I Saw 'Jaws' at the Movies 50 Years Ago and, Yes, It Ruined the Beach for Me Forever

I Saw 'Jaws' at the Movies 50 Years Ago and, Yes, It Ruined the Beach for Me Forever

Director Steven Spielberg's 1975 classic about a killer shark really sinks its teeth into you ScreenProd / Photononstop / Alamy Mean eating machine,My friend Raymond and I saw Jaws in a South Jersey movie theater, possibly outside Cherry Hill, on its opening weekend 50 years ago.It was a sold-out weekend show — the film had opened the day before, June 20, 1975. Raymond and I had both read the Peter Benchley bestseller the new movie was based on,…

'Jaws' at 50: How Spielberg's shark movie changed my life and cinema

‘Jaws’ at 50: How Spielberg’s movie changes ‘horrified’ wife of novel writer Peter Benchley

A little over a year before Jaws opened in theaters and forever changed the next 50 years of cinema, it was a best-selling debut novel by author Peter Benchley. Producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown, who had acquired the rights to Jaws before its publication, turned to Benchley for the first few drafts of the screenplay, but it was ultimately something that, according to his wife, Wendy Benchley, was "hard for him." "That is a completely diff…