Episode Transcript
Oh, welcome back to sort of sophisticated, the podcast where we take a little history, a little culture and a bunch of other stuff. Shove it all in a blender, press puree and hope some good shit comes out of it. Um, I'm Amanda and as always, I am here with. Pete. Hello everybody. How's everybody doing today? So good. So good, right? So good. So good. Jimmy Buffett. I love it. That was a good start. Oh, there you go. You didn't even know what that was. A good start. Mm. Thanks for coming back every week, Amanda. I really appreciate it. And, and you know, I really wanna say thank you for the audience that decides to come back every week. If they do, they do because we never really know. There are some, there are some, right. Um, and they're our favorite people in the world. They are. I know some of them because they're my besties. Yes. And I know they just support me and they text you and it makes it all warm and fuzzy inside. It's great. Do you have any besties that text you or do they all just say your show socks? No. Your show socks? No. Um, I have a story to tell you. Yes. Uh, Ruth is graduating. Yes. This upcoming Saturday. Uh, she just got a mass amount of scholarship at, uh, yes. Her like senior awards night. Okay. That's amazing. Uh, good story, bad story. Are you ready for this? Okay, I'm gonna go fast, but this is, this is embarrassing af like this is as bad as it comes. So like we get the, we get the email and it says like, show up for award. So, okay. So we had a sense that she won some scholarship 'cause we did apply to one scholarship. Just to one. Just to one. Okay. Uh, and we knew sort of the other awards like weren't for her, like Christian service hours or 4.0 or what, whatever. Like, we're like, okay, she wasn't on asb, so we're like, I think you won the scholarship. Okay, cool. So we get there, we sit down, I've done the awards night. This is my fourth. Awards night, obviously, you know, since I've had four kids. Fourth kid. Yeah. So Gabby and I used to sort of slink out after our kid wins the award. 'cause it's a three hour night, you're outside. It's cold as ball. You guys are awful ball. It's terrible. Right? So we sit down, literally we get there. We're like the last people to get there. We sit down. There's 300 people that we're all outside in the Otto. It's beautiful. Like sun's out. It's gorgeous. Uh, and they start with the scholarships. Okay. And they call up Ruth, like right away. Boom. Right, and like, and you were like, yes, yeah, I get out of here early, but like, yes. Yes. Okay. Yes. And super excited about scholarship. Then they call up like 10 other people and I'm like, okay, like all for scholarship, all same scholarship. Okay. I'm like, okay. Kind of watered to town a little bit. Congratulations to everybody who won. I think it was wonderful. But you know, I was like, eh, sure me. So we get up, we go stand in the back, and I'm like, I'm like getting ready to like Iris goodbye, this whole thing, right? Because I'm like, we're five minutes into this thing. And she's like, done. Yeah. So then another woman gets up for another scholarship that we didn't apply for. Mind you. And she starts talking and I'm just waiting carefully. And she says, Ruth Balinski. Please come up. And Ruth looked at me, I'm like, I, I don't know. You didn't go up. So now Ruth goes up and now it's sort of exciting. 'cause that was like a single scholarship, right? Yeah. So like she gets her scholarship, she walks off stage. I'm like, we gotta stick around for another minute or two. Okay. Next person gets up, da da da da Ruth Balinski. What? Third scholarship? Yes. I don't know. They must have like passed around like, Ruth's essay to like a bunch of different Yes. So now I'm sort of like, oh my God. Well, whoever the career person is at her school, thank you. Gods of Yeah, thank you. Gods of modern day high school. Right? So, so this, this is all the good part, right? I'm getting to the bad part. So now we're, we're three deep. And, uh, some man gets up and starts talking about athletic scholarship for football. And some, some athlete gets up, a football guy wins a scholarship, then some wrestling guy gets up and some wrestling guy wins a scholarship. I'm like, we're safe. So we slink out. Okay. She's wearing, she's wearing high heels. It takes us like eight minutes to get to the car. We are three quarters of the way to the car. She's like clogging in our high heels, like really slow, right? All of a sudden she gets this text, oh my God, Ruth, you just won another word. Like her phone blows up. So, um, she's like, what do we do dad? I'm like, we turn around. Yeah. It, so we turn around and it takes us, Amanda, five, seven minutes to walk back in. Like, it was embarrassing. Well, it's far. It's far. And you have to understand like, we're like, this is outside. So like they can see us from, oh, they can see us from like a mile away. So they all knew you played hook. As soon as they see, as soon as they see us around the corner, the lady at the mic goes and there's Ruth Balinski. Ruth was, oh my God. Lost, mortified, all aura, like, oh my God, she was so, it was so bad. So she starts running, and then the lady subsequently says, oh, Ruth, don't worry. We'll wait for you. You don't have to run, hun. Oh my God. 300 faces. Turn around and stare at Ruth. Do this like, I don't know, five minute walk up to the stage. The man comes back up on the stage to give her a, oh my gosh, fourth. Scholarship, which was super kind. Right. I'm like apologizing to everybody. I'm in the background. I'm like, I'm sorry. I had a work meeting I had to be at, like, it starts at seven, like I gotta go. I didn't mean to pull her out. Oh my God. Can someone check if we have more awards? Yeah. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Guy runs off, comes after he goes, I don't think you have any more awards. At that exact time, the woman who gave us the first award walks up to Ruth. Now we're in the back again. Uhhuh. We're done. Yeah. And she says, Hey, one of my colleagues who runs another foundation. Was heard your story. I shared your letter or shared your essay. Uh, he is also giving you an award. He's going to be texting you this evening. I gave him your information. Oh my gosh. Five awards. She ended up meeting that man separately. We met that man to five scholarships. That's amazing, right? But super, super embarrassing that we were like, so what did you learn, Peter? I learned Gabby was very mad at me for walking away. It shouldn't have. So, I mean, she probably would've done it with you if we, I'm being honest. I feel terrible. I know that was a really long story, but that was like, oh my God. It was so there was a pit. That's so exciting. No, it was exciting. But to pit in my stomach. No, I wanna read her essay. Oh my God. It was a good essay. Yeah. You can read the essay. I'll let you read the essay. Okay. Well, well, I was like, you know, doing all that and winning a bunch of money. Not me, Ruth. Um. What were you doing? Were you doing anything fun? It was a fun weekend. I mean, yours was very exciting. I mean, I don't know if mine was as exciting. The girls had a soccer party. You remember the good old days with the soccer party? Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah. It was a lot of fun. And like pizza and sweat and smelly socks. This is the best ever. It was a pool party with the bounce house. Um, and Trent, you know how you guys used to do your awards? So instead of doing like just the candy award, right. He did a walkup song for all the girls. Oh my God, yes. And it was very elaborate. Okay. And it was like most likely to. Blah, blah, blah. I like the walkup song. And then had a walkup song. Yes. And he explained this is the song that you embodied the whole season. Wow. And it was great explaining it to like nine, 10-year-old girls who were like, well, you guys are so creative. I can't believe nine and 10. I, I can't believe they're that old. Like, uh, holy crap. Yeah. That's older than like, than like we were when we were coaching like Paul and Ruth. Yeah. Well Ruth had just started, right? Yeah. Ruth was like six, seven. Yeah. Ruth was like a baby, like seven. And actually Ruth played up, like we started a, a year early. Like it was weird. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She was so little. Oh my God. So, yep. Holy crap. Crap. Quickly learned. She didn't like soccer, but, you know. Okay. Are we done with the ICDs? Can I like do episode topic? Absolutely. Intro. You do what? Intro, what you want anyway, so go for it. The official title of today's episode, Amanda. Dun. Dun dun. We're gonna need a bigger podcast. Jaws Turns 50. Wait. Have you even seen Jaws Well Played? Have you even seen it? I have seen Jaws. You have seen Jaws? I actually watched it in a pool. Oh, I wouldn't have done that ever. Ever. It was like it was at night and it was a summer night. Oh. And we had the blow up screen. What a creative idea. Yeah. Okay, so you, and it was mildly terrifying. 'cause they also turned off the lights in the pool. I wouldn't do that. Oh, it was, you're a badass. Look at you. That is, that is, I like that idea. Um, do you even get the whole We're gonna need a bigger podcast. Do you get my title? Yeah, you get my reference? Yeah. It was the movie you do? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's like the most, like, I mean, I think they also say it on the Universal Studio Tour. Oh, they do? I think so. Oh. Then everybody knows it. Okay. Hopefully. Oh, here I here. I thought I was being all cool. You know what I mean? I mean, it was a good punny. Yeah. It was a pun. It was a pun. Okay. But let's be real here. Okay. What, uh, our listeners, wait, are we not real? What's happening? Well. Sometimes people may be wondering why we picked topics. Right? So like in this case, oh, that's a good point. Maybe our listeners are wondering why do we pick Jaws as a topic in the first place? Yeah, that's true. And how is this supposed to make a smart culture to Peter? Hmm. 'cause I mean, it's just a movie. It is just a movie. And they were making movies way before Jaws silent films. Uh, all the way back to Hollywood. 1920. Forever. Yeah. I'm gonna go with you are correct. And this is the 1975. Yes. So then, Peter, Yes. What is the question exactly? Why does learning about Jaws make us more cultured and curious? There it is. People ba um, good point. I. cause Jaws is not a regular movie, Amanda. It isn't. No. And I know this because you were scared to death watching it in a pool. I was not though. But we did Terrifi the children. Donna. Donna, the children were like, Donna, we can't have to go sit on the edge. Okay. Um, we also had like a little boat. It was great. Yes. A blow up boat on the pool. Scary af. I would not have done that. Yeah. Okay. Like, I, you know what, if you think about it, like, here's, here's why. Let's cut the crap. Right? 'cause it was not the first scary movie. 'cause like Psycho was out way before that. Alfred Hitchcock was out before that. Right. Totally. I guess that one been like a, oh, sorry, go ahead. Well, that's what my bad sounded like for many years. Okay. Um, oh dear. My bad. Yo. This was the first movie that actually scared us. Like without Supernatural stuff. Or like, things that weren't like a spooky mansion or like, um, in the case of Psycho, like a, a Murderer that like was murder. Like, like people didn't believe that shit. Like it wouldn't happen to them. Jaws was the first movie that like scared the shit out of everyone. 'cause it was like regular. I feel like it's because for everybody. There's probably that mild fear already living in them. Right, right. Oh, ab like someone bringing into my house and this is stabbing me. This is primal shit. Yeah. Plasible, but I'm not scared about Right. No primal shit. But like yes, we are not the apex predator. You are absolutely in the ocean. You are absolutely right. Right. It scared the living shit out of people for like 10 years afterwards. Like people have Oh, I bet. Swimming in the ocean. I actually have a fun fact about that at the end, so I don't wanna like spoil it. Okay. We can spoil it, but yeah. Yeah. No. Okay. But Peter. Hold, hold on. I love your movie and all that, but technically you haven't even answered the question yet. Like, are we gonna get cultured and curious? You totally are. Chill out. Okay. We get cultured and curious on every, every episode. I know. I'm just messing with you. We do. No bullshit, dude. Okay. Just messing. Listen to this. Okay. Jaws, whether you know it or not, paved the way for the modern movie industry. Okay. Completely change how films were made. Don't look at me like that, how they're marketed, like everything Okay. Up until this point, Amanda, there was no such thing as a summer Blockbuster movie didn't exist. So they would just, like, people would leak out their like dumb summer movie. Like the summer was throwaway. It was like for nothing. But then when Jaws really, yes, I feel like all the good movies come out in summer. So you're telling me this was the epitome of this was what started the, okay, well now you're gonna get cultured. Okay. You just, you just proved my point. Thank you very much. Also it gave us the rise of Steven Spielberg. Well, didn't he make something before Jaws? Yeah, he did. He made one, but not like, like a Noname thing. Okay. Okay. No, no, no, no, no. Just put him on the map. Or it was gonna take him off the map. We're gonna talk about that later too. Okay. Yes. Here we go. It almost didn't happen. Um, also it's based on a book. It's like a twofer 'cause you're learned about Jaws and now learn about Steven sel. Yes. And then Peter Benchley, who wrote the book in 1974. Former journalist and speech writer for President Lyndon b Johnson. Thank you very much. Now, if I told you I didn't know that Jaws was a book, are you gonna judge me? I am a little bit. Because like he said, like, think about this speech writing. Linda B. Johnson. Yeah. Fair, fair. Right. Civil rights stuff, all this stuff. And then all of a sudden it's like, Hey, what if I write a story about a giant shark and like, uh, you know, freak everybody out. Hmm. I mean, I, I kinda like Peter Benchley. Yeah. I didn't, yeah. One didn't know that this was a real thing. Yeah. That somebody in 1974 right. Yeah. Wrote this book and then a year later they just make a movie at it, which though, right. I am all for. Mm-hmm. I am a proponent of like. Making adaptations right. From books and to movies. But yeah, now I feel like I've ruined my rule. Like this is one movie that like I always read the book before I watch a movie. Okay. That the adaptations are now you just like, I think I also have another fact, firsted my bubble. Totally different. Different movie book, different in this case. Different. Different. So did it, did it ruin my rule? Okay. Yeah. Like interesting, like, yeah. Different. Yeah. Wait till the end. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. Actually, fun fact. Wait, wait, hold on. Hold, hold on. What we have to do? Where did the day first? I wanna, oh, okay. Fine. And then you can go to fun. Okay. Got it. And then you can go to history. Okay. And then you can go into. All cool else. The cool stuff, whatever character characters. Steven Spielberg, we got it all. Okay. It's gonna be huge today. Okay. Are we ready for word of the day? Ready. Okay. All I know is we're not doing lable. Okay. Lable was terrible. The wind, didn't it work right now? What? The shark was lable. Lurking is easy. Lable was terrible. Okay. Anyway, um, okay. Here's the one. Probably didn't use that in the right context anyways. We blew it totally. This is the one we were supposed to do last week before I hijacked it. Okay? Okay. Okay. Sartorial. Sartorial Sartorial, huh? Nothing. What does SAR mean? Sartor SAR like tutorial, but with a sar, what would SAR be? Sar meaning you're crazy. That's what that means. Then sarr means crazy. No, it means you just try to rhyme words. And what like that does not necessarily mean we break down. They totally break down. Okay. What does sartorial mean? And we're gonna figure out how to goes back to tutorial. Okay. Sartorial and tutorial have nothing to do with each other. What does sartorial means? Something that relates to clothing, fashion, or style of dress usually used when someone is dressed like a little too nice for the occasion. Hmm. So like not you. Fair ever. No. I comfort even I ask. I feel uncomfortable. It's fine. Even when I ask you to dress up. Mm, yeah. Right. Don't give a shit. Um, so, so let's start with, I will just put the dollar in the jaw. Right now you are the opposite of sartorial. Okay. Yay. Hey, screw you. Alright, I guess we're gonna see how this goes. Okay. So fine. Now you can go ahead and give us our fun fact. Um, even though I think fun fact, fact, you gave everybody a fun fact that I don't like to dress up, but that's fine. Go ahead. Okay, so my fun fact was that these two producers, David Brown, okay. And Richard Uck, Uck Ook, I don't know if I'm saying that right. You might have to look that up. So they had already bought the movie rights, Amanda, before this dude Pete even released the book publicly. So. Yeah. The what? Yeah, so I guess they had this thing called, so he sold the rights for his book already. Like that's how these guys were, this, the producers were this like in tune with how awesome this was gonna be. Yeah. They had what was called a galley proof. Okay. So it lands on this guy, Dave's desk, right before it's gonna release Nationwide, and him and his buddy Dick or Richard, whatever, right. If they go one day, they're like, yeah, this is awesome. A shark that eat people like, we love this. We're buying the rights right now, $175,000 before the book comes out. Do math. Uh, can you chat GPT like what $175,000 was back then in today's money or what? You know what I'm asking, right? Yep. Okay. Do you want another fun fact while, while you're looking this up? Sure do. Okay. You wanna know the word for people who are afraid of sharks? Oh, it's a phobia. Huh? Are you ready? Okay. It's a phobia. Yep. Galeo phobia. Galileo. Huh? Galileo phobia. Gallo. Gallo Phobia. Maybe I'm saying it wrong, is a shark a galleo? I don't know. I feel like it should be something like, like, oops, I just shit my pants a phobia or something. I don't think it should be galeo phobia. Okay. What do you think? How about I see a xenophobia. Sounds better. There you go. That sounds better. I like that one. We should go with that one. I, okay. Wait, did you look up how much money I, what I did? So today, $175,000 would be 1 million Uhhuh. 38,000 Uhhuh. 86. Alright. All right. We're already in stupid land. It's over a million dollars. Do you get my point? That's a lot of money for this book rights, when you think about it all the way back then with no plans. I mean, go David and Richard. They saw something in it. I know. Let's, and clearly, 'cause I'm sure Jaws raked in a shit ton of money, uh, which you're gonna get into. I'm sure We are. We are. Okay. So where do we go from here then? I'm not sure how you're gonna wanna start this one, you said it was like the first summer blockbuster ever. Yes. So we're gonna start with that. I did. I think that's good idea. We're with history. You start, we're gonna do, wait, who wants the history? We're doing summer Blockbuster. Let's go. Because I like, I learned a lot of crap when I was doing my research. All right. Go. Okay. So I guess before Jaws movies just kind of like came out, right? Like world would go see them. No marketing, no intentionality. Like they finished making them, they edited them, they got released, and people would just go to a movie theater. That was the thing to do. No plan. Right. Okay. But Jaws was the first film to do two. Thank you. Two very specific things. First, they spent a shit load of money on marketing. Okay. Up to that point, movies weren't being marketed. Okay. Like, I know that sounds weird, but they weren't universal. I mean, they were to an extent because they had movie posters. Universal. Spent massive amounts of money on these super short, suspenseful TV ads that ran across the country, like weeks leading up to the release. They did not do that before Jaws. Okay. No. Okay, so you wouldn't remember 'cause technically I don't either. 'cause I was like two years old, but the trailer, I looked it up super scary trailer. Right. It was the music. Right. And it was that super scary twilight zoning voice, like, uh, rod Sterling, you know, I don't know. You should gimme an example. Um, yeah, so it goes like. There's a creature that has survived millions of years of evolution without change. And like, it's like going under the wa, right? Okay. And then they put all that scary music, right? They show people swimming in the water. Total goosebumps. It was less like. Oh, come see this movie Anticipation, right? No, no. This was like, Hey, get ready to shit your pants people, if you go see the movie. Like, it was scary shit. Oh, by the way, it was rated pg. It wasn't even rated at R. Which when do you think first, which also like that tracks, because we totally let our kids watch it. Well, first of all, and then watching, we're like, Ooh, let's cut the crap. There's tits at the beginning. I mean, you can't really see them like, really? Well, I mean, I have a excellent pause game, don't get me wrong, but like, like they're Smoking marijuana on the beach, right? And then it's like she rips off her clothes and she runs in the ocean. It's quick, but that's there. Right. So then she gets eaten. Spoiler alert, and then like how much blood and guts is there? Like, like it shows a lot of like dead body parts. I'm surprised it's not rated RI mean, fair, but the body parts were also not that believable. Okay. But back then they were. Okay. Okay. Like, yes. Okay. All right. Also, they were the first to drop merch, like, oh, like real merch, like everywhere. So is that number two? Yes. No, not number two. This is all part of marketing. Oh, that's still marketing. This is still marketing already. I'm gonna tell you the number two. Okay. Okay. Well after I do number two. Okay. Um, so they did everything I, Amanda a t-shirts, the posters. Okay. Beach towels. Cool. Metal lunchboxes. Did you grow up with metal lunchboxes? Yeah, I had metal lunch. I had the jaws metal lunchbox. Oh. With all the lead in it and everything. I don't know why I was eating my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. This explains a lot about your brain. Yeah. Yeah. And the poster was unbelievable. Giant shark underwater with the people on top. Super hot people on top. Super hot lady on top swimming, right? Oh, whoa. Very one. Okay. You get so offended person. Okay. Perfect. Advertising. Okay. Basically it was don't go swimming. You have no idea what could be under you. 'cause the ocean is really dark and scary. Or in your case, a pool. Yep. Right. Yep. Sure. With a floaty uhhuh. Sure. Total nightmare on And everybody poops. Okay. Second thing. Totally new and innovative. Mind you. Okay. The whole idea, you're not gonna believe me, wide release strategy where it basically opened up in hundreds of theaters simultaneously. Did they only open up one by one before? Before? Here we go. Yes. That's exactly right. No, yeah, you, I, that's seems like such a bad idea. Then I did this, came up with that. So you, they used to open either in like big markets, like New York, la, and that was it. So like, oh, 20 theaters. Okay, okay. 30 theaters, 50 theaters, whatever it was. Sure. Right. To see if they'd get traction. Or they would do a roadshow exactly like what you just said. Take it across the country with limited theaters, limited seating. See who liked it. Literally, city by city. This was the first movie ever. 464 screens nationwide at the exact same time. That's a lot done. Yeah. Yes. Going from like a handful to that, right? Yeah. Who are you kidding? Like. Unless you're my brother Dave, who loves sharks. The other 99.9% of us absolutely are terrified. So it was basically like all of these massive crowds of people were being drawn into the theaters 'cause they wanted to be freaked out. And like I said earlier, do you remember when I was talking about the whole idea of summer throwaways uhhuh? That's totally true. Look all that crap up. It was the throwaway season for movies. Super counterintuitive, but they released it on purpose to try to take advantage of all the other, like they were going against all these other pieces of shit movies that were being thrown in the theaters at the time. Yes. They're becoming a blockbuster. Yeah. Okay, so I'm tracking here. Early television advertising, a bunch of merch, and a very intentional release strategy is kind of the blueprint that made Jaws the summer blockbuster, and reshaped how the industry did it. To what we know today, 50 years later. Wow. This is the whole point of why we're doing this. 'cause otherwise, why would we just pick any movie? We didn't pick any movie. We picked the movie that made a summer blockbuster season. And fun fact, uh, because of all that Jaws, Amanda was the first movie to hit a hundred million dollars at the box office. I mean, that's a lot of money for 1975 opening weekend. It was stupid. Man, it's stupid money. Yes. Who was, who had the record before? I knew you were gonna ask me that. Thank you very much. Okay. I'm starting to know like how you asked me my questions. I looked it up. So in 1973, the Exorcist came in number two, just two years earlier, 89 million. The Exorcist came out in 19 72, 19 73 Uhhuh. And then before that, it was the Sound of Music in 19 65, 79 mil. Yeah. Wow. So, yeah, like TV ads, beach towels. How much do like shows open up today? It could be hundreds and hundreds of millions, but like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then some totally, totally flop like Marvel today, oh my God. Oh, by the way, Marvel should thank Jaws, period. Point, paragraph, we're done. They should thank Jaws for everything that they make and do because of, of what they did. That's, that's what I'm, that's what I'm talking about. Right. But like, do they come at 683 million? That sounds high for like opening weekend. Like it, yeah, because like in theory, a hundred million in 1975 to today's dollars is 683 million. I don't know. Like go. So, uh, do this chat. GPT, this, right? Look up like, last movie that netted 500 million opening weekend. See what comes up. Oppenheimer calling it, I don't know. Mm. No Deadpool. What did it gross? The most recent movie? Yeah. To net 500 million at the Global Box office. Mm-hmm. During its opening weekend. There you go. Was dead. Done and done. Okay. So they're, yeah, they're doing it previously with Spider-Man. No way. Home. Yeah. Is Deadpool Marvel? Thank you very much. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Look at you being so smart, right? I know. It's crazy, So yeah, so TV ads, beach towels, wide release strategy basically changed Hollywood forever. Jaws was rewriting rules, Amanda, before it was in the theaters. I mean, I kind of wanna know who the brainiac was behind all of that. Who came up with this perfect sauce without realizing it was the perfect sauce. Well, we talked about it. You know who it is? Who? The genius Mr. Steven Spielberg. He came up with this, the No. Yeah, absolutely. Like it was his strategy that you decided. Yes. Wow. Yes. Total rookie, fresh out of film school. Like, huh, who's crazy? And maybe this is why we should listen to young people okay. I gotta talk, I, I gotta talk about Mr. Spielberg. Can I talk about Spielberg now? Absolutely. All right. Here we go. Because I don't know Young Spielberg, so go for it. Well, nobody knew Young Spielberg, right? He was a nobody. It could have Joe Schmo, right? I don't care. He wasn't even famous. Total. No, Nona. Um, fun fact. I like 10 fun facts into this thing. You better have some at the end. I do. I have a lot. It was so easy. Okay. Um he wasn't even universal's first pick for this or second pick, like he was your third pick. Okay, so check this out. So the first guy's name is Dick Richard. There's a lot of dicks in this one, right? The guy, the producer guy, Dick, but his name is like, Dick, Dick. Rich. Dick, Dick, Dick, Dick. Sorry. My God. I love Dick Dicks. Okay. So he was the original director they wanted, 'cause he was like famous already. Right. So he signed up to do it and everything. But he couldn't stop calling it a whale. Like he kept saying the whale. The whale, like he was referring to it like, like the shark was the whale. Yes. And so like he, he might have done on purpose, I don't, I don't really get it. Like I tried to look up why that was all happening, but like in all the pitch meetings he kept saying whale. So the producers were like. If you keep saying whale in our pitch meetings, like, you don't even fucking care about this movie. So they totally fired him. Right. Wow. Okay. So that first guy's gone. So next guy comes along. John Sturgis already famous for directing a bunch of other shit too. Um, but he read the book and he said it kind of sucked. And he didn't wanna do a film on the ocean or anything 'cause he was too cool for that. 'cause he was like, oh my God, I'm gonna get seasick. So he stepped out. So he's like, I'm not even taking it. Wow. So he passes so along. Bet he's kicking himself in the butt. Absolutely is. Well, maybe he wouldn't have done it the same way. Oh, that's true. So then comes our boy Spielberg, who is 26 years old. Amanda, 26. Damn energetic, young, big nose guy. Right? The total no name, but he loved the idea of making a movie that could scare the shit out of everyone. So they kind of just handed him the script and said, Hey, good luck. Don't screw this up. Right. That's exactly right. All right. And the rest is history. Well, sort of. What do you mean sort of? Well, remember I told you like he almost didn't make it. Yeah, he almost got fired like multiple times. Why? Yeah. Okay. Like because it was bad and I could maybe envision why, 'cause he was 26. But no, it was a complete mess. The whole filming was a mess. Like first of all, they're in the ocean. Totally unpredictable, like a lot of it, but they didn't have like a big tank like they did the ocean. Ocean. Okay. We're in 1975. They're in the ocean. Okay. The Atlantic shit was moving around all the time. They were drifting everywhere. They could not stay in one place. It was an absolute mess. The shark obviously was super mechanical. Right now they're trying to put mechanical crap in the water. The water, it broke all the time over and over again. Total shit. Show another fun fact. Are you ready for this? They started calling it flaws. Instead of Jaws. Aw Wam. Yeah, because the filming was so messed up. So they almost fired him. It went way over budget. It was months and months behind schedule. And you could totally argue that ended up working in his favor. 'cause think about it. Well, he was also a genius, because the shark kept breaking. He had to like start shooting the movie and redoing scenes around the shark. He couldn't use the shark 'cause the shark wasn't working. Right. Yeah. So, yeah, so all the POV, like the Music all that shit that built up to it made it way scarier and way more suspenseful. Let's be honest, like we're way more afraid of things we can't even see, right? Well, I mean, it's true, right? But when we were watching it in the pool, yeah. I remember going, where's the shark? Yeah. Tell, like, tell, I get the anticipation, but where's the shark? Okay. So you, you were making, making fun of like, things didn't look real back then. Like the legs and the arms, it fell off and all that. So here's the deal. I watched this, uh, last weekend to get ready for this episode. They don't really show the real big shark. Until there's about 12 minutes left in the movie now. Now, don't get me wrong, you see the shark underwater. You see it like at different angles but there's water around it, so you can't really see how fake it looks. And I would argue, I watched it with Ruth. She was watching it. So was Luke. I would argue the reason it still like resonates today. Because you don't see the fake animatronics. Everything about the movies, it's a psychological thriller, isn't really what it is. He changed it from horror to suspense. Absolutely. That's what he did. Yes. And I think that was the genius behind, and I don't know that the other directors would've done it. I don't. He had a different vision. Yeah. After that dude launched his film career, you know what he did next Close encounters of third kind, Indiana Jones, et. And then like all the Jurassic Parks, all the Jurassic parks saving private Rhine. Shout out. Which is also about, yeah. D-Day. Right. Like let's go look. I'm learning what's that? Right? Okay. But I'm gonna change subjects. Go. I love when you change subjects. Well, I kind of just wanna talk about the characters. Yes. Keep me mo, keep me moving along. Well, right before we went live you were telling me about like what each character represented and I thought that was fascinating 'cause I had no idea Jaws was actually that deep, clearly. I also wanna know if it's like that deep because of the book. Um, so if we can go through that one more time on the air, that would be great. Oh my God. Totally. It's worth talking about. Okay. Totally. We're going through it. Yes. Like I was telling you earlier. Three main characters, one important supporting character. We're gonna go through four characters. There's a lot of supporting characters. But's one, main one. Okay. So first you have the Chief of Police, Martin Brody, my favorite character. Played by Roy Scheer. Rip. he's the guy that represents like us, like every man, Amanda, like just trying to be awesome and do his best under the circumstances. He's not a scientist. He ain't a war hero. He's just a small town police chief who fun. Twist is actually afraid of the water. That's hysterical. I think that's like Steven Spielberg's funny part. Okay. So he's the guy who's supposed to represent reason and responsibility. He's our classic reluctant hero, like in every book. 'cause he rises to the occasion when he has to, right. The underdog that we all love. So for all intents and purposes, the protagonist of the story, totally great. The protagonist. Yes. Okay. Um, the next you have the young marine biologist, Matt Hooper. Played by Richard Dreyfus. A very young Richard Dreyfus, uh, super smart from the city works for the Science or Marine Institute, or whatever the hell he calls it. And he represents logic and knowledge, like all the smart stuff, science, all that kind of crap. The idea that science has an answer for everything, when really sometimes it doesn't. 'cause nature can be like super unpredictable and we haven't figured everything out yet. Then you have the last of the main characters, Quint, I don't think he has last name. Uh, he's played by Robert Shaw. He's like Cher Madonna, like, or Prince or whatever, right. His name's Quint. I don't know maybe his last name. I, I, I don't know. Rip also to Robert Shaw's badass. All of them. Huh? I said all of them have kind of passed. Well, no, richard Drive is still around. Um, yeah, so Quint's the badass shark hunter guy who's hired it, like killed the shark. He's supposed to represent instinct and experience. He was a, like a chiseled World War II survivor, and he's seen everything. So he's like the most prepared for what they have to do, like he can't deal with people around him anymore 'cause he probably has PTSD and he's a little nuts and like, takes his instincts way too far. But, he's what makes everybody feel safe well he's the guy, let's follow that guy. 'cause he knows what he's doing. Right. But then he gets like eaten. Yeah. Spoiler. He totally does. Yeah. So that's it. And by the way, um, the book different than the movie. Well, I was just gonna ask, I was like, how are these characters the same in the book or are they all different? They're, they're same in the book, but their story are, are different. Okay. But so like, and I don't wanna go all in the book in this whole episode 'cause we'll be here like all day long, but different story arcs and it's worth reading the book because there's some other shit that goes on. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Huh. Yeah. So I mean, like, it sounds all of these characters um, they're work together, right, to figure out how to beat the shark. Yeah. Like it's heart, it's logic, it's experience. It's like Wizard of Ozzy, right? With kind of man and Yes, exactly. Yes. Let's go. It's like the team that has all the, you know, aspects that they need. Do you know how you like, make fun of like how my brain works? Like that was unbelievable how your brain worked. I would've never put that together. I, but. You probably would. Mm, okay. I think so. It would've taken me another minute. Okay. Fair. But like, listen, in the end, Amanda, it takes all of them to kill the shark. Well, 'cause they all have to come together with their superpowers. They do. I mean, Brody's actually the one who does it, but like each character is necessary at some point. Okay. But then who's the last guy, like the important supporting actor? You had said, So the last guy's, the mayor of Amity, mayor Larry Vaughn to like all the Jaws nerds that know his actual name Sure didn't. Right. The guy with the kick ass iconic blazers. Um, you know what, he's kind of, um. Tutorial if I say so. That's what he is because he wears the dumb A Wow. Okay. Well, yes. Okay. So he's played by the actor Murray Hamilton. I know, thank you. I just pulled that outta my pod. Um, he's actually the antagonist of the story, believe it or not, not Jaws they made him a pretty good villain. So on the one hand you have the shark who's like the villain, I get it. And he's like scary and everything 'cause he eats people 'cause that's what Sharks do. But then the other hand you have Mayor Larry who represents sort of like. The idea of sticking our proverbial heads in the sand. Like when serious shit's going down, we're nowhere to be found because we're giving up because we're just scared to do anything. He represents greed and our ego and all the things we try to hide from the world, but really can't, when you think about it, like, he's a mess. So he's a person that we don't wanna epitomize in our lives. No, he, he, he represents big government. Mm. That's what he represents. All right. Right. Yeah. I mean, okay, so like at the beginning of the movie. Again, me, I nerd it out 'cause I just watched him. You tell me how my brain works. Yeah. Right? And like you piecing together that this one character embodies big government, period. Corporation. Are we ready for this? All of that. It's crazy 'cause it kind of does actually, when you say it, it kind of does. But I didn't come up with that. That's like, duh. You just have to be a good movie critic. Okay. Here's the deal. So at the beginning of the movie, right? So the girl dies, it get literally gets killed. Skinny dipping. Um. He changes the cause of death from shark attack to boating accident so all the beaches can stay open. So money keeps coming into Amity Island. So super greedy, right? It's all about image and he's like not worried about anything else. He doesn't care. Very similar to today. Thank you very much. Lots of aspects. Okay. Then you have something I looked up called. Normalcy bias psychology. I think we talked about normalcy bias in like our psychology episode. I don't, maybe we did. Um, the whole refusal to accept that something outta the ordinary is happening even when it's happening. 'cause it's like too much to believe. So in this case, the sharks eating people. But another example might be like, people don't leave their house during a wildfire. Like, my brother's crazy, right? He's like, oh, nothing's gonna happen to my house. So he stays in his house sorry, you're kind of nuts. Or people that Played down the pandemic 'cause like, oh, well it's never really gonna happen to me. I'm not gonna die. Right. Ignoring the threat because you refuse to believe it's real. People do this all the time though, especially in positions of like leadership or authority. They do. This is what I'm getting at, right? Big government. Okay. Finally, he also represents the failure of leadership. So like. He's not just evil to be an asshole. Like he's got all this pressure on him and he's freaking out that the town's gonna go bankrupt, duh. Like that's his job. If the beach is closed, the town's screwed. But in this case, he goes too far on purpose, of course. So we have a good story. I get it. But he tries to protect the town's economy more than protecting people who vote for him. Right? So his role in the movie and the book is kind of genius. He's like the perfect example of like this bigger existential problem when leaders are reactive instead of proactive. Our world suffers, Amanda. I mean, he's kind of like that big red flashing warning sign that says, don't be like me, don't I? You kind of want everyone to hate you. Right? Right. That's exactly right. He's like the opposite of the green light at the end of the dock in the Great Gatsby. Oh yeah. He's the, he's the big red flashing light saying, don't be a douche. Yeah, that's him. Um, okay. Fair? Yeah It's totally easy to see, like when you watch the movie Jaws 'cause like Mayor Vaughn's right in your face. But like we have Mayor Vaughns everywhere. Like at work, like in our church, in our schools of course in our government. Like we have to be careful they're like they did a good job, like writing his character in. For sure. I mean you got real deep there. I did. And Jaws kind of teaches us that fear is scary. You know, the arrogance and the denial. It's kind of way scarier. Way scarier. Think about it. That's the whole point. But I mean, I don't wanna go so far saying, Josh the villain, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's, yeah, it's fascinating when you break it down and you like, look into it. No one level deeper. Listen Just, I wanna be on record. I'm not this nerdy when it comes to movies and like figuring all this shit out. Like, I don't believe you. No, I'm not like. This, first of all, like this is one of these movies. Do you have like one of those movies where if it's on television you watch it no matter what? No matter how times you've seen it? I have no movie like that. You have? No. Okay. So I have, I have two Jaws is one of them. It doesn't matter. Like if, if it's on television and I'm flipping through the channels and it goes jaw, I'm on. I watch it. Huh. My other one, Shawshank Redemption, I can't help it. Oh, interesting. Those are two. Everything else I'll just like, oh, I've already seen, I've already seen those two. I cannot not re-watch them over and over. Over. Yeah. Okay. Whatever the epitome of good, that's just me. I love it. Alright, well now is it time for some fun facts? Uh, we can do fun. Yeah, we can do fun. Facts. We got anything else? I don't, uh, we went through characters. We went through Steven Spielberg. Okay. Marketing. Okay. I, yeah, I, I'm fine. I can do fun facts. Okay, let's go then. Hit it. Alright. I said I had a lot. You ready for this? Um, I am. Did that be good? Huh? They're already, because you already gave like a bunch. Just relax. They're excellent. Okay. I, I loved this part of my. Research, did you know the shark had a name, like a real name, like besides Jaws? Yes. I think anybody who's been on the Universal Studios tour had, what is it Bruce? Bruce? It is. Do you know why? I don't. Oh, okay. There you go. But they do tell you that his name is Bruce. That's fine. So Steven Spielberg named the mechanical shark after his lawyer. Yeah. That's funny. So i guess the shark, right, kept breaking, we were talking about, so he considered it uncooperative. I was gonna think he thought it was like a waste of money, but I guess, okay. Yeah. So here's the funny part. So I looked up if him and his lawyer, 'cause he's, 'cause he called his lawyer uncooperative, obviously. That's why he named Bruce. Him and his lawyer had a relationship for like 50 more years after that. Like, I, maybe his lawyer died now. Maybe still alive. Maybe it was, maybe it was a joke. Yeah. 50 years later. Just a funny. Yeah. Okay, here we go. That's okay. I love it. All right, number two. The, the music right? Two notes donut. Two notes. Do it, do it. Donut, donut. Donna, right? That's it. John Williams wrote the score as a joke at first, and Spielberg thought it was a prank, but those two notes, instant tread, the most iconic Donna. Donna was this like John Williams first. No, because he was No, no, no, no, no. I think he was before that. We look at chat GPT that while I keep going. Yeah. Yeah. Like I just think it's hysterical that two of the best things that come from it were jokes. Well, right. Dun dun. And then I think we're gonna need a bigger vote. Like, that's hysterical. All right. Um, okay. Number three. The opening attack scene was actually, wait, okay, I'll go back a minute. It was John Williams' first blockbuster hit. No, it was not. It was. We got John John Williams First Blockbuster Jaws. We got John Steve, which solidified his collaboration with, oh my God, killed Director Steven Spielberg. And the success of Jaws and his iconic score led to Williams' First Academy Award for best original score. That's it. And established the Spielberg Williams partnership as a powerful force in Hollywood for the next 50 years. Oh my God. And that's how Williams got recommended to George Lucas by Spielberg to do Star Wars Oh Wars. I love it. All right. That's crazy. All right. It's more iconic than you even knew That was like, that was, that was crazy. You just, fun fact. The fun factor. Super. It was super fun. Fact. That was good. Okay. Alright. Right back to number three. So the opening attack scene where the girl gets killed. Okay. That was actually real pain. She was in. So Susan b Lenny, I don't know how to say her last name. I probably should. So she was rigged with a harness to yank her around through the water violently. But the trick was they didn't tell her when, 'cause they wanted it to be authentic. So her screams in panic were real because when they turned the machine on, it just started going. She was like, holy shit. Start freaking out. That's terrifying. Yeah, I know. I would freak out. Okay. So number four, the movie caused real life shark panic. Oh, okay. Remember back to the beginning when we were talking about like the beaches and what beaches got closed. Oh, yeah, Uhhuh. Okay. Beach attendance plummeted after the movie was released. Like people legitly. Well, no wonder. Yeah. They refused to go in the ocean like they weren't even happening. Okay. Um, I'm surprised my children swim in a swimming pool. Yeah. According to numerous media reports and cultural retrospectives, including interviews with lifeguards, tourism boards, and the Jaws, documentary, the shark is still working. That's a thing. Beach attendance dropped between 20 and 30% in US coastal areas in the months following the film's release. Lifeguards at the time reported a noticeable increase in beach goers staying close to the shore. I. We're just hanging out in the sand and not swimming. 20 to 30% Amanda economy suffered, I would argue, because of jaws. That's crazy. But another economy like skyrocketed. Skyrocketed. Uh, number five. Peter Benchley, the guy who wrote it. Yeah. Regretted writing the book, but why check this? The author of the novel Jaws felt awful about the fear and shark killings that the movie triggered. He later became an ocean conservationist. And said, if he knew then what he knew now, he would've never written the book because of all the panic that it started. And like the way people started shitting all over sharks. That's crazy. I know. Okay. And didn't they also kill a bunch of sharks? They did. I started, I feel like that was like a, I started going down that road and looking that up and then I, I, I didn't end up putting it as a fun fact, but yeah, people started like shark killing. It was like super weird. Oh, wait, hold on. What I'm gonna add one what do you got? Um. So it's not really possible to pinpoint the exact number of sharks that were killed directly as a result of jaws. Yes. However, the film's influence on shark populations is undeniable. The movie significantly contributed to a decline in shark populations, primarily due to increased fishing and hunting, motivated by fear and negative perception of sharks. I love it. All right. That's crazy. Here we go. Um, okay. And finally it won three Oscars. That's a lot of Oscars. Yeah. Not best picture, but like you said, it won for best original score, John Williams Best sound and best editing. But it was also the same year that one flew over. The Cuckoo's Nest came out and that totally won Best picture. And Jack Nicholson of course, won best actor 'cause he's amazing. But I would still argue that Jaws had a way bigger impact on like culture and the whole general public than one flew over the Cuckoo's Nest ever did. So that's all I got. Well, those are very fun facts, I must say. And I feel so much more prepared to flex on Jaws tidbits now. So thank you very much. Um, but before we finish, are you gonna summarize everything so we can all make sure we're super sophisticated? I'm summarizing. Yes. Great. But I have calls to action. Oh, okay. Call to action first. Okay. We have a little bit of homework this week. People, obviously, if you haven't seen the movie, watch the movie, please. In a Pool on a raft. Good idea. Best way to watch it Or on the beach. Um, if you have seen it, please rewatch it, but this time pay attention. Don't just watch like the shark attack parts, even though those are the best parts. Uh, watch, like the camera work, the underwater POV shots and the way Spielberg builds tension through like all his silence or all the music, like actually the music is the shark. Which I didn't get more than half the movie. Yeah. The music is a shark. Didn't dawn on me. Yes, right. Until I saw it again. Yes. That's that. This is what makes it excellent. Thank you. Um, okay. Also, just read the original 1974 Novel People by Peter Bedley. I will do that. Okay. Lot darker, Amanda. I'm gonna, I'm gonna leak. I comes with mob ties on affair. And a pretty different ending. Oh, interesting. Plus it gives you, you added to my Libby. Yeah. Serious. Like literary street grad people 'cause if you read, you're just cool. You'll be like, I actually read Jaws. Uh, and finally, if you're a history buff like me, I highly encourage you to look into the real story of the USS Indianapolis. I dunno if you remember, that's like the monologue part. Quint does like a little over halfway through the movie. It's based on the true World War II disaster, and it's totally, totally heart wrenching. Wait, what is this all about? So Quint is, he's a World War II veteran, right? Like in the movie, but in real life, the USS Indianapolis was responsible to bring, um, atomic bomb parts to Nagasaki or Hiroshima, and drop them off, and then subsequently turned around and, uh, the Japanese torpedoed the boat. Oh, uh, 300 men died instantly, I believe. Oh. 916 go in the water. During the water for four days. Shark infested waters. Wow. Guess how many survived? Oh, I don't know. 316. They ate 600 of our soldiers. What sharks? Mm-hmm. What? Yes. One of the worst. I've never heard of this. One of the worst attacks in the history. Wow. Yeah. 600 people died. Talk about ptsd. Ts D drunk. No. Was brutal. So he tells, he's like, he's drunk and he's sitting in the cabin and they're like out there one night and he's telling the story and it's like a super slow part of the movie. I never realized that was a total true story. It's crazy. I know. Wow. Okay. Um, then remember these details to seem sort of sophisticated. First Jaws invented the summer Blockbuster people. Like literally before Jaws Summer was like where studios dumped their weird little art films and throwaways. But Steven Spielberg's Shark changed the game with a massive marketing campaign, wide release strategy and the kind of suspense that made people think twice before going into the water. It was the first movie to cross a hundred million bucks and it made going to the movies a summer event for sure. The thing to do. Absolutely. Second, the genius behind the whole thing is that you never really see the shark until the last 10 minutes. The mechanical shark, Bruce broke constantly, so Spielberg had to get creative. He relied on the music, the shadows, the suspense, all of it. The result was pure cinematic tension. The shark became scarier because it was mostly in your imagination. I think we also have to give kudos to John Williams. Oh, absolutely. For making, yeah, the score that like created that The score that broke the internet. Yep. Okay. Third, the film success launched Spielberg's career. He was barely 26 years old when he directed it. He was a total nobody with a broken robot shark and filming it almost destroyed his career. But instead. It made him a legend people. It was literally a 50 50 coin toss, like I said, and it was a stepping stone to close encounters Indiana Jones, et Jurassic Park, all the other things like basically my entire childhood growing up. Thank you very much. Steven Spielberg. And finally, it's a horror film. Yes, but Amanda, it's also a morality tale. Jaws isn't just about blood in the water, it's about civic failure, personal responsibility, and the high cost of denial. Think Mayor Larry Vaughn. The ocean is scary for sure, but it's nothing compared to what happens when people in charge ignore the truth to protect their wallets, which, who are we kidding? Is the same thing that's still going on today in 2025, if we're being honest. Well, and on that note there, you have a dear listeners, jaws at 50. From malfunctioning and mechanical sharks to small town politics and ugly blazers. My total tutorial. Total tutorial. It's clear the movie isn't just about what's lurking beneath the surface. Lurking. See, you even said lurking lurk would've been lurking. What's, what's, what's lurk beneath the surface. Okay, sorry. But it's about us. It's, and so if we've done our job today, hopefully you're walking away sort of sophisticated, armed with some shark trivia, Spielberg admiration. And maybe a healthy dose of distrust for any mayor who says the beaches are safe. Kinda reminds me of COVID. But anyways, um, whether it's exploring the birth of the summer blockbuster, reflecting on fear driven decision making, or just finally knowing why Jaws still makes people scream in the pool. The takeaway is the same. Jaws isn't just a movie. It's a cultural shift that still ripples today and next time you're standing knee deep in the ocean and something rushes against your leg. Remember, it is probably Jesse Weed. Well probably. If today's episode gave you chills and made you laugh, can you do us a favor, please, and subscribe already? Or at least leave a review. We don't even care if it's a bad review. 'cause there's, I do care. Don't you leave a bad review. No, there's no such thing as bad publicity. Remember? Oh, no. And if you won't subscribe or leave a review, which I totally call bullshit on, then at the very least, share it with a friend who scared shitless of sharks. Until next time, stay curious and stay sharp out there. And remember, don't go in the water.
