Jaws at 30

Duh . . . Dunt.

Duh . . . Dunt.

Duh Dunt Dunt Dunt Dunt Dunt Dunt Dunt.

DUH NA NA NA!

It's still the scariest music ever, even after 30 years.

On June 20, 1975, Stephen Spielberg, a 27-year-old, little-known director, unleashed his $12 million epic Jaws onto the psyche of the American public and created the nation's first summer blockbuster.

"The summer of Jaws was my utopia. I will never forget it," said Ralph Grassi, 41, of Wildwood Crest. "I will never forget what it was like in that theater that night."

Grassi, who runs a Web site dedicated to Wildwood nostalgia, said Jaws changed the summer.
"I went berserk. I was 11 years old that summer and completely shark crazy. Jaws was everywhere."

The film went on to become one of the top-grossing movies of all time. In the decades that have passed, the movie industry has targeted its biggest, action-packed productions to debut between Memorial Day and Labor Day because of it.

With the advent of computer animation, summer blockbusters have included aliens, superheroes and, thanks to Spielberg again, dinosaurs, but few have been able to capture the same buzz that Jaws did upon its release.

Professor Allen Woll, director of Film Studies at Rutgers University in Camden, said the film has been cherished by fans and critics alike because it is effective on every level. Spielberg assembled a stellar cast of actors to flesh out the rich characters of Peter Benchley's book. Spielberg also managed to single-handedly usher in a new era of Hollywood's elite directors.

"It was a generational change. It was a time when the film business was hurting and Spielberg was part of this turnover," said Woll.

The films's 25-foot great white shark (a mechanic shark nicknamed Bruce), although larger than any ever spotted or captured, also was a more realistic threat than audience-goers had seen in a while, Woll added.

"There are a lot of movies before this where giant dinosaurs, giant grasshoppers and giants ants were eating us. With Jaws there was a level of reality," said Woll. "Still it has certain elements of a classic horror film."

Tony Cavalier, chief of the North Wildwood Beach Patrol, saw the movie's thrills transfer to the beaches during the summer of 1975.

"When I started back on the beach the next day, some parents weren't letting their kids in the water," said Cavalier. "Some parents were looking out beyond the breakers just waiting to see fins. It stayed like that until Labor Day."

Cavalier said he never has seen dangerous sharks while on duty. There are certain moments, however, such as the daily 100-yard swim, when he's not sure.

"There's been numerous times when the guards swim out there, hear a splash or a sound and you turn around and head back," said Cavalier.

Sharks, dangerous and harmless, abound in the waters off the New Jersey coast. Despite the recent shark attack on a surfer in Ocean County, which some attributed to a great white, attacks are rare, said Marc Kind, curator of fish and invertebrates at Adventure Aquarium in Camden.
The great white shark in Jaws is not plausible for a number of reasons, said Kind, namely its demeanor, size and food choice.

"The theory of a rogue shark doesn't really have any scientific basis," said Kind, 39, standing before a tank full of sharks.

A series of shark attacks that killed four and injured another in New Jersey in 1916 allegedly inspired Benchley to write the novel Jaws. Two of the four people killed that July were attacked in Matawan Creek, a small, brackish waterway miles from open ocean and an unlikely setting for a shark attack.

Kind said the 1916 attacks, especially in Matawan Creek, may have come from a desperate animal deprived of its food supply in a foreign environment. Humans are not the ideal diet for a shark, especially a great white. They prefer seals and large fish, said Kind.

"We're very bony and we don't have much fat," said Kind.

One of the sharks at Adventure Aquarium, a 700-pound, snaggle-toothed sand tiger shark, was caught about 200 yards off the beach at Cape May Point, Kind said. Sand tigers look mean, but they don't grow much bigger than the one cruising the tank at the aquarium and are usually harmless unless provoked.

Great whites can grow twice as long and three times as heavy, but those are extremely rare, said Kind.

"There's not too many big ones out there," he said.

Regardless of whether a rogue, blood-thirsty great white is cruising the coast of New Jersey searching for bathers, Jaws and the media's fascination with all-things shark is an attempt to grapple with fear, said William Lutz, Professor of English at Rutgers-Camden.

"Jaws was never about sharks. You're afraid of the unknown," said Lutz. "The worst monster, the most terrifying monster, is the one you never sense coming."

"JAWS' FACTS

"Jaws' was filmed in Martha's Vineyard, Mass.

Live underwater shots of great white sharks were used because the mechanical shark kept breaking.

"Jaws' won Oscars in 1976 for best editing, best original score and best sound. It also was nominated for best picture.

"Jaws' author Peter Benchley appears in the film as a reporter.

Stephen Spielberg originally wanted Sterling Hayden to play the role of Quint, but the actor was in trouble with the Internal Revenue Service.