The Fourth of July Weekend is coming, and you know what that means….
Welcome, all lovers of all things intense and terrifying! I’m the Radio Reaper. Welcome to my Radio Spot Reliquary.
It was back in the summer of 1975 when I saw a movie that scared me to death! I would never go swimming in the ocean again! Despite many production problems the movie went on to become one of the top grossing movies of all time and put the name Steven Spielberg on the map.
From the horrifying opening to the explosive climax, the terror doesn’t stop.
“May be too intense for younger children.” Hell, may be too intense for adults! Just listen to these exciting spots from 50 years ago!
Poor Chrissie! Poor little kid on the rubber raft! The bitten-off leg! You’re gonna need a bigger boat! Chief Brody! Quint! Hooper! Bruce the shark! JAWS!!!
Jaws Re-release Spot
ZC Note: Jaws was the original summer blockbuster, ushering a whole new terrortainment into the theaters. Who could enjoy the beach after that movie? While the fictional town of Amity Island was located off the coast of Long Island, the movie was actually filmed at Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. Jaws was the first major movie to be filmed on open waters instead of studio water tanks, which caused numerous issues for Bruce, the mechanical shark. They had so much trouble with Bruce that, although Stephen Spielberg originally planned to show Bruce eating up more screen time, he relied instead on John Williams’ score to use music to drive the now unseen terror.
The town of Amity may have been fictional, but some of the details come from real events. Quint (Robert Shaw), the experienced shark hunter, was based on Frank Mundus, a shark fisherman from Montauk, New York. Benchley used Mundus’ experience catching a gigantic great white shark off of the New York coast as inspiration for writing Jaws in the ’70s. The story itself was also loosely based on the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916, a time when five people fell victim within two weeks in early July. ScreenRant
Check out Josh Olson on Jaws over at Trailers From Hell.