Still Not Safe to Go Back in the Water
The 50-Year Undertow of JAWS: Bad Shark, Class, Bad Merch, and the Movie That Created the Summer Blockbuster
As Jaws turns 50, we’re throwing it back to one of our favorite episodes from season one, when Amy & Paul first took a bite out of Spielberg’s original blockbuster.
They dive deep into John Williams’ bone-chilling score, unpack how Spielberg wrings emotion from a man-vs-nature story, and even ask the taboo question: Does Jurassic Park do it better?
Plus: shark scientist Hannah Medd joins to settle the real debate—who’s the real menace of the sea: sharks or dolphins? (Spoiler: it’s not the one with the teeth.)
THE JAWS FORMULA
The NYT enlisted Amy to help break down the formula that set the template for the Modern Blockbuster. This is a fantastic interactive article - READ IT
WHAT IF THE SHARK WORKED
Early boards by Joe Alves show a Hollywood shark-heavy version of Jaws: more jumping sharks, fewer suspense cues.
IS JAWS ABOUT CAPITALISM?
The shark’s just doing what sharks do. The real villain is capitalism. The mayor refuses to close the beaches after a kid dies—because Amity depends on summer tourism. The town doctor helps cover it up. Everyone’s worried about “the season,” not the bodies.
But underneath that panic is a class struggle: Brody’s the working-class city outsider with no authority, Hooper’s the rich-kid scientist dismissed as a joke, and Quint’s the bitter laborer whose trauma makes him reckless. They’re not just hunting a shark—they’re fighting to be taken seriously in a town run by blazers and boat shoes. And no one embodies that denial more than Mayor Vaughn, strutting through a public health crisis in his iconic anchor-print jacket. He’s not just ignoring the problem—he’s wearing it.
Let’s talk about the jacket…he’s a walking billboard for shallow optics and bureaucratic hubris. The anchors aren’t subtle nods to nautical decor. They’re loud, embroidered, unwavering—just like Vaughn’s character, anchored in denial and political grandstanding.
THE FAMOUS JAWS THEME…NOT THAT ONE
PRODUCTION PHOTOS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED
Recently more and more photos have emerged taken by Vineyard locals—not studio press and give a much more candid look at the shark that never quite worked right.
SNUBBED BY THE ACADEMY
“I didn’t get it! I didn’t get it! I wasn’t nominated – I got beaten out by Fellini!”
A camera crew captured Spielberg’s authentic, unfiltered reaction when the nominations were announced. Jaws ended up securing four Academy Award nominations, winning three when it took home Oscars for Best Sound, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Score, though Spielberg’s direction was not recognized
SOME CRITICS DIDN’T GET IT
Jaws was the film that upended expectations but didn’t immediately win Hollywood’s recognition.
Vincent Canby (The New York Times, 1975)
“In movies like Jaws, characters are simply functions of the action … like stage hands who move props around and deliver information when it’s necessary.”
Canby didn’t hate it. He admired the mechanics, but argued it lacked emotional depth—its characters exist to do plot, not to live.
Charles Champlin (Los Angeles Times, June 20, 1975)
“Jaws is too gruesome for children, and likely to turn the stomach of the impressionable at any age…. It is a coarse-grained and exploitative work which depends on excess for its impact.”
Champlin argued the film’s violence was gratuitous and manipulative, and that it traded subtlety for shock value.
Molly Haskell (The Village Voice, 1975)
“A scare machine that works with computer‑like precision… You feel like a rat, being given shock therapy.”
Haskell took aim at Spielberg’s methodical approach—suggesting the movie jolts more than it resonates.
I’ll Never Put on a Life Jacket Again… Unless It’s Branded
For a movie that kept its monster hidden, Jaws has been anything but subtle when it comes to Merch gift shop.
THE JAWS DOG at UNIVERSAL STUDIOS JAPAN
JAWS BATH BOMB
JAWS: THE BOARD GAME
The players put all the junk pieces in the shark's mouth. The weight of the pieces keeps the mouth open. Using a gaff hook, each player then attempts to remove a junk piece from the shark's opened mouth. The first player to successfully remove four junk pieces wins. However, if a player takes a wrong move, the shark's mouth will snap shut. If only two players are playing, the final player to successfully remove five junk pieces wins.
Jaws Bottle Opener
THE PARODY THAT NEVER WAS
In 1979, Universal and producer Matty Simmons (of Animal House fame) hired National Lampoon writers John Hughes and Tod Carroll to draft Jaws 3, People 0—a self-aware parody sequel. The draft opens with Peter Benchley being attacked by a shark in his own pool and continues to tell the story of a movie crew filming a terrible Jaws sequel featuring an alien shark, until a real great white starts picking them off one by one.
Spielberg apparently threatened Universal to block the project, according to reports, forcing the studio to pivot to the official sequel, Jaws 3‑D, in 1983.
For a FULL BREAKDOWN, listen to one of our favorite movie podcasts BEST MOVIES NEVER MADE
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