In March of 1975, an audience in Dallas, Texas sat in tense silence during the first screening of a new film from Universal. The director, a young man in his late-20s, stood nervously by the exit, ready to duck into the lobby should the event go sideways. For the last year, his life had been completely dedicated to the 2 hour and 10 minute monstrosity before them, a motion picture that started production without a complete script, and that ended up taking three times longer to film than scheduled. Each day he faced the prospect of losing his job and saying goodbye to his lifelong filmmaking dreams. All of that culminated there, in that theater in Dallas, in front of the first audience that would ever lay eyes on the finished product. And if the film was a financial failure, it surely meant the end of this young man’s career.
The director was Steven Spielberg, and the film was Jaws, the 1970s aquatic thriller that many credit as the first blockbuster. Partway through the screening, the audience started to have audible reactions to the film. Soon, they erupted in screams, and even began cheering after major sequences. Spielberg even noticed a man in the audience get up from his seat and run toward the bathroom, only for him to vomit on the lobby floor. By the film’s end, the audience stood and erupted in applause, a response that no one, especially not the film’s embattled crew and producers, could have ever expected.
Universal gave Jaws an unprecedented simultaneous wide-release in theaters all across the country. It became the highest grossing movie of its time, turning Steven Spielberg into a household name. It was a film unlike anything anyone had ever seen–a HItchcock-esque thriller masquerading as a monster movie. It launched a film franchise and inspired an entire generation of young filmmakers. Nearly 50 years after its release, Jaws is still widely considered to be an essential film that changed the course of movie history.
So today, we’re headed back to Amity Island and diving deep into the history of Jaws!
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