Summer Movies--#5

Just another summer beach movie? Not Jaws.

Jaws [1975] written by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb, was a phenomenon. Made for about $7 million, it grossed about a half a billion. It was huge. It was all anyone talked about in the summer of 1975. “Have you seen it?” “Wait till you see it!” It was even nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards—this never happens to summer films. Summer films are supposed to be fluff that entertains people. The “quality” films come out in the fall. It’s rare that a film that’s “just” a summer film gets nominated for Oscars—and Jaws won 3!

What made it so special? Well, it told this story of a shark attack on a beach through the town cop who’s trying to figure out how to stop it. Can’t arrest the fish… and it’s summer, people don’t want to stay out of the water so the town, wanting to get all the summer vacationers' money, votes to open the beach despite the shark still being out there.

Remind you of anything? Commerce trumping common sense???

Right. We’re in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and the United States is FULL of people who want to reopen everything to make a blessed buck and who cares about how many people will die because of our greed?

So this film, that’s 45 years old, is particularly timely this summer. Take a look at the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1fu_sA7XhE

The film scared people like crazy. But it didn’t scare me. On the other hand, I was scared to the max by The Exorcist that came out two years before Jaws. I always had this theory that people were either scared by The Exorcist or by Jaws, but never both. I quizzed my friends about which film scared them, and the theory proved true. Either people were scared by the physical or the supernatural, but rarely by both.

But I’d say more people were scared by the physical—so Jaws, that came out in the summer, made a lot of people queasy about stepping into the ocean for a swim.

If you’re thinking about writing a summer film that is on the scary side, you couldn’t do better than look at Jaws as a prototype. You’ve got the scary element—the killer fish—but that’s not all you have. You have the forces that are for closing the beaches and the forces that are against those closings. You have the man that’s fighting to capture the shark and the experts he hires—a scientist and a fisherman… book knowledge versus experience.

This should remind us that even in a light bit of summer fluff, you need strong characters with opposing points of view, a clear antagonist, and a hero who’s just trying to do his job.

We’re watching Jaws tomorrow… I don’t think my husband’s ever seen it. We’ll see how easily he goes into the pool after watching the film… I’m thinking the water will seem just the tiniest bit scary after looking into those killer jaws.

Copyright © Diane Lake

26Jul20

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