Win a Copy of Jaws 45th Anniversary Limited Edition

4 Responses

  1. Howard B says:

    My first memory was my parents showing me that Chevy Chase sketch as a kid and I was terrified. I guess they were testing to see if I could handle the movie and they found out I could not. I was literally scared every time the doorbell rang for weeks. I don’t remember how old I was but it was older than the age that level of irrational fear would have been appropriate. Years later we watched the actual movie and it wasn’t that bad. It’s a great movie and yes it’s scary but in that fun kind of way. I don’t know the lesson is from this, over time we gradually get braver, Things aren’t as bad as they seem or maybe I am just a coward. Dan Harmon was right F U Chevy.

  2. Tamara R. says:

    I was born the year Jaws came in theaters but I didn’t see it until I was 10. I was born in San Diego and grew up playing in the Pacific Ocean and I loved it…..until I saw Jaws. Before seeing the movie I was a happy go lucky kid splashing in the water and learning to surf. After seeing Jaws I was an anxious mess of a kid who would scream and jump six feet out of the water everytime a piece of kelp touched my leg! Okay, maybe I didn’t really jump six feet out of the water but I tried!

  3. Andrew says:

    My history with the Jaws franchise is a bit funny in that the original film’s premiere predated me by 5 years, so my first experience seeing any film in the series was seeing freakin’ Jaws: The Revenge in theaters with my parents at 7 years old. Yes, possibly the dumbest and most maligned sequel in cinema history, about a shark who somehow seeks a personal vendetta and super-swims from New England to the Bahamas was my first toe in the water. Even at that age, I knew I was witnessing a stinker of the highest caliber.

    So, since that movie was scary for all the wrong reasons, things eventually had to be made right. A couple of years later, a theater down the Jersey Shore was doing a summertime viewing of the original Jaws. Seeing that movie, at a young age, down near the beach just added the element of it not being just scary, but a fun party too. Everyone got lost in the enjoyment and excitement of a true summer blockbuster and it was what a theater experience is supposed to feel like. A communal rollercoaster ride the entire audience shared, and made even more fun by the fact just a half-mile away was a big, giant ocean, where deep down, we all wondered if any one of us could be the next shark meal.

    With the thrill of that giant dead-eyed shark (whose eyes always reminded me of Michael Myers’ eyes), the screaming beachgoers, and that simple and bone-chilling musical score in my head, the next day was my chance to relive it all over again. On the beach, my older siblings tried to scare me, pointing out “sharks” in the water and making the “dun dun…. dun dun…” musical sound, which just solidified that chill in me, and made me so hesitant to step foot in the ocean. To top it off, we made a stop by the Point Pleasant Beach Aquarium on the boardwalk, and if seeing a huge scary shark devouring swimmers for lunch on screen, and being teased on the beach wasn’t enough, witnessing the real thing behind glass just in front of me really gave me the full, and very satisfying Jaws experience, even if it was nearly a decade-and-a-half late.

    It almost scares me as much that somewhere, there’s some poor sap with a similar story of seeing Batman and Robin before the original 1989 Tim Burton Batman film, haha.

  4. Kenn Shippey says:

    My first recollection of JAWS was the paperback novel that I used to sneak from my parent’s bedroom bookcase on a nightly basis after overhearing them go on to family and friends about how much they’d enjoyed reading it. I was probably only in Grade 5 at the time so I’m sure my comprehension skills were nowhere near the required level for that awesome Peter Benchley novel however I do also remember being quite intrigued by the “Soon To Be A Major Motion Picture” blurb on the front cover (and oh, what a cover!). Obviously I couldn’t wait for it to hit our local theatre, whenever that might be.

    As a 12-going-on-13 year-old kid in the late spring of 1975, I was just under the age that would have allowed me to go see it with friends so I had to “settle on” tagging along with my parents, uncle, aunt and older cousin while on an out-of-town visit. As I recall, the fact that the movie was rated PG meant that you had to be 14 years of age just to be able to accompany a parent or guardian into the theater; obviously my folks had to stretch the truth a bit when buying my ticket at the box office — thank goodness I was tall for my age — but seriously what isn’t more fun than when there’s an element of danger involved?!

    So many vivid memories of seeing the movie for the first time: the opening scene (was that girl really naked!!?), the main theme, the Kintner attack, Ben Gardner’s head scene, Quint and his Orca, the hilarious Matt Hooper and of course that unforgettably jaunty sea-faring soundtrack. Later that summer while on an out-of-town ball tournament trip, I remember a bunch of us kids trying to gain entry into the multiplex one night after one of our games, me with the hopes of catching JAWS for the second time, however we were denied access and ended up having to go see “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” in an adjoining theater down the hall. What a letdown; I guess in hindsight that movie was okay enough but it sure wasn’t JAWS! I would have to wait until the fall to see it again during its second run when my friends and I were able to talk one of their mom’s into taking a bunch of us. I was the only one in the group who had already seen it and couldn’t wait to see their reactions as the movie revealed itself. It did not disappoint and I paid special attention to the evening boat wreck scene and watched with great delight as my friends and the entire theatre recoiled back in horror as Hooper discovered Ben Gardner’s grisly remains!

    Since that fateful summer 45 years ago I’ve seen my favorite movie way too many times than I’d ever care to admit and in fact host a family JAWS-Fest the first weekend of every July where we project the flick onto the backyard screen all the while eating, drinking and soaking up everything JAWS! Every room in our house has at least one piece of JAWS-related merchandise/memorabilia including one of the kids’ old bedrooms which has been converted into something of a mini-museum. Now that our family has expanded and my eldest daughter and son-in-law have just welcomed our first baby grandchild into the world, so too has the legacy. Obviously, I (along with everybody else in the family) consider myself a somewhat crazed JAWS ‘fin-atic’ but nothing will ever compare to this wide-eyed kid seeing that incredible classic on the big screen for the very first time all those many years ago.