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Mosby

(18,703 posts)
Thu Jun 12, 2025, 02:00 PM Jun 12

Fifty Years Later, I Still Can't Get Over 'Jaws'

"Jaws” terrified me 50 years ago, the summer of its release. It was not the shark or the unlikely prospect of being eaten, but the power of film that scared me.

The kid who sat next to me at the theater, Bill Trumble, who chewed Bubblicious, refused to swim in Lake Michigan for the rest of the summer. When I explained the absurdity of this—the Great White lives in the ocean; you have nothing to worry about in fresh water—he spoke of the St. Lawrence Seaway and how an industrious leviathan could indeed make its way into the shallows off the Glencoe Beach in Illinois.

"Jaws” taught me how fear can settle like a lens behind your eyes, making everything look dangerous and strange.

It’s a narrative stripped to essentials: the cop battling the shark that has suddenly appeared near the coast of the Edenic island, the hunter and scientist who join the fight, the cowering townspeople, the inane, crowd-pleasing talk of the local politician.

https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/film/fifty-years-later-i-still-cant-get-over-jaws-396b2efa?st=2wRBy5&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

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Fifty Years Later, I Still Can't Get Over 'Jaws' (Original Post) Mosby Jun 12 OP
So hard to believe it's been 50 years. a kennedy Jun 12 #1
Birthday at the movies night BootinUp Jun 12 #2
My Mom didn't let me see it IbogaProject Jun 12 #3
I never broke a sweat over it..... lastlib Jun 12 #4
There was a time, when surfing alone far from shore, I could here the theme music in my head. surfered Jun 12 #5
I remember ForgedCrank Jun 12 #6

a kennedy

(33,797 posts)
1. So hard to believe it's been 50 years.
Thu Jun 12, 2025, 02:10 PM
Jun 12

Loved my nieces and nephews who did see it before me……they just said whenever you hear that music…….and they’d go da da, da da, da da, da da daaaaaaa, just cover your eyes. Loved the movie.

BootinUp

(49,969 posts)
2. Birthday at the movies night
Thu Jun 12, 2025, 02:22 PM
Jun 12

Mom got a chuckle watching my friend and I react to the scary parts.

IbogaProject

(4,541 posts)
3. My Mom didn't let me see it
Thu Jun 12, 2025, 02:42 PM
Jun 12

I was 7.5 at the time and she ruled it "too scary", and we didn't have cable so I went through my childhood only knowing the secondary culture about it. I did see https://thesharkisbroken.com/ a play about the movie's creation by one of the principal's sons, it was interesting take about those mechanical malfunctions along with waiting for appropriate weather in the time before CGI.

lastlib

(26,132 posts)
4. I never broke a sweat over it.....
Thu Jun 12, 2025, 03:28 PM
Jun 12

I don't think it even increased my heartbeat. But that's me, Mr. Cool.......

surfered

(7,457 posts)
5. There was a time, when surfing alone far from shore, I could here the theme music in my head.
Thu Jun 12, 2025, 03:29 PM
Jun 12

Not a good feeling.

ForgedCrank

(2,712 posts)
6. I remember
Thu Jun 12, 2025, 04:18 PM
Jun 12

my mom and aunt taking me to that movie, i was really little, about 5 I think. I can remember them saying it was too scary for me and I insisted on staying. It scarred me good hehe. I remember refusing to even get into the bathtub for a while. To this day I even have trouble skiing or getting in any water where I can't see the bottom, and it's all thanks to Jaws. I have to make myself do it.
Even to this day my mom regrets that, she mentions it once in a while.

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