Tag Archives: “Jaws”

As Jaws reaches its 45th – 45 Things About Jaws You Might Not Know

As we celebrate the 45-year anniversary of the movie that changed the summer blockbuster, or in this case the movie that actually invented the summer blockbuster, Jaws. These 45 interesting facts about Jaws will be in no particular order. One of the great things about Jaws is that it was filmed on location and not in a studio. They hired hundreds of local extras and many local actors to fill the roles. The medical inspector who lists the Chrissie  Watkins death as a boating accident; the young Cassidy, who passes out before he can go skinny-dipping with Chrissie Watkins; the fishermen who lose their holiday roast while on the dock and so many others were all real local Martha’s Vineyard residents. The beer brand that Quint drinks aboard the Orca is called Narragansett. It was a popular beer in places like Rhode Island and New England and at one time was a sponsor of the Boston Red Sox.>click to read< 18:27

“Jaws” made great whites villains but great whites rebounding

“It’s a matter of relativity,” George Burgess said of the great white’s status. “There are in fact more today than there were 10 years ago.”“I don’t ever remember surfers and waders being bit like they are these days, because the commercial sharkers were thinning them down,” said Ron Rincones, a longtime fisherman and diver from Grant-Valkaria. “People are now being attacked. There’s a lot more people shark fishing these days on the surf, because there’s a lot more sharks.” Read the rest here 14:27

40 years on, Manny Silva remembers towing Jaws behind his boat

At 83 years old, Manny Silva has done a lot — including towing a 22-foot-long mechanical shark around on the set of the movie “Jaws” over forty years ago. The retired commercial fisherman is full of stories from his time working the make the South Coast-based movie, which marked its 40th anniversary June 1. Silva said one of the funniest days was the time he accidentally flipped the cameraman — camera and all — into the water. Read the rest here 11:03

An Opinion – How “Jaws” ruined everything for great white sharks

Christopher Neff, a lecturer in public policy at the University of Sydney, has been documenting the impacts of a more insidiously influential film: “Jaws,” (is that really a job?) “Jaws,” the 1975 classic that taught the world to fear the boat-stalking, man-eating “rogue shark.” Because, convincing as those ’70s-era special effects are, Neff argues that we’ve had a tough time distinguishing the fictional movie beast from the real thing. In truth, he says, no great white shark has ever acted like the one that terrorizes Amity Island. Read the rest here 15:53