25 Reasons We Love 'Jaws'

Fifty years ago, a mostly unknown, 26 year-old director was hired to adapt a bestselling novel about a shark terrorizing a small New England community. The film was a production nightmare that, prior to its release, had the director questioning whether he would ever work in Hollywood again. 50 years later, it’s regarded as arguably the most important film of al-time. Jaws was a critical and commercial juggernaut that not only launched Steven Spielberg’s career into overdrive, but set the template for blockbuster cinema as we know it today.

Few films are as beloved as Jaws, and on the 50th anniversary of its release, NBC will air a 3-hour telecast of the iconic summer blockbuster with a special introduction from Spielberg himself. The new special begins at 8/7c on Friday, June 20 on NBC. In honor of the film’s anniversary, we’re looking back at the 25 things we love the most about Jaws. 

25. Peter Benchley’s Cameo

We’d be remiss to not start by giving a shout out to the man behind Jaws. No we’re not talking about Spielberg (yet), but rather Peter Benchley, the author of the 1974 novel that would be so famously adapted a year later. Benchley is actually a credited screenwriter on the film, yet most of his draft (which included unnecessary book subplots like an affair between Hooper and Brody’s wife and an entire mafia storyline) was mostly thrown out in favor of outside re-writes. Despite that, he still contributed to the film with an onscreen presence. Yes, the melodramatic television reporter slinging suspect cloud-based metaphors to describe Amity’s shark problem is none other than Benchley himself. In the decades following the film and up to his 2006 death, the author would express some regret for misconceptions he put into the world about sharks, and would go on to become a passionate advocate for shark education and conservation.

24. Father/Son & Dinner scene

While we may love and remember Jaws most for its action and horror, we have a soft spot for this tender moment between Chief Brody and his youngest son, Sean. Coming immediately following Brody’s confrontation with the grieving mother of Alex Kitner, this scene is not just the emotional anchor of the film, but also the pivotal turning point for Brody’s character. Looking into the eyes of his child as he playfully mimics his father, it’s at this moment that Brody fully realizes what’s at stake, and it’s from here on out that he commits entirely to catching the monster terrorizing his community. The scene is also noteworthy for oozing the type of sentimentality that would go on to become one of Spielberg’s most recognizable directorial trademarks. 

23. Brody’s Wine Pour

Trust us Chief, we get it.

22. Harry’s Bad Hat

We’d be able to forgive Harry (Alfred Wilde) for this fashion disaster if he wasn’t such a jerk to Chief Brody. Seriously Harry, he’s doing what he can for all you ungrateful islanders. If he doesn’t want to go in the water, let him be. Go pound sand.

21. The Poster

Surely audiences in 1975 knew they were in for something special when they first saw Roger Kastel’s instantly iconic poster. Heck, it’s possible that, even without the movie, the image of a toothy great white fast approaching a female swimmer from below would have been enough on its own to scare people out of the ocean.

20. This Guy’s Beefy leg

We gotta give a special shoutout to the poor man on the rowboat who falls victim to the shark on the Fourth of July. We know two things about this guy: First, he dies a truly horrific death (the top-down shot of him being pulled under by the shark is one of the most shocking and terrifying of the whole movie). But second, and most importantly, he has truly awe-inspiring calves. Watching his well-toned leg float to the bottom of the sea catches us off guard each time, making us feel a little insecure about ourselves on every watch. Honestly, we can’t believe the shark left that much meat on the bone. 

19. The Orca

The Titanic. The Poseidon. The Black Pearl. No doubt these are all great ships in movie history, but we’d sink them all to make room for the Orca in our boathouse. Appropriately named after the only natural ocean predator of great white sharks, the Orca is as integral to Jaws as the shark, brimming with the same underdog personality of its crew. They may have needed a bigger boat, but we’re thankful they didn’t get one.

18. Chief Brody

Roy Scheider could very well be the most underappreciated actor of the '70s. In a decade defined by legendary names like Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson and Robert De Niro, it’s a shame that Scheider’s incredible performances from that era are often overlooked. With masterfully nuanced roles in classics like The French Connection, Marathon Man, All that Jazz and the CRIMINALLY underrated Sorcerer, Scheider built an enviable filmography full of wonderfully colorful characters.

But the role he will always be most closely associated with is the aquaphobic police chief of Amity Island. Shedding the tough guy persona that Scheider was known for in favor of an everyman architype, Brody is the rope that ties Jaws together. Carefully treading the middle ground between Robert Shaw’s eccentric Quint and Richard Dreyfuss’s pedantic Hooper, Brody often serves as the audience surrogate, experiencing and reacting to the events of the film to the same degree as the viewer. His fear when confronted with the shark (and subsequent desire for a bigger boat); his frustration with the Mayor as he refuses to close the beaches; his head-butting with Quint aboard the Orca: These are all moments of morality and rationality amidst irrational circumstances. Brody is the most human character in a movie filled with caricatures, and it would be hard to imagine anyone other than Scheider filling his shoes. 

17. “Anti-Shark Cage” / Spanish Ladies

For our money, the most interesting relationship in Jaws is the one between Hooper and Quint. It’s a classic conflict between old-school and new-school, with each side stubbornly stuck in their ways. Both consider themselves shark experts, and all their scenes together are a dance of constant one-upsmanship, best illustrated in what will ultimately be Quint’s final moment on land. Kudos to Dreyfus and Shaw for understanding the assignment here, because this is character work at its finest. 

16. Amity Island

What would Jaws be without the little island town of Amity? With its crooked mayor, unfriendly locals, vandalistic karate-chopping children, and small wildlife problem - Amity, as you know, means Friendship. But despite all that, it’s hard not to be charmed by the quaint village and its idiosyncrasies. Spielberg rightfully identified Martha’s Vineyard (the shooting location for the fictional town) as critical to the fabric of the storyline and the overall setting, and never considered filming any of Amity’s scenes on a backlot or soundstage. He was even so enamoured with its residents that he cast them throughout the film as extras or in minor roles. With most Hollywood tentpoles these days opting out of on-location shooting, it makes the magic of Amity stand out all the more.

15. The Zolly Shot

You may not know the technical term, but you definitely know the shot. Also known as the Vertigo effect (thanks to its famous use in Hitchcock’s movie of the same name), the shot occurs as Brody witnesses poor Alex Kitner meet his demise. Achieved by a combination of dollying a camera away from the subject while zooming in on them at the same speed (or vice versa), the result is a disorienting effect that works to represent Brody’s terror and realization of what’s happening before him. Hitchcock may have invented it, but Spielberg (and cinematographer Bill Butler) made it iconic. 

14. The Barrels

If the shark submerged with only one or two barrels attached to him, we wouldn’t be as impressed. But with THREE BARRELS, he has our full attention. 

13. Ben Gardner

As legend has it, after completing his cut of the film, Spielberg was so greedy for one more scare he asked the studio to give him budget to film one more scene. They said no, so he decided to film it out of his own pocket in the home swimming pool of his editor, Verna Fields. Depending on your appetite for horror, you should either be incredibly thankful or resentful he did so, as Ben Gardner’s severed head popping out from the hull of his boat is easily one of the most terrifying jump scares in the history of film. And it’d be the most memorable one of the movie if it weren’t for another truly iconic moment later on.

12. The Ending

One of the smartest changes from the novel – where the shark simply just dies in front of Brody – Spielberg and co. wisely gave their film a true blockbuster ending. Quint’s death is appropriately gruesome and tragic, and Brody’s victory is as well-earned as it is explosive (never mind the questionable physics). It’s the perfect finale for such a wild adventure, offering true catharsis for both the chief and the viewer. Thank god Universal didn’t try to make any unnecessary sequels in an attempt to continue the story…oh wait. 

11. Hooper

Part of what makes the three men from Jaws work so well as a unit is their embodiment of Freud’s three parts of the psyche. Quint is the impulsive Id, Brody the moral-driven Ego, with Hooper representing the rationality of the Superego. And it’s hard to imagine anyone better inhabiting that part of the psyche than Richard Dreyfuss. Rewritten specifically for the actor after he was cast, Dreyfuss portrays Hooper with a sharp-tongued energy that perfectly counterbalances the other two crewmembers, while also providing the film with some of its best moments of levity. Dreyfuss is another example of Jaws’ perfect casting. 

10. The Mayor

As we all know, Jaws is the story of a small-town police chief going to battle with a tunnel-visioned monster, incapable of listening to reason, that leaves a pile of bodies in its wake as it terrorizes a small island community. We are, of course, referring to Larry Vaughn, the mayor of Amity Island and the real villain of the film. One of the slimiest politicians to ever grace the screen (played to smug perfection by Murray Hamilton), Vaughn’s choice to keep the beaches open makes him directly responsible for the deaths of at least two people and one dog. Suffice to say, the Mayor of Shark City won’t be getting our vote in the next election. 

9. A What?

There’s no shortage of iconic quotes from Jaws, but we don’t believe there’s a single better line reading than this gem from a confused seaman. Played by actual local fisherman Dick Young in his only onscreen credit, his reaction to hearing the words “Tiger” and “Shark” next to each other for the first time in his life is one for the ages. Quite possibly the funniest moment in a movie surprisingly full of them, we can only applaud Mr. Young for showing us how to make the most of a small role. Just don’t get him started on bite radiuses. 

8. The Production Nightmare

50 years later, the production woes of Jaws are the stuff of Hollywood legend. Famously, the shark didn’t work, the film went spectacularly over budget and more than 100 days over schedule, the Orca once sank, Robert Shaw was constantly a drunken menace, and the beaches were freezing during scenes meant to take place on the Fourth of July. It was such a disaster that Spielberg thought the movie would end his career, as no studio would ever trust him again. Frankly, it’s a minor miracle the movie was even finished, let alone that it would change the business model of the film industry forever. 

7. Quint

Iconic doesn’t even begin to do justice to describe Jaws' most memorable non-fish character. The stubborn, doomed captain of the Orca – played to swashbuckling perfection by a magnificently-cast Robert Shaw in his greatest role – Quint elevates an already incredible film to legendary status. Every second Quint is on screen is nothing short of magic. From his nails-on-the-chalkboard introduction all the way up to his violent, horrific demise, Shaw doesn’t just chew up the scenery; he devours it, spits it out and goes back for seconds (the highlight being a certain monologue that will be mentioned later). 

6. Bruce

Here’s some interesting perspective on the shark at the center of Jaws: it’s only onscreen for 4 minutes in the entire film. Four minutes, that’s it. That’s all that was needed to enshrine “Bruce” (famously named after Spielberg’s lawyer) into the annals of movie history. Of course, Bruce’s presence is felt far beyond those 240 seconds. It’s well known that the robotic sharks commissioned for the film malfunctioned so frequently that Spielberg was left with no choice but to keep the monster offscreen for nearly the entire film, using a variety of now-legendary techniques to imply its presence. Whether it's the swelling of John Williams’ iconic score, Quint’s yellow barrels, or simply a fin in the water, Bruce and the grisly details of his actions, are largely left to the imagination, which is infinitely more terrifying than the frankly fake-looking shark. 

5. John Williams’ Score

Two notes. That’s all it took for John Williams to scare millions of people out of the water. Thanks to the aforementioned technical difficulties, Williams’ score was tasked with some serious heavy lifting. The result is a score that effectively becomes the shark. When those two notes start playing, there is no question what is coming. It’s rightfully one of the most famous and celebrated scores of all time, signaling not just the beginning of Williams and Spielberg’s decades-long working partnership, but a leveling-up for the greatest composer in film history.

4. Spielberg Himself

Jaws’ immense legacy stretches in many directions, but perhaps none more profoundly than that of the young director whose career it launched. Steven Spielberg was only 26 when he was hired to helm the adaptation of Benchley’s novel. Mainly known at the time for his television movie Duel (an excellent road rage thriller which bares more than a little narrative similarity to Jaws), Spielberg was mostly untested theatrically, with his inexperience proving to be both a blessing and a curse for the production of Jaws. Overly ambitious, Spielberg was adamant about shooting on the ocean, something that no major film production had ever done up to that point. The issues this caused – the sharks malfunctioning in salt water, filming frequently having to wait hours for sailboats to pass out of frame, crew seasickness – would lead to the film going wildly over budget and over schedule. But when watching the final product, it becomes clear that Jaws would never have been the same had Spielberg pulled back on his vision. The way Spielberg worked around the malfunctioning shark(s) is arguably the greatest mid-production pivot of all time, and the shots he achieved in the ocean could never have been authentically replicated in any kind of tank or lake. These creative decisions, among dozens of others, are what make Jaws so special, and why we’re still talking about it with so much reverence 50 years after its release. Jaws would rightfully rocket Spielberg’s profile into the stratosphere, and as movie lovers, we are eternally grateful.

3. USS Indianapolis

Move over Atticus Finch and Dirty Harry: Quint’s monologue documenting his time on the USS Indianapolis is the single-greatest speech in movie history. Filmed in a single shot, Shaw delivers line after line of unforgettable dialogue as he regales Hooper and Brody of his experience on the very-real, ill-fated ship that delivered the Hiroshima bomb. The magic of the scene is in how it re-contextualizes Quint’s entire character up to that point. Shaw hides so much pain and trauma behind every word that you quickly come to realize how personal the mission to catch this shark is to him. It also makes his end all the more tragic. There’s so much more we could say about it, but we’d rather let the scene speak for itself. Whether this is your first or 50th time seeing it, do yourself a favor and watch the best movie speech of all time today. 

2. The Opening Scene 

Whether Jaws as a whole should be considered a horror film is up for debate. However, there is no question that its opening scene is among the greatest and most influential horror sequences in the history of the genre. With one scene, Spielberg managed to scare entire generations out of the ocean, doing for night swimming what Psycho did to showers. Chrissy Watkins’ screams as she’s pulled around the dark, moonlit water by her unseen executioner are truly the stuff of nightmares, and the haunting silence once she’s dragged under the water for good…pure goosebumps. Whether or not you’ve ever seen Jaws, your fear of sharks stems from this singular moment, an unforgettable introduction to the man who would become the most celebrated director of the next half-century. 

1. "You're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat"

Could No. 1 really be anything else? The most iconic moment in one of the most iconic movies of all time, no scene better encapsulates what makes Jaws so special. Every second is praise-worthy: An all-time great jump-scare that finally reveals the monster of this story in all its terrifying glory. Roy Scheider’s pitch-perfect reaction. The swelling of John Williams’ score. And then of course, that most famous of lines (which was actually ad libbed - Bravo Mr. Scheider!). The scene instantly entered the zeitgeist where it has stayed for 50 years, and will continue to remain for as long as people still watch movies. - Andy Wallace