JAWS (1975)

The terrifying motion picture from the terrifying No. 1 best seller ...

JAWS broke all box office records to become the highest grossing film of all time. However, it was soon surpassed by Star Wars in 1977.

Jaws is probably the most famous shark movie ever, starring Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, Lorraine Gary, Carl Gottlieb, Jeffrey Kramer, Susan Backlinie and Jonathan Filley. As a piece of cinematic history, the importance of Jaws simply cannot be overstated. It is the film that literally defined the modern approach to presenting movies as we know it, literally the first true 'blockbuster' feature.

As a piece of popular culture, the influences of Jaws - both on the screen and, unfortunately, off - cannot be denied or overemphasized. However, it is as a piece of good, solid film entertainment that Jaws truly excels, an all time movie classic that remains the single greatest 'killer monster' flick ever made. For all these reasons and more, Jaws is a timeless must-see.

The film is about a great white shark, which terrorizes the resort town of Amity. The local police chief wants to close the beaches but the mayor will not allow it because of the potential harm to the town's tourism during the lucrative Fourth of July weekend. After several shark attacks, the mayor relents and the town hires a crusty old mariner to kill the shark. The mariner, accompanied by the chief and a shark expert, takes to the sea to try and stop the shark.

Hunting the fishy: (l to r) Robert Shaw, Roy Schieder and Richard Dreyfus find humour in grisly shark attacks.

Universal Pictures released the movie in June 1975. The MPAA rating was PG, although a warning message (may be too intense for younger children) was also included.

Jaws was directed by Steven Spielberg. It was his second theatrical film, the first being The Sugarland Express (1974), his third being Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Jaws was produced by Richard Zanuck and his partner David Brown, who also produced Spielberg's The Sugarland Express. They paid $175,000 for the movie rights to Peter Benchley's runaway best-selling novel and also a Benchley script.

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