Sharks in Movies : Discovery Channel

Sharks in Movies: From Sharksploitation to Shark Heroism

Jaws

Director Steven Spielberg's thriller Jaws became the must-see film in the summer of 1975. Its popularity hit like an earthquake, sending ripples of shark-induced fear throughout the world. The opening scene, rated as one of the scariest moments ever filmed, sets the arm hair-raising tone. Young, blonde Chrissie Watkins leaves a night beach party on Amity Island and heads out for a swim. While in the ocean, she feels some unseen force biting and pulling at her body. Soon, no Chrissie. Her remains wash onshore the next morning.

That moment, along with other memorable scenes from the film, somehow burned their impact into viewers' minds. Just as taking a shower was never quite the same after Janet Leigh's bloody demise in Hitchcock's Psycho, relaxing summer swims took on a new level of wary concern. Rambling, shark-hunting Captain Quint's words were hard to forget:

"Sometimes that shark he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about a shark ... he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living ... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then ... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they ... rip you to pieces."

And yet, where was the shark? Like the wizard in The Wizard of Oz, the revelation comes at the end, and it is pretty lame -- a mechanical beast that, if real, would never have won an Academy Award. Somehow the shark did not matter. The movie's creators cleverly manipulated viewers with the great unknown.

Because valid information on sharks was scarce, at least in the media, directors then had a field day after Jaws and "Sharksploitation" became all the rage.

NEXT: SHARKWATER

CONTENT