Happy Fourth of July to my fellow Americans!! 🇺🇸  🌭 🏖️ 🍦🎆

The 2023 Summer Solstice was back on June 21 but I always think of the 4th of July as the quintessential American Summer celebration. As I’m posting this, most people are likely outside enjoying warm-weather activities like grilling, swimming, picnic-ing, etc. I, on the other hand, am enjoying a relaxing day off at home after taking a two-day long weekend getaway to Door County, WI (but decided to come back on Sunday to avoid terrible traffic and huge crowds on the Fourth)

While staying at the hotel, I ended up watching one of the most famous American Summer movies. I’m talking about Steven Spielberg‘s JAWS, of course, the first-ever Summer blockbuster that broke all kinds of records when it was released in 1975, the year yours truly was born. Prior to that, the summer months were the ‘dump’ season when the worst movies were released, as most Americans would enjoy the outdoors, but people flocked to see the shark thriller. After multiple releases, the movie grossed $476 mil worldwide, that’s out of a mere $7 million budget!

So I thought I’d commemorate this year’s Independence Day by posting some of the most memorable scenes from JAWS:

I gotta start with this one that’s actually set on the Fourth of July. JAWS was the first major movie set in a real ocean instead of in lakes or film sets. The filming location for Amity Island took place in Martha’s Vineyard, MA, and used real people from the area as extras. Apparently, they were paid 60 bucks to scream and run across the beach.

Apparently, Spielberg himself is afraid to swim in the ocean, but y’know what, it’s not just superstitious fear. I mean, just today news outlets released a video of a shark in shallow waters on Navarre Beach, Florida while a bunch of people were swimming! You could even hear a boy screaming ‘Get out of the water!’

Who could forget the iconic line spoken by Roy Schenider‘s Chief Brody. The line that ends up as #35 on AFI’s 100 Greatest Film Quotes was actually ad-libbed by Schneider himself!

Now, who could forget THIS shocking opening scene… poor Chrissie! Now, JAWS just wouldn’t be as effective without John Williams‘ Oscar-winning score. Nearly 50 years later, I still think this is one of the greatest film scores of all time. Amazing what the maestro could do with just two notes… crazy how Spielberg initially thought he was joking when Williams first pitched him the score.

The fact that we didn’t see much of ‘Bruce’ the shark (named after Spielberg’s lawyer) makes the giant creature more ominous and suspenseful. Of course, most of us know by now that it wasn’t exactly Spielberg’s brilliant idea, but because the animatronic shark constantly malfunctioned, he simply had to improvise and figure out a way to tell the story without it. So in a way, it was the director’s inventive storytelling and resourcefulness that made the movie work.

When people think of a ‘dolly zoom’ they often think of THIS scene and it certainly makes an impact as we see the dread on Chief Brody’s face as he witnesses another shark attack on the beach. His expression just makes the terror in the water even more terrifying.

The most we see of Bruce is this final showdown where Quint (Robert Shaw)’s worst fear finally materialized. I read here that to get the climactic shark explosion right, they had to hire an explosives expert with a blasting permit. It was an ordeal just trying to get the explosives inside the mechanical shark as the guy had to crawl past those sharp fake teeth all the way back inside it.

But watching this scene even today, it’s still the scariest man vs. shark scene ever filmed. There have been a plethora of copy-cats, but the original JAWS still reign supreme amongst the subgenre of shark movies.

So what are your thoughts about JAWS? Which scene(s) are YOUR favorites?

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