Why ‘Jaws’ works

Brody is the transplanted urban cop who hates the water; one of the movie’s low-key funniest moments comes when he takes out his pistol and starts firing at the shark, like it’s a violent street criminal

By Chris Vognar

On the most basic level “Jaws” is a movie about a relentless great white shark, terrorizing the residents of a beach community during a Fourth of July weekend. It was the razor-toothed beast who adorned the onslaught of T-shirts and other merchandise when the film came out 50 years ago, premiering in June 1975 and all but creating what we think of as the modern blockbuster. It was the shark who got the two-note tuba treatment from John Williams’ ominous score.

But the new National Geographic documentary “Jaws @ 50,” now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu, makes one thing as clear as a summer day on Amity Island: “Jaws” is primarily about flawed people, not a scary fish. The real villain is not the shark, who, after all, would be happy to be left alone. (As shark conservation biologist Candace Fields says in the documentary, “The sharks are not infesting the water. The sharks live in the water”).

The bad guy is the avaricious mayor (Murray Hamilton), who insists on keeping the beaches open during peak season rather than shutting down for safety. The three heroes — police chief Brody (Roy Scheider), sea captain Quint (Robert Shaw), and oceanographer Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) — form a carefully drawn triangle, written with a depth that has eluded most post-“Jaws” spectacles to this day.

For Laurent Bouzereau, the author and filmmaker who directed “Jaws @ 50,” the human touches were what made “Jaws” a classic, and what guided a young Steven Spielberg as he turned Peter Benchley’s bestselling novel into a runaway hit movie.

“The humanity of Steven’s approach to everything in his career started emerging in a movie like ‘Jaws,’ where it’s much more about people’s reaction to a crisis rather than the crisis itself,” Bouzereau said in a video interview. “You feel like you know these people, and they all stand out.”

You might not peg Cameron Crowe, known for dramatic comedies like “Jerry Maguire” and “Almost Famous,” as a “Jaws” aficionado. But there he is in “Jaws @ 50,” alongside the likes of James Cameron, Jordan Peele, Guillermo del Toro, and other heavyweights, including Spielberg himself.

“Every character has a little bit of an arc, a little bit of a story,” Crowe says in the documentary. “So when they enter the picture, you’re interested in them, and when they exit the picture, you miss them.’’

He elaborated in a video interview: “It’s totally about the people. It’s a character-rich movie disguised as an action epic.”

Chief among those people, of course, is the heroic, mismatched trio aboard the Orca. Brody is the transplanted urban cop who hates the water; one of the movie’s low-key funniest moments comes when he takes out his pistol and starts firing at the shark, like it’s a violent street criminal. Quint, the gruff, bombastic but strangely poetic seafarer, and Hooper, the educated, sarcastic shark expert, can’t stand each other but eventually develop a grudging mutual respect. (The documentary suggests Shaw and Dreyfuss didn’t care for each other, either.)

The emphasis on character extended to the look of “Jaws” as well — especially in the second half of the movie, when Brody, Quint and Hooper take to the open water in pursuit of their prey.

The production designer, Joe Alves, who also appears in the documentary, recalled Spielberg’s mandate to never show any other people or boats once the hunt commenced.

“We wanted the three guys isolated,” Alves said in a telephone interview. “Three guys with totally different personalities and this big shark, which Steven didn’t want to overuse. That’s why it worked.” He recalled that Spielberg refused to shoot when any other boat was visible on the water, a stance that didn’t please Universal executives, especially as the movie went over schedule and over budget.

Which brings us to the other main character in Bouzereau’s story: Spielberg himself.

As “Jaws @ 50” shows, the future mogul was a mess as the press devoured reports of the production’s difficulties like chum in the water. Extreme doubt set it. Panic attacks ensued — night sweats, nightmares, uncontrollable shaking. Spielberg had only two movies to his name, the made-for-TV “Duel” (1971) and “The Sugarland Express” (1974). His career was on the line.

In a video interview, Wendy Benchley, the widow of the “Jaws” novelist and co-screenwriter, pointed out that both “Jaws” and “Jaws @ 50” are concerned with how the sudden appearance of a ravenous shark might disrupt the daily routine of island life. Peter Benchley spent his childhood summers in Nantucket, the basis for the novel and movie’s fictional Amity; Spielberg shot the movie primarily on Martha’s Vineyard, and ended up casting many nonprofessional locals in speaking roles and as extras.

“Jaws,” the movie, has the bustling interpersonal authenticity of a Robert Altman film, with participants encouraged to infuse proceedings with local color (and, in some cases, to provide their own dialogue). Wendy Benchley sees this quality as central to the novel, the movie, and, now, the documentary, which features interviews with minor players enlisted from the Martha’s Vineyard community.

“Laurent really captured the personal side of the local people,” she said. “I love that when Peter wrote the book, he concentrated on the characters, and the Nantucket character. He was a Nantucket guy, and he concentrated on people’s reaction to a menace that they can’t control. That was the heart of the book for him.”

Fittingly, sharks — the three mechanical versions, and some inserts of the real deal — are seldom seen in “Jaws.” This is partially because of well-known technical problems but also by design.

The monsters we can’t quite see can be the scariest of all. And, as Spielberg says in the documentary, “Without the people, you wouldn’t give a hang about the shark.”