Duh-dum …duh-dum …
Movie audiences didn't know what hit them - or bit them - 35 years ago this week as "Jaws" became the cinematic sensation of 1975. The lazy, hazy days of summer and summer movies would never be quite the same.
On June 20, 1975, Universal released the first true summer blockbuster, "Jaws," to 466 theaters across the country. Wide distribution of a film was practically unheard of in those days. Usually, a studio would release a film piecemeal, with limited engagements in the big cities before finally entering neighborhood theaters.
And, for better or worse, because of the phenomenal success of "Jaws" - it became the first film to surge past the $100 million box-office mark - movies became massive events. And studios began to make summer blockbusters to capture the attention of a mass audience. It's hard to imagine now, but before "Jaws," summertime was considered the box-office dog days.
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The shark tale of "Jaws" first captured the world's attention in 1974, when Peter Benchley's novel introduced us to a great white shark dining on vacationers at New England's Amity Island (a stand-in for Martha's Vineyard) and the three men attempting to destroy the huge, sleek beast.
Benchley's fish story spent 44 weeks on the bestseller list. That same year, Benchley and Carl Gottlieb were tapped by Universal to adapt the book, and the directing job went to young Steven Spielberg.
Spielberg had caught the attention of the industry in 1971 with the ABC movie thriller "Duel" and then made his feature-film debut in 1974 with "The Sugarland Express."
Throughout the fall of '74, there were grim dispatches from the set. The production on Martha's Vineyard was beset by bad weather and a balky mechanical shark nicknamed Bruce that threatened to sink the movie's credibility.
Still, the film thrived. To hide the mechanical shark, Spielberg and company took the approach of "what you don't see is scarier than what you do see" and used music, point-of-view tricks and even floating barrels to suggest the shark without giving a good look at the predator.
Thanks to Verna Field's seamless, Oscar-winning editing, the result was movie magic. Then there were the performances from Robert Shaw, as the tough-as-nails shark hunter, Captain Quint; Richard Dreyfuss (who thought the film would be "the turkey of the year") as the marine biologist Matt Hooper; and Roy Scheider as the "everyman" of the thriller, Sheriff Brody.
I was at the very first public showing of "Jaws" at a now-long-demolished movie palace, The Cooper, in Denver. And I can recall everyone in that matinee crowd screaming - including myself - at the opening moments when the young woman is attacked by the shark while skinny-dipping in the ocean.
I let out another shriek when the shark reared its massive body out of the sea, causing Brody to intone, "You're gonna need a bigger boat."
"Jaws" also changed the career of composer John Williams, who won an Oscar for his unnerving and unforgettable score. Is there any other piece of music that is so recognizable with just the first two notes?
If you go
"Jaws" will be shown outdoors next Thursday night as part of the downtown Cinema La Placita series.
It starts at 7:30 and a donation of $3 gets you free popcorn.
