A shark scientist reflects on Jaws at 50

A shark hits

Three pneumatically driven mechanical sharks were built on great size for the shoot, nicknamed “Bruce”, and they remained disturbing. The pneumatic snakes continued to accept seawater; The skin was made of neoprene foam, which saved water and was blown up; And one of the models was always entangled in seaweed. In the end Spielberg chose to photograph most early scenes without ever showing the actual shark, which actually increased the tension and tension, especially in combination with the ominous theme music by John Williams (“Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh …”).

In the end the shooting ran 159 days and the budget was up to $ 9 million. All delays gave Spielberg and his writers (especially Gottlieb) extra time to refine the script, often just before they film the scenes. Much of the dialogue was improvised by the actors. And in the end it was all worth it, because Jaw was a great success of the summer in the summer. All in all, it earned $ 476 million worldwide on all its theatrical releases and won three Oscars, although it lost the best photo to People flew over the cuckoo nesT.

Jaw inspired many, many following films, including Ridley Scott's Alien In 1979, described in Pitch -Meetings as “Jaw In the room. Public reactions were often extreme, where many people were afraid of swimming in the ocean for fear of sharks. And while the continues were, we will say, underwhelming, the original Jaw has passed the test of time. Ars spoke with marine biologist and shark protector David Shiffman, author of Why sharks matterTo discuss the image of the film of sharks and the permanent place in popular culture.

Ars Technica: Let's start talking about the enormous impact of the film, both good and bad, about the awareness of the general public of sharks.

David Shiffman: Many people in both the Marine Science World and the Ocean Conservation Communities have reported that Jaw Our world changed in many ways. It is not that people thought sharks were cute, cuddly, cute animals, and then JawThey thought they were bloodthirsty murder machines. They just were not in the heads of people. Fishermen knew about them, surfers thought of them, but that was the day. Most people who went to the beach didn't know much about what could be there. Jaw Absolutely crushed. My parents both reported that summer that Jaw Came out, they were afraid to go swimming in their community swimming pools.