jaws

In 1975, oceans got a lot scarier for the average moviegoer. It was the summer Steven Spielberg's groundbreaking blockbuster Jaws was released — forever changing a day at the beach and the contents of our nightmares.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of that Oscar-winning film, and many theaters are re-releasing it just in time for Labor Day. But my friend Kyle, who has a 14-year-old daughter named Alexis, thought he'd get a jump on it and show it to her a bit earlier. "I wanted to take her to see it on the big screen, but she's very sensitive, so I thought in case she gets scared, we will watch it at home."

Snacks in bowls, PJs on, iPhones off — which is a hardcore rule Kyle, who is a screenwriter, has for movie watching - even on the couch.

The film opens with a casual group of friends, drinking and laughing at a beach bonfire in the fictional town of Amity Island, New York. One woman, with long ’70s flowing hair, stands up and begins to run toward the ocean — a man playfully running after her. "What's your name again?" he asks. "Chrissie!" "Where are we going?" "Swimming," she gleefully replies.

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Swimming is one way to put it. The tension builds, one of Spielberg's most genius directorial gifts, as she disrobes and frolics into the water. He's a tad too drunk to go in, despite her pleas to join her. Refreshing and beautiful, she's splashing around when…we get an underwater shot of her silhouette swimming above. (We later find out whose point of view that's from, and it's not a human.)

Suddenly, there's cacophonous music, as she seems to be nibbled on the leg. Then, with the most terrifying of screams, we watch as she appears to be carried on the back of a beast to and fro, all the while screeching as though she were wrestling a demon. Oblivious, her suitor remains intoxicated on the beach, while she goes silent, having surrendered to her fate as a big fish's meal.

(Fun fact: There were rumors that Susan Backlinie, who played "first victim Chrissie," accidentally had her ribs broken, as Spielberg yanked her underwater for her last shot. However, Backlinie has debunked the popular myth, though she did say the filming was "grueling.")

Bruce AKA Jaws the shark attacks a boat. Giphy Universal Pictures

Kyle reports that Alexis was silent. Shocked. And yes, terrified. She grabbed a couch pillow and yelped, "Nope," as the infamous John Williams composition "Duh Nuh. Duh nuh. Duh nuh" begins to play. She is hooked, pun intended.

As the film goes on, however, and she's able to regain her breath — her attitude changes sharply. Kyle shares, "Around the time when marine biologist Matt Hooper (played by Richard Dreyfuss) appeared on screen, Alexis scrunched up her face. I asked her what was up and she said, 'I kinda feel like maybe the shark isn't the bad guy.'"

"You're gonna need a bigger boat" scene from the movie Jaws. www.youtube.com, Universal Pictures

She wouldn't be the first to have expressed this sentiment. Author Peter Benchley, on whose novel of the same name the film was based, had a complicated relationship with the movie. In an article for the Cape Cod Times, Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll recently writes how Benchley expressed remorse. "Benchley wanted to spotlight sharks' endangerment from modern fishing technology and an Asian taste for shark fin soup. What got more international attention, though, was this passage: '... considering the knowledge accumulated about Great Whites in the past 25 years, I couldn't possibly write Jaws today ... not in good conscience, anyway.'"

Benchley, having become an ocean conservationist before his death in 2006, even set the record straight on shark behavior. "They tend to spit people out," the piece reports Benchley claiming. (He had a lot of ideas for casting that clashed with Spielberg as well, including a wish for Paul Newman and Robert Redford to play the roles that wound up going to Roy Scheider and Dreyfuss.)

Alexis continued, "Just seems like they were in HIS house, ya know? Like what is a shark supposed to eat? If anyone is the villain, it's people who hunt sharks for sport. And the people who lie about them for movies." (Gauntlet dropped, Spielberg.)

Many marine biologists have spent decades trying to undo the shark myths proposed in Jaws. In the clip below for KATU Lifestyle, Dr. Alexandra McInturf says that not only are sharks not man-eating maniacs, "they are very discerning, thoughtful animals. The presence of sharks in an ecosystem is usually a really good sign that the ecosystem is healthy."

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That said, it was peak ’70s water-cooler talk and a deep bond for many Gen X-ers and Boomers. Gen Z, however, is seemingly not as interested. Natalie O'Neill writes in the New York Post that barely "half of Gen Z-ers" have even seen the film. She shares, "The film was such a hit with young people at the time, a whopping 40% of 18-to-29-year-olds said they’d seen it by the end of summer 1975, according to a Gallup poll taken that year." Adding, "At the time, 18% of viewers called it 'the most frightening movie' they had ever seen and 35% said the movie increased their fear of swimming in the ocean, according to the poll."

As part of the half who can now proudly claim they have seen it, Alexis is a fan. But she's team Benchley all the way when it comes to shark advocating. "Just leave them alone and they will leave you alone," she pleaded. True or not, she vows she will never miss an episode of National Geographic's "Shark Week" content moving forward.