50 Years of Fear: Jaws Returns to the Big Screen at Globe Cinema
In 1975, Director Steven Spielberg changed bodies of water forever with Jaws, a hypnotic look into an island being ravaged by a killer shark that has its territories on the shores of Amity Island, a small town preparing for a huge influx of people for their annual Independence Day celebration.
Jaws is spearheaded by a brilliant cast, made up of Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, and Lorraine Gray. Jaws doesn’t just showcase the terrors that lay beneath the water's surface, but it personifies and makes it relatable as we follow the journey of each character, but most importantly witness Chief of Police Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) attempt to manage the situation at hand. While the small beach town of Amity Island tries to cope with the gruesome deaths of their own by the mysterious shark that stalks their waters, Chief Brody attempts to come to terms with his personal fears.
Not only is Jaws a masterpiece when it comes to story-telling, but it’s incredibly innovative in the way it’s shot, and who can forget that iconic dolly zoom? Spielberg didn’t simply want to go to a studio tank to shoot Jaws, so he went to the water off of Martha’s Vineyard to capture the true, and authentic feeling. Jaws was the first major motion picture shot on open water, not only solidifying it in cinema history, but paving the way for innovation within the industry. Though at the time the studio wasn’t too pleased with the shoot running over 100 days past its schedule and going way over budget, it was soon realized that shooting on open water was the right choice. It didn’t just make the movie look realistic, but it put audiences in the film more than shooting in a tank ever could. Jaws went on to be the first ever summer blockbuster due to the intense marketing and overwhelming release in more than 450 theatres, something that was never the standard before. People didn’t just see Jaws once, they saw it multiple times, making Jaws the top grossing film in cinema history at the time.
50 years later, audiences still love Jaws, and they love seeing it in the theatre. In June and July of 2020, Jaws was re-released in theatres for its 45th anniversary and grossed over $750,000, proving that despite being from 1975, Jaws remains as important to the culture as ever, and keeps its audiences wary of deep water to this day.
Jaws isn’t simply a story about a shark haunting the waters off of the coast of Long Island, it’s a film about terror that can grip a town, the personal struggles revolving around horrific death, and how you never can truly know what's lurking beneath the surface.
It’s one thing to watch this in the comfort of your own home, being able to pause when the tension gets to be too much, however it’s a whole other monster all together to see this in a theatre, the screams and sound of the lapping waves encapsulating the space around you, while only being able to focus on the big screen. Globe Cinema is bringing Jaws back to theatres for the monumental 50th anniversary re-release. You can experience that same edge of your seat suspense, interlaced with the iconic score from John Williams at Globe Cinema from August 29th until September 7th. It’s the perfect way to end the summer, plus you’ll be able to partake in the best popcorn the city has to offer – what’s not to love?
For Globe Cinema’s Jaws showtimes, visit their website at globecinema.ca.