US EditionColumn: How ‘Jaws’ changed our chumminess with swimming 50 years ago this summer
- The movie Jaws, directed by a young upstart and considered nearly perfect, debuted soon after Memorial Day in the spring of 1975.
- Its release triggered widespread thalassophobia, an intense fear of deep water and what lurks beneath, which kept many people out of the water for years.
- Biologists like Philip Willink and Kevin Feldheim noted that Jaws caused challenges for regional fish experts and contributed to negative perceptions of sharks, which led to their exploitation and villainization.
- Since 1975, fewer than 60 people have died from great white shark attacks worldwide, with shark sightings in Midwest waters now nearly nonexistent, highlighting exaggerated public fear despite low actual risk.
- Jaws transformed sharks into ocean conservation symbols and influenced culture deeply, but it also intensified human fear of swimming in open water, affecting recreation and perception even 50 years later.
54 Articles
54 Articles
Swimmer reveals how he conquered grueling, frigid 12-day mission on ‘Jaws’ anniversary to prove ‘sharks are not monsters’
A British-South African endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh completed a grueling 60-mile swim around Martha's Vineyard — on the 50th anniversary of Hollywood thriller, "Jaws"— to spotlight an urgent need to protect sharks.
The Baltimore Sun
Column: How ‘Jaws’ changed our chumminess with swimming 50 years ago this summer
Few things in my life have been as consistent as “Jaws.” I have no friendships as old as my relationship with “Jaws.” It debuted 50 years ago this spring, soon after Memorial Day, and for those of us who spent summer breaks getting wrinkled in water, it ruined the next eight weeks. It was the first movie I saw in a theater (or in my case, a drive-in). Having grown up and regularly vacationed not that far from where it was shot, whenever I catch …
Tube television mug with shark (jaws) reactive heat «toy blog
Pyramid has released a fun reactive heat mug for those who watched the movie Tubarão (Jaws) for the first time on television. The Jaws Mug Mug Mug Mug Retro TV Heat Change was sculpted in the shape of an old blue tube television, with side buttons on the side and screen with the login image and shark on a black background. When the mug gets a hot liquid, the image turns into the poster of Steven Spielberg’s movie with young Chrissie Watkins swim…
JAWS – AFI Catalog Spotlight
This June, the AFI Catalog celebrates the 50-year release anniversary of Hollywood’s premier summer blockbuster JAWS (1975), which, at the time, was the highest grossing movie in history until STAR WARS hit theaters two years later. Featured on six of AFI’s 100 lists, including those honoring the best film scores, the top movie quotes and the greatest films of all time, JAWS ushered in a lucrative new era for Hollywood in which franchises were s…
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