jaws

These movies are how old now?

On June 20, 1975 a movie about an angry fish opened in about 500 theaters around the country. It was called Jaws, it was directed a guy named Steven Spielberg, it was scary as hell, and it changed the world forever. Its unique release strategy (wide instead of limited), intense television marketing campaign, and record-breaking box office essentially created the summer movie season (and made Spielberg a household name). 40 years later, regardless of its impact, Jaws remains a masterpiece, and a much better and more interesting movie than the vast majority of so-called summer blockbusters that it birthed.

If you’re like us, then you too have a love/hate relationship with sharks, aka “the assassins of the sea.” We’re utterly terrified of them, but we can’t help but watch when they rampage a shore and snack on some unfortunate swimmers. Hollywood shares our love/hatred of sharks — namely, they love the money they make for them and hate them enough to kill them off in multiple gory ways (impalement, e