'Jaws' 40th Anniversary News: The Great White is Coming Back to Theaters June 21
40 years ago this June, a thriller movie was released by Steven Spielberg which scared the living daylights of moviegoers. That movie was "Jaws," and it was one of the highest grossing films during that period. Its release is considered by most as a "watershed moment in motion picture history." Aside from being critically acclaimed for its actors and its storyline, the movie is also known for using music as a key tool in suspense and thriller films.
Moviegoers can relive that moment once again this June 21, when Turner Classic Movies and Fathom Events brings back the Great White to movie theaters across the U.S. The special re-release is being done to commemorate the movie's 40th anniversary. Tickets for the special screening have been available since May 29, according to a report in Cinema Blend.
The movie's story is about a giant man-eating shark that wreaks havoc at a summer resort on the fictional Amity Island. It follows the hunt for the shark by the local police chief, who is aided by a marine biologist and a professional shark hunter. Roy Scheider played the police chief, Richard Dreyfuss was the marine biologist and Robert Shaw played the shark hunter. The screenplay was written by novelist Peter Benchley, whose novel the movie is based on, and Carl Gottlieb, who rewrote the script during the production.
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The film, aside from being shown for its historical and aesthetic significance, is also being shown so that the younger generation will also appreciate it and its value to the movie industry. When the film was being produced in the 1970s, its director Steven Spielberg and his production crew encountered major setbacks especially with the malfunctioning of the mechanical sharks. This eventually led him to decide to "mostly suggest the animal's presence, employing an ominous, minimalistic theme created by John Williams, to indicate the shark's impending appearances."
One notable contribution of the movie, as cited in Cinema Blend, the horror-thriller "for all intents and purposes, set the template for the very idea of the summer blockbuster." It started the notion that if you make movies that are good enough, people will opt to watch movies in addition to going out for summer outings.
"Jaws" will be screened in around 500 theaters on June 21 and on June 24. The movie will be prefaced with a specially produced, context-setting introduction to the "killer shark classic" done by TCM host, Ben Mankiewicz.
