This Friday, June 20, will be the fiftieth anniversary of when Jaws premiered in theaters.

Based on the 1974 novel of the same name by Peter Benchley (who not only co-wrote the screenplay but also portrayed a reporter in the movie), Jaws is set in the fictional town of Amity. It focuses on a series of shark attacks plaguing the town. The Police Chief Martin Brody (portrayed by Roy Schneider) wants to close the beaches and have someone kill the shark, but the mayor (portrayed by Murray Hamilton) is afraid that closing the beaches, let alone acknowledging the shark attacks, will ruin the tourist season which Amity is dependent on. The mayor also ignores the advice of shark expert Matt Hooper (portrayed by Richard Dreyfuss) who also supports closing the beach and killing the shark.

After another individual is killed by the shark (something that Brody’s older son witnesses and subsequently goes into shock over), Chief Brody convinces the mayor to hire a local fisherman named Quint (portrayed by Robert Shaw) to hunt it down. So Chief Brody, Quint, and Hooper set off on Quint’s boat the Orca in order to do so. They soon encounter the shark, which repeatedly attacks the boat while the trio unsuccessfully try to kill it. Hooper then goes into a shark-proof cage in an attempt to poison the shark with a hypodermic spear, but when the shark attacks the cage he drops the spear. The shark then damages the cage, but Hooper manages to escape to the bottom of the ocean. Meanwhile, the Orca has been taking on water due to the shark’s repeated attacks. The shark then manages to jump on the Orca’s stern and devour Quint. Brody then shoves a scuba tank into the shark’s mouth, and when the shark comes around for another attack, shoots the tank with a rifle, thus causing it to explode and kill the shark. Hooper comes to the surface, and both him and Chief Brody swim to shore.

Jaws became a successful film, earning $476.5 million at the box (with a budget of $9 million), thus becoming the first summer blockbuster. It had several Academy Award nominations, losing the Award for Best Picture, but won in the categories for Best Original Score (which also became one of the most popular film scores), Film Editing, and Sound. There were also three sequels to Jaws- Jaws II, Jaws 3D (later renamed Jaws 3), and Jaws: The Revenge.

Here are some interesting facts about the movie:

– The film’s producers originally wanted to train a shark for the film, but that was impossible. So three mechanical replicas of a great white shark was built for the shark scenes.

– Several decades after the film’s release, Lee Fierro (who portrayed Mrs. Kintner, the mother of the shark’s second victim) walked into a seafood restaurant and noticed an “Alex Kintner Sandwich” on the menu. She commented that she had played his mother many years ago. Jeffrey Voorhees, the manager of the restaurant who had played Alex, ran out to meet her. They hadn’t seen each other since the original movie shoot.

– Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss didn’t get along with each other, which resulted in tension between their respective characters. Dreyfuss, however, refuted any stories about him and Shaw not getting along.

– Jaws was criticized for its inaccurate portrayal of sharks (including them being demonized), which is said to have resulted in the shark population dropping significantly.

At any rate, Jaws has become one of the most popular films of all time.

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