Jaws Movie Review Essay

Next, when the movie Jaws came out, the world was in fear, a fear that the media exploited. Originally, Jaws was a novel written by Peter Benchley in 1974. (Francis. 44) The novel was about a rogue shark that victimized a small beach community. Peter Benchley knew very little about sharks when he wrote this novel. The story was an adaption of a true series of shark attacks that occurred along the Jersey shore in 1916. A year later, in 1975, Steven Spielberg created the blockbuster film, Jaws. The movie that changed everything for the shark. When the film was released, the world was in an absolute state of excitement and fear. People around the world refused to even step foot into the water. After the movies release, there was a sudden plunge in the shark
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Rory McAuley, a shark expert with the Department of Fisheries, “asserts that the film Jaws is a seminal point for most media responses and the histrionic reporting reinforces popular images of great whites as man-eating predators” (Francis, 44) McAuley also states that “shark attacks do not need this form of hype because people are interested in[shark attacks] anyway.” (Francis, 44) Before the turn of the twentieth century, anything known about sharks was mostly based on “myths and sea lore.” (Francis, 45) Previous to more recent times, people believed sea monsters and serpents were skulking in the unknown depths of the ocean. When swimming became a popular recreational activity, the average swimmer knew or cared very little about sharks. During the 1900s, people in the United States did not believe that sharks attacked people, it was thought that they were harmless. However, in 1916, the people of America were astounded by a twelve day series of shark attacks in New Jersey that killed four people. The New York Times, and other popular newspapers headlined this event. Newspapers were claiming that the east coast was “infested with man eating monsters” (Francis, 44) which put America into a shark