53: Jaws (1975) - Part One

Steven Spielberg's "little" movie about a very big shark kicks off part one of our three part deep dive into Jaws. We get into Peter Benchley's novel, the mechanical shark that refused to cooperate, and why shooting on the real Atlantic nearly ended a young director's career before it started. Two more parts to come.

Chapters

00:00:00 Intro
00:09:24 Intro: Distribution & Reception
00:30:03 Let's Make a Movie: Filmmakers
00:51:14 Let's Make a Movie: Cast
01:02:32 Let's Make a Movie: Production
01:24:03 Losing Light

Citations

“’Jaws’ - How Our Greatest Summer Movie Got Made.” Best Movies by Farr. 2026. https://bestmoviesbyfarr.com/seasonal/jaws-how-our-greatest-summer-movie-got-made/.

Court, Andrew. “A Montauk Monster Hunter.” Field Ethos. 1 July 2025. https://fieldethos.com/montauk-monster-hunter/.

McLachlan, Ryan. “The True Story Behind the USS Indianapolis Monologue in ‘Jaws’”. War History Online. 31 August 2023. https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/jaws-monologue.html.

Newman, Dean. “Who The Cast of Jaws Could Have Been.” The Daily Jaws. 18 January 2021. https://thedailyjaws.com/blog/2021/1/18/who-the-cast-of-jaws-could-have-been.

Rennie, Daniel. “Revisiting Bruce, The Malfunctioning Animatronic Shark That Made ‘Jaws’ a Horror Classic.” Bold Entrance. 15 July 2020. https://boldentrance.com/remembering-bruce-the-malfunctioning-animatronic-shark-that-made-jaws-a-horror-classic/.

Sackton, Laura. “’Jaws’: Book vs. movie.” Audible. 17 September 2024. https://www.audible.com/blog/article-jaws-book-vs-movie.

Scott, Andy. “The Untold Truth of Jaws.” Looper. 10 October 2017. https://www.looper.com/24598/untold-truth-jaws/.

Vaziri, Todd. “The Myth of the ‘Jaws’ Shooting Stars.” FXRant. 19 February 2026. https://fxrant.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-myth-of-jaws-shooting-star.html?m=1.