Unless you’re hiding in the Amity Island town hall, you would have noticed the recent 50^th Anniversary celebrations of Jaws taking hold of every type of film lover across the globe, and deservedly so. Steven Spielberg’s iconic 1975 blockbuster has stood the test of time, and even reshaped modern culture since its hugely successful original release, despite the budget only being $9 million dollars at the time, it racked up nearly $500 million at the box office and looked like the perfectly made film, in relation to its huge success, but if you know it’s behind-the-scenes production chaos, it may have never been completed had it not been for Spielberg’s trauma-triggering commitment to getting it finished.

And, with that decisive point in mind, Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story, finally opens up on the full account, one that’s often rumoured and discussed as lore since its release. French American documentary maker Laurent Bouzereau interviews and directs, and Bouzereau is the right man for this job as he’s made hundreds of film documentaries and many have been Spielberg’s creations. It’s the ‘definitive inside story’ because this is straight from the big shark himself, Steven Spielberg, together with an absolute wealth of those involved at the time, as well as archive footage or interviews from those no longer with us.

Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story charts that astonishing journey from Peter Benchley’s original novel through to the film itself, and in the process they speak to the likes of Steven Soderberg (who I believe said he saw it 31 times at the cinema), plus the huge talents of Jordan Peele, J.J. Abrams, Emily Blunt, James Cameron, Cameron Crowe, George Lucas, Greg Nicotero, Guillermo del Toro, and Robert Zemeckis, and it’s wonderful to listen to their tales of how the film inspired them at various ages, or in different eras, and how that love for the film remains today, as it does for so many of us.

Of course, the film explores Bruce the shark and all the problems, the builds, the mistakes, the breakdowns – complete with brutal honest stories from Spielberg about his mental health, which I hadn’t heard in such detail before. We’re lucky enough to dive inside new footage from Spielberg and Benchley’s personal archives, and then the director gets into the detail of the issues of deciding to make the majority of the film on location (on the sea), but how he wanted that authenticity above everything else. Yes, there’s stories of the malfunctioning mechanical shark, yet it’s also sincerely insightful to hear him talk about the PTSD-like fall out because although the film ‘made him’, he believed it would actually end everything – and those feelings didn’t disappear until some years later.  

The director also discusses how he wanted to make Jaws, seeing it as a relative of Duel, as he loved the script, he chats about the themes of ‘Home’ within the film, the use of local people as the cast, including the improv of Craig Kingsbury’s Ben Gardner – and how there were only eight actors from Hollywood involved. And this kind of factor goes a long way to understanding why it worked so well, as everyone from Martha’s Vineyard (the real filming location) became a part of the family, making it a true celebration of the possibilities of cinema.

Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story also explores the origins of the book and its success, with the family and children of Peter Benchley, including how their own lives influenced the final product. And, we’re not done yet, as they include exclusive new interviews with Joe Alves (production designer), Jonathan Filley (Cassidy), Lorraine Gary (Ellen Brody), the excellent Carl Gottlieb (Meadows, screenwriter – and writer of The Jerk), Jeffrey Kramer (Hendricks), Ian Shaw (son of Robert Shaw, who played Quint – who talks about his great play), Jeffrey Voorhees (Alex Kintner), and legendary composer John Williams. I must also give a shout out to Editor Verna Fields, as she helped keep everything together, just when Spielberg needed someone in control. And I haven’t even got to those key three yet, of Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss, who feature in archival format – and Dreyfuss’ later reflections on his fellow actor relationships – but you can discover all those stories and truths yourselves.

And, above all, it’s important to remind you this is a National Geographic documentary, and so there’s excellent evidence regarding shark conservation, alongside the horrific stories of how the ‘Jaws effect’ inspired shark trophy hunting for some years, until – thankfully – environmental experts and organisations got involved and the conservation of sharks of all types began to come back under control. For all the joy of Jaws, I don’t think anyone involved would have wanted to make the magnificent creatures extinct, and the importance of re-educating people continues today.

Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story captures every essence of the creative venture, including the sacrifices, the talent involved and their commitment as well as the impact of the film on the world forever more. This game changing first summer blockbuster has become a part of pop culture and life until this very day, and that’s one hell of a bite into the legacy of modern filmmaking and during all kinds of cultural shifts. It’s a perfect movie, and this a brilliant, insightful and exciting documentary to accompany it.

Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story premieres Friday 11th July at 8pm on National Geographic and streams the same day on Disney+

You can also pre-order the Jaws 50th Anniversary 4K UHD, that also includes this documentary, and is out on 28 July: https://amzn.to/4eotBhm