..duh duh..duh duh..duh duh” and look for something to attack them.

The book came out in February 1974. A freelance journalist, Peter Benchley, wrote the novel based on his idea from the exploits of shark fisherman Frank Mundus. I read the book when it came out and was captivated and appalled from the beginning. I have a vivid imagination, and could see all the attacks in my head better than anything that could appear on screen.

The shark is not seen until an hour and twenty-one minutes into the film, which lasted two hours and ten minutes. But the presence of the leviathan is felt almost from the opening credits. When the shark appears, Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfus), Quint (Robert Shaw), and Sheriff Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) are out chumming for the shark. Brody is complaining about having to do the dirty work of tossing the bloody fish guts over the back of the boat when the shark breaks the surface, mouth wide open. Sheriff Brody utters the famous line “You’re  gonna need a bigger boat.” That line was not in the book or the script for the movie. Scheider ad-libbed it—one of the most iconic lines in movie history.

When the shark came out (whose name was Bruce, after Spielberg’s lawyer Bruce Ramer), everyone in the theatre in Spartanburg screamed, including my date. Everyone except me. I was expecting it.

For a while in the movie, I was kidding my date. Whenever we would hear the music, or when the scene would get a little tense, I would nudge her and say something like “Watch out! He’s coming for you!” (Is it any wonder that I did not have a lot of dates in those days?) Near the end of the movie, Hooper is in a “shark cage,” which, in reality, is a human cage. The person is in the cage; hopefully, the sharks can’t get in. But this one is different. It has destroyed boats, docks, and several people. Hooper looks off into the murky water for any sign of the shark. You begin to hear “duuuh…..duh…” and you know the shark is coming. It is coming up from behind, not in the direction Hooper is looking. And it is coming to attack. The music gets louder and faster. The shark gets closer. Hooper still doesn’t see it. Its huge mouth is open and about to bite down on the cage. Everyone in the theatre, including me, was on the edge of their seat.

That’s when my date leaned over and bit me in the shoulder.

Everyone in the theatre missed the scene. They were all looking for the person who had jumped up and screamed like a banshee.

Sometimes you bite the big one. And sometimes…the big one bites you.