The 40th anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster classic Jaws hit us on the 28th of May, the film that spread terror across beach goers worldwide and prevented many from entering the sea. The film is now regarded as the original summer blockbuster, and captured the imaginations of people everywhere, forever ingraining the fear of sharks into pretty much everyone who watched it. The film is based on the book of the same name by Peter Benchley, and went on to become the highest grossing film of its time. Nobody at the time expected the success the film went on to enjoy, the $8million budget paled in comparison to the film bringing in over $260million worldwide. But the film only held the record for highest grossing film for two years, until Star Wars came along and blew Jaws out of the water, raking in over $775million worldwide.
But the film’s production wasn’t the smoothest road to success, with many obstacles and mishaps that would shut most productions down. Problems arose on the set almost every day, ranging from near drowning to faulty mechanical sharks. The shark in fact drove Spielberg near crazy, nicknaming the machines ‘the great white turd’ due to the number of times they broke down throughout filming. As with most films, especially the big budget variety, Jaws ran into the usual problems; the shoot running longer than expected, going wildly over budget, and of course, the problemswith the three full sized Great White mechanical sharks nicknamed Bruce after Spielberg’s lawyer.
The three mechanical sharks, built by over 40 effects technicians, were constructed in California at Rolly Harper’s Motion Picture & Equipment Rental and designed by Joe Alves, the art director. One shark, the “sea-sled shark”, was used in scenes that required the shark to be travelling at the surface, where it was towed by a line. The other two sharks were used for closeups with only one side of the shark actually modelled, the opposite side an open array of wires and control panels. Each of the sharks required up to 14 operators to control all of the moving parts. But the first problem with the sharks came when they were being lowered into the water after completion when the platform capsized, forcing divers to retrieve the sharks.
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film’s plot takes place in the seaside resort of Amity Island, popular with tourists during summertime, when a teenager goes missing after a party. The local police chief is called in and a search party is called, until the missing girl’s body parts are found on the beach. Brody, the police chief, urges the town’s mayor to close the beaches until the shark is found but Mayor Vaughan overrules the decision and decides to keep the beach open, as tourism is the town’s main source of income. Brody reluctantly goes along with the mayor until a second shark attack occurs, this time sending the town into a frenzied panic. Shark hunter Quint teams up with Brody in the hunt for the great white shark that continues to terrorise the beach resort.
Cast and crew soon started to name the production ‘Flaws’ due to the sheer number of mishaps and troubles everyone encountered. Quint’s boat in the film, the Orca, actually sank unexpectedly during filming, taking cameras, sound equipment with it, along with all the day’s completed footage. The recovered film stock was completely waterlogged and was immediately flown out to New York for technicians to recover it in a lab, luckily it was all saved.
Jaws had such an impact on viewers that interest in sharks rose incredibly, much how later on Spielberg inspired a 
generation in interest in dinosaurs with Jurassic Park. Suddenly, sharks became the number one fear, preventing many from stepping foot into the ocean again, and in some cases, even swimming pools. But it wasn’t just the fear of going into the sea that Jaws caused, but also a new, and potentially damaging, way of looking at these predators of the sea. The film has long been accused of portraying negative stereotypes, which inspired legions of fishermen to actively hunt and kill sharks, as it was thought they were solely a menace to humans. Conservationists have also had a hard time in convincing the public that sharks should be protected and are not mindless killing machines.
Just as it seems safe again to venture into the ocean, The 4oth anniversary of Jaws saw many cinemas playing the film on a limited release worldwide, reminding the world of ‘men in grey suits’ lurking in the deep blue sea.