Jaws (1975): The Blockbuster That Made Us Afraid of Sharks

About this episode

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water… This week we're heading to Amity Island for Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975) — the film that terrified a generation, transformed the Hollywood blockbuster and did absolutely nothing for the shark's public image. We revisit Spielberg's troubled ocean shoot, the notoriously temperamental mechanical shark and John Williams' iconic Oscar-winning score, before diving into the moments that made Jaws one of the most effective thrillers ever made: Chrissie's terrifying opening swim, severed body parts, Ben Gardner's surprise appearance, a doomed dog, a horrifying attack on a child and, eventually, three men heading out to sea to hunt a very big fish. But underneath the shark movie is something rather interesting. We look at Mayor Vaughn's determination to keep Amity's beaches open, asking what Jaws has to say about money, tourism, political denial and managing a crisis when acknowledging the problem might be bad for business. Then there's the men. Brody, Hooper and Quint offer three very different versions of 1970s masculinity, culminating in Robert Shaw's extraordinary USS Indianapolis monologue and the increasingly claustroph