It Started with a Shark

It was in June of 1975 that the summer movies changed, forever.

That was the year that Jaws was released and became the first Summer Blockbuster.

I was finishing my Junior year at High School and was one of the thousands (who knows it may have been millions) who had read the book by Peter Benchley and was eagerly waiting for the film to be released.

The movie was directed by a little known director, Stephen Spielberg, who at the time had had only directed a handful of TV episodes, the TV Movie Duel and The Sugarland Express, which featured Goldie Hawn.

Even the actors were small names. The biggest one of these was Robert Shaw and he wasn’t at that time a big name. Jaws would move him into that realm.

Roy Scheider has been a in a number of movies playing small parts. Richard Dreyfuss had started as a teen actor, whose best known role was in American Graffiti.

It was the book that brought me to the theater. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one.

I went to one of our local small theaters. The only one that was showing it. This was before the big Multi-plexes, that would put many of these small theaters out of business, came along.

I had just broken up with my current girl friend and decided to go alone. I sat back and waited for the theater to darken and the movie began. I don’t know if it was the first night of its release, but it was the first night in our area.

Needless to say I was enthralled with the movie, just as were millions. It was the first movie in history to gross over 100 million dollars. The story, the terror and of course the music.

John Williams wasn’t a little known composer at the time. he had already won an Oscar for his work on Fiddler on the Roof as well as being the composer of a number of the big disaster films, Earthquake, The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure. Being that I was a fan of movie music, Williams was the most famous person I knew associated with the movie.

I, like everyone else, was stun with the opening scene. It was very close to the opening of the book, but it was the music that made the scene. I have heard it said had it not been for the music of John Williams and his Jaws Theme, the movie would have not been as successful as it was. I tend to agree with that statement. I also feel it was his music for Star Wars that greatly helped it.

Jaws still is one of the greats.