Jaws (novel)
The cover depicting a woman swimming and a shark coming towards her from below. Atop the cover is written "Peter Benchley", "Jaws" and "A Novel".
Cover of the first hardcover edition, illustrated by Paul Bacon
Author Peter Benchley
Cover artist Paul Bacon (hardcover)
Roger Kastel (paperback)
Country United States
Language English
Genre Thriller
Publisher Doubleday (hardcover)
Bantam (paperback)
Publication date February 1974[1]
Pages 278
LC Class PS3552.E537
Jaws is a 1974 novel by American writer Peter Benchley. It tells the story of a great white shark that preys upon a small resort town and the voyage of three men trying to kill it. The novel grew out of Benchley's interest in shark attacks after he learned about the exploits of Montauk, New York shark fisherman Frank Mundus in 1964. Doubleday commissioned him to write the novel in 1971, a period when Benchley worked as a freelance journalist.
Through a marketing campaign orchestrated by Doubleday and paperback publisher Bantam, Jaws was incorporated into many book sales clubs catalogues and attracted media interest. After first publication in February 1974, the novel was a great success, with the hardback staying on the bestseller list for some 44 weeks and the subsequent paperback selling millions of copies in the following year. Reviews were mixed, with many literary critics finding the prose and characterization lacking despite the novel's effective suspense.
Film producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown read the novel before its publication and bought the film rights, selecting Steven Spielberg to direct the film adaptation. The Jaws film, released in June 1975, omitted practically all of the novel's several subplots, mainly focusing on the shark and the characterizations of the three protagonists. Jaws became the highest-grossing movie in history up to that time, becoming a watershed film in motion picture history and the first summer blockbuster film. Three sequels followed the film, which were met with mixed to negative responses.
Plot summary
The story is set in Amity, a fictional seaside resort town on Long Island, New York. One night, a massive great white shark kills a young tourist named Chrissie Watkins while she skinny dips in the open waters after she and another man make love on the beach. After finding what remains of her body washed up on the beach, investigators realize she was attacked by a shark. Police chief Martin Brody orders Amity's beaches closed, but mayor Larry Vaughan and the town's selectmen overrule him out of fear for damage to summer tourism, the town's main industry. With the connivance of Harry Meadows, the editor of the local newspaper, they hush up the attack.
A few days later, the shark kills a young boy named Alex Kintner and Morris Cater, an elderly man not far from shore. A local fisherman, Ben Gardner, is hired by Amity's authorities to kill the shark, but disappears. Brody and his deputy Leonard Hendricks find Gardner's boat anchored off-shore, empty and covered with large bite holes, one of which has a massive shark tooth stuck in it. Blaming himself for these deaths, Brody again attempts to close the beaches, while Meadows investigates the Mayor's business contacts to find out why he is determined to keep the beaches open. Meadows discovers Vaughn has ties to the Mafia, who are pressuring the mayor to keep the beaches open in order to protect the value of Amity's real estate, in which the Mafia has invested a great deal of money. Meadows also recruits ichthyologist Matt Hooper from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for advice on how to deal with the shark.
Meanwhile, Brody's wife Ellen is missing the affluent lifestyle she had before marrying Brody and having children. She instigates a sexual encounter with Matt Hooper, who is the younger brother of David Hooper, a man she used to date. The two go to a motel after Ellen invites him to lunch at a restaurant several miles away from Amity. Throughout the rest of the novel, Brody suspects the two have had a liaison and is tormented by the thought.
With the beaches still open, tourists pour into the town, hoping to glimpse the killer shark. Brody sets up patrols on the beaches to watch for the fish. After a boy narrowly escapes another attack close to the shore, Brody closes the beaches and hires Quint, a professional shark hunter, to kill the shark. Brody, Quint and Hooper set out on Quint's vessel, the Orca, and the three men are soon at odds with one another. Quint dislikes Hooper, dismissing him as a spoiled rich college boy. Hooper is angry over Quint's methods, especially when he disembowels a blue shark, and uses an illegally caught unborn baby dolphin for bait. Brody and Hooper also argue, as Brody's suspicions about Hooper's possible tryst with Ellen grow stronger; at one point, a heated argument ensues with Brody strangling Hooper for several seconds.
Their first two days at sea are unproductive, although they do come in contact with the shark by the end of the second day. Upon seeing it for the first time, Hooper estimates the shark must be at least 20 ft (6.1 m) long, and is visibly excited and in awe at the size of it.
Larry Vaughn visits the Brody house before Brody returns home and informs Ellen that he and his wife are leaving Amity. Before he leaves, he tells Ellen that he always thought they would have made a great couple. After he is gone, Ellen reflects that her life with Brody is much more fulfilling than any life she might have had with Vaughn, and begins feeling guilty over her prior thoughts of missing the life she had before marrying Brody.
On the third day, after seeing the size of the shark, Hooper wants to bring along a shark-proof cage, to take photos of it and then to use it in an attempt to kill it with a bang stick. Initially, Quint refuses to bring the cage on board, even after Hooper's offers to pay him $100, considering it a suicidal idea, but he relents after Hooper and Brody get into a heated argument. Later that day, after several unsuccessful attempts by Quint to harpoon the shark, Hooper goes underwater in the shark cage. However, the shark attacks the cage, something Hooper did not expect. After destroying the cage, the shark kills and eats Hooper. Brody informs Quint that the town can no longer afford to pay him to hunt the shark, but Quint no longer cares about the money and vows to continue pursuing the shark until he has killed it.
When Quint and Brody return to sea the following day, the shark begins attacking the boat. After Quint manages to harpoon it several times, the shark leaps out of the water and onto the stern of the Orca, tearing a huge hole in the aft section which causes the boat to start sinking. Quint plunges another harpoon into the shark's belly, but as it settles back into the water, Quint's foot becomes entangled in the rope attached to the harpoon, and he is dragged underwater to his death. Brody, now floating on a seat cushion, spots the shark slowly swimming towards him; he closes his eyes and prepares for death. However, just as the shark gets within a few feet of him, it succumbs to its many wounds. The shark rolls over in the water and dies before it can attack Brody. The shark slowly sinks down out of sight, dragging Quint's still entangled body behind it. The lone survivor of the ordeal, Brody watches as the dead shark disappears into the depths and then he paddles back to shore on his makeshift float.
Development
Peter Benchley had a long time fascination with sharks, which he frequently encountered while fishing with his father Nathaniel in Nantucket.[2] As a result, for years, he had considered writing "a story about a shark that attacks people and what would happen if it came in and wouldn't go away."[3] This interest grew greater after reading a 1964 news story about fisherman Frank Mundus catching a great white shark weighing 4,550 pounds (2,060 kg) off the shore of Montauk, New York.[4][5]
A shallow and rocky beach.
Peter Benchley was inspired by a shark being captured in Montauk, New York.
In 1971, Benchley worked as a freelance writer struggling to support his wife and children.[6] In the meantime, his literary agent scheduled regular meetings with publishing house editors.[2] One of them was Doubleday editor Thomas Congdon, who had lunch with Benchley seeking book ideas. Congdon did not find Benchley's proposals for non-fiction interesting, but instead favored his idea for a novel about a shark terrorizing a beach resort. Benchley sent a page to Congdon's office, and the editor paid him $1,000 for 100 pages.[4] Those pages would comprise the first four chapters, and the full manuscript received a $7,500 total advance.[2] Congdon and the Doubleday crew were confident, seeing Benchley as "something of an expert in sharks",[7] given the author self-described "knowing as much as any amateur about sharks" as he had read some research books and seen the 1971 documentary Blue Water White Death.[2] After Doubleday commissioned the book, Benchley then started researching all possible material regarding sharks. Among his sources were Peter Matthiessen's Blue Meridian, Jacques Cousteau's The Shark: Splendid Savage of the Sea, Thomas B. Allen's Shadows In The Sea, and David H. Davies' About Sharks And Shark Attacks.[8][9]
Benchley only began writing once his agent reminded him that if he did not deliver the pages, he would have to return the writer's advance. As this money had already been cashed and spent, this was a problem. Benchley's hastily written first-draft partial manuscript was derided by Congdon, who did not like its comic tone.[2] Congdon only approved the first five pages, which went into the eventual book without any changes, and asked Benchley to follow the tone of that introduction.[4] After a month, Benchley delivered rewritten chapters, which Congdon approved, alongside a broader outline of the story. The manuscript took a year and a half to complete.[8] During this time, Benchley worked in his makeshift office above a furnace company in Pennington, New Jersey during the winter, and in a converted turkey coop in the seaside property of his wife's family in Stonington, Connecticut during the summer.[6] Congdon dictated further changes from the rest of the book, including a sex scene between Brody and his wife which was changed to Ellen and Hooper. Congdon did not feel that there was "any place for this wholesome marital sex in this kind of book". After various revisions and rewrites, alongside sporadic payments of the advance, Benchley delivered his final draft in January 1973.[7]
Benchley was also partly inspired by the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 where there were four recorded fatalities and one critical injury from shark attacks from July 1 through July 12, 1916. The story is very similar to the story in Benchley's book with a vacation beach town on the Atlantic coast being haunted by a killer shark and people eventually being commissioned to hunt down and kill the shark or sharks responsible. There is another similarity in the 1916 incident and the book where kids are attacked in a body of water other than the ocean - in the 1916 incident a child and an adult who attempted to save him were attacked and killed in Matawan Creek, a brackish/freshwater creek and in the film adaptation Mike Brody is nearly killed in the "pond" which in reality is a small inland cove that connects to the open ocean through a small tributary.
Title and cover
Painting of a shark head rising up on a naked swimmer. Atop the cover is "#1 Superthriller - A Novel of Relentless Horror", followed by the title and author, "Jaws by Peter Benchley".
Bantam Books requested a new cover for the paperback, and the now iconic art by Roger Kastel was reused for the Jaws film posters.
Shortly before the book went to print, Benchley and Congdon needed to choose a title. Benchley had many working titles during development, many of which he calls "pretentious", such as The Stillness in the Water and Leviathan Rising. Benchley regarded other ideas, such as The Jaws of Death and The Jaws of Leviathan, as "melodramatic, weird or pretentious".[3] Congdon and Benchley brainstormed about the title frequently, with the writer estimating about 125 ideas raised.[8] The novel still did not have a title until twenty minutes before production of the book. The writer discussed the problem with editor Tom Congdon at a restaurant in New York:
We cannot agree on a word that we like, let alone a title that we like. In fact, the only word that even means anything, that even says anything, is "jaws". Call the book Jaws. He said "What does it mean?" I said, "I don't know, but it's short; it fits on a jacket, and it may work." He said, "Okay, we'll call the thing Jaws.[3]
For the cover, Benchley wanted an illustration of Amity as seen through the jaws of a shark.[7] Doubleday's design director, Alex Gotfryd, assigned book illustrator Wendell Minor with the task.[10] The image was eventually vetoed for sexual overtones, compared by sales managers to the vagina dentata. Congdon and Gotfryd eventually settled on printing a typographical jacket, but that was subsequently discarded once Bantam editor Oscar Dystel noted the title Jaws was so vague "it could have been a title about dentistry".[7] Gotfryd tried to get Minor to do a new cover, but he was out of town, so he instead turned to artist Paul Bacon.[10] Bacon drew an enormous shark head, and Gotfryd suggested adding a swimmer "to have a sense of disaster and a sense of scale". The subsequent drawing became the eventual hardcover art, with a shark head rising towards a swimming woman.[7]
Despite the acceptance of the Bacon cover by Doubleday, Dystel did not like the cover, and assigned New York illustrator Roger Kastel to do a different one for the paperback. Following Bacon's concept, Kastel illustrated his favorite part of the novel, the opening where the shark attacks Chrissie. For research, Kastel went to the American Museum of Natural History, and took advantage of the Great White exhibits being closed for cleaning to photograph the models. The photographs then provided reference for a "ferocious-looking shark that was still realistic."[10] After painting the shark, Kastel did the female swimmer. Following a photoshoot for Good Housekeeping, Kastel requested the model he was photographing to lie on a stool in the approximate position of a front crawl.[11] The oil-on-board painting Kastel created for the cover would eventually be reused by Universal Studios on the film posters.[10], albeit slightly bowdlerized with the woman's naked body partially obscured with more sea foam. However, the original painting of the cover was stolen and has never been recovered, leaving Bacon to speculate that some Hollywood executive now had it.[12]
Themes and style
The story of Jaws is limited by how the humans respond to the shark menace.[13] The fish is given much detail, with descriptions of its anatomy and presence creating the sense of an unstoppable threat.[14] Elevating the menace are violent descriptions of the shark attacks.[15] Along with a carnivorous killer on the sea, Amity is populated with equally predatory humans: the mayor who has ties with the Mafia, an adulterous housewife, criminals among the tourists.[16]
In the meantime, the impact of the predatory deaths resemble Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People, with the mayor of a small town panicking over how a problem will drive away the tourists.[13] Another source of comparison raised by critics was Moby-Dick, particularly regarding Quint's characterization and the ending featuring a confrontation with the shark; Quint even dies the same way as Captain Ahab.[17][18][19] The central character, Chief Brody, fits a common characterization of the disaster genre, an authority figure who is forced to provide guidance to those affected by the sudden tragedy.[13] Focusing on a working class local leads the book's prose to describe the beachgoers with contempt, and Brody to have conflicts with the rich outsider Hooper.[14]
Publication history
"I knew that Jaws couldn't possibly be successful. It was a first novel, and nobody reads first novels. It was a first novel about a fish, so who cares?"
–Peter Benchley[3]
Benchley says that neither he nor anyone else involved in its conception initially realized the book's potential. Tom Congdon, however, sensed that the novel had prospects and had it sent out to The Book of the Month Club and paperback houses. The Book of the Month Club made it an "A book", qualifying it for its main selection, then Reader's Digest also selected it. The publication date was moved back to allow a carefully orchestrated release. It was released first in hardcover in February 1974,[1] then in the book clubs, followed by a national campaign for the paperback release.[20] Bantam bought the paperback rights for $575,000,[1] which Benchley points out was "then an enormous sum of money".[3] Once Bantam's rights lapsed years later, they reverted to Benchley, who subsequently sold them to Random House, who has since done all the reprints of Jaws.[8]
Upon release, Jaws became a great success. According to John Baxter's biography of Steven Spielberg, the novel's first entry on California's best-seller list was caused by Spielberg and producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown, who were on pre-production for the Jaws film, buying a hundred copies of the novel each, most of which were sent to "opinion-makers and members of the chattering class".[1] Jaws was the state's most successful book by 7 p.m. on the first day. However, sales were good nationwide without engineering.[1] The hardcover stayed on The New York Times bestseller list for some 44 weeks – peaking at number two behind Watership Down – selling a total of 125,000 copies. The paperback version was even more successful, topping book charts worldwide,[21] and by the time the film adaptation debuted in June 1975 the novel had sold 5.5 million copies domestically,[22] a number that eventually reached 9.5 million copies.[1] Worldwide sales are estimated at 20 million copies.[23] The success inspired the American Broadcasting Company to invite Benchley for an episode of The American Sportsman, where the writer wound up swimming with sharks in Australia, in what would be the first of many nature-related television programs Benchley would take part in.[8]
Audio adaptations
A 6-part abridged adaptation read by John Guerrasio was broadcast on BBC Radio 7 in 2008.[24] A 10-part abridged adaptation read by Henry Goodman was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2018 as part of their Book at Bedtime program.[25]
An unabridged audio adaptation read by Erik Steele was released by Blackstone Audio in both CD and downloadable format in 2009. A French translation, Les Dents de la Mer, read by Pascal Casanova was released exclusively by Audible Studios in downloadable format in 2018.[26]
Critical reception
Despite the commercial success, reviews were mixed. The most common criticism focused on the human characters. Michael A. Rogers of Rolling Stone declared that "None of the humans are particularly likable or interesting" and confessed the shark was his favorite character "and one suspects Benchley's also."[27] Steven Spielberg shared the sentiment, saying he initially found many of the characters unsympathetic and wanted the shark to win, a characterization he changed in the film adaptation.[4]
Critics also derided Benchley's writing. Time reviewer John Skow described the novel as "cliché and crude literary calculation", where events "refuse to take on life and momentum" and the climax "lacks only Queequeg's coffin to resemble a bath tub version of Moby-Dick."[18] Writing for The Village Voice, Donald Newlove declared that "Jaws has rubber teeth for a plot. It's boring, pointless, listless; if there's a trite turn to make, Jaws will make that turn."[28] An article in The Listener criticized the plot, stating the "novel only has bite, so to say, at feed time," and these scenes are "naïve attempts at whipping along a flagging story-line."[29] Andrew Bergman of The New York Times Book Review felt that despite the book serving as "fluid entertainment", "passages of hollow portentousness creep in" while poor scene "connections [and] stark manipulations impair the narrative."[30]
Some reviewers found Jaws's description of the shark attacks entertaining. John Spurling of the New Statesman asserted that while the "characterisation of the humans is fairly rudimentary", the shark "is done with exhilarating and alarming skill, and every scene in which it appears is imagined at a special pitch of intensity."[31] Christopher Lehmann-Haupt praised the novel in a short review for The New York Times, highlighting the "strong plot" and "rich thematic substructure."[32] The Washington Post's Robert F. Jones described Jaws as "much more than a gripping fish story. It is a tightly written, tautly paced study," which "forged and touched a metaphor that still makes us tingle whenever we enter the water."[33] New York reviewer Eliot Fremont-Smith found the novel "immensely readable" despite the lack of "memorable characters or much plot surprise or originality"; Fremont-Smith wrote that Benchley "fulfills all expectations, provides just enough civics and ecology to make us feel good, and tops it off with a really terrific and grisly battle scene".[19]
In the years following publication, Benchley began to feel responsible for the negative attitudes against sharks that his novel engendered. He became an ardent ocean conservationist.[4] In an article for the National Geographic published in 2000, Benchley writes "considering the knowledge accumulated about sharks in the last 25 years, I couldn't possibly write Jaws today not in good conscience anyway. Back then, it was generally accepted that great whites were anthropophagus (they ate people) by choice. Now we know that almost every shark attack on a human is an accident: A shark mistakes a human for its normal prey."[34] Upon his death in 2006, Benchley's widow Wendy declared the author "kept telling people the book was fiction", and comparing Jaws to The Godfather, "he took no more responsibility for the fear of sharks than Mario Puzo took responsibility for the Mafia."[17]
Film adaptation
Main article: Jaws (film)
Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown, film producers at Universal Pictures, both heard about the book before publication at the same time. Upon reading it, both agreed the novel was exciting and deserved a feature film adaptation, even if they were unsure how to accomplish it.[3] Benchley's agent sold the adaptation rights for $150,000, plus an extra $25,000 for Benchley to write the screenplay.[7] Although this delighted the author, who had very little money at the time,[3] it was a comparatively low sum, as the agreement occurred before the book became a surprise bestseller.[35] After securing the rights, Steven Spielberg, who was making his first theatrical film, The Sugarland Express, for Zanuck, Brown and Universal, was hired as the director.[36] To play the protagonists, the producers cast Robert Shaw as Quint, Roy Scheider as Brody and Richard Dreyfuss as Hooper.[37]
Benchley's contract promised him the first draft of the Jaws screenplay. He wrote three drafts before passing the job over to other writers;[35] the only other writer credited beside Benchley was the author responsible for the shooting script, actor-writer Carl Gottlieb who appears in the film as Harry Meadows.[37] Benchley also appears in the film playing a brief onscreen role as a TV reporter.[38] For the adaptation, Spielberg wanted to preserve the novel's basic concept while removing Benchley's many subplots and altering the characterizations, having found all of the characters of the book unlikable.[35] Among the major changes were the removal of the adulterous affair between Ellen Brody and Matt Hooper and Mayor Larry Vaughn's connections to the mafia.[39] Quint became a survivor of the World War II USS Indianapolis disaster,[40] and changing the cause of the shark's death from extensive wounds to a scuba tank explosion.[41] The director estimated the final script had a total of 27 scenes that were not in the book.[39] Amity was also relocated; while scouting the book's Long Island setting, Brown found it "too grand" and not fitting the idea of "a vacation area that was lower middle class enough so that an appearance of a shark would destroy the tourist business." Thus now the setting was an island in New England, filmed on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.[42]
Released in theaters in 1975, Jaws became the highest-grossing film ever at the time, a record it held for two years until the release of Star Wars.[43][44] Benchley was satisfied with the adaptation, noting how dropping the subplots allowed for "all the little details that fleshed out the characters".[8] The film's success led to three sequels, with which Benchley had no involvement despite them drawing on his characters.[45] According to Benchley, once his payment of the adaptation-related royalties got late, he called his agent and she replied that the studio was arranging a deal for sequels. Benchley disliked the idea, saying, "I don't care about sequels; who'll ever want to make a sequel to a movie about a fish?" He subsequently relinquished the Jaws sequel rights, aside for a one-time payment of $70,000 for each one.[8]
References
Baxter 1997, p. 120.
Benchley 2006, pp. 14–17.
Bouzereau, Laurent (1995). "A Look Inside Jaws: From Novel to Script". Jaws: 30th Anniversary Edition DVD (2005). Universal Home Video.
Dowling, Stephen (February 1, 2004). "The book that spawned a monster". BBC News. Retrieved January 19, 2009.
Downie, Robert M. Block Island History of Photography 1870–1960s, page 243, Volume 2, 2008
Hawtree, Christopher (February 14, 2006). "Peter Benchley: He was fascinated by the sea, but his bestselling novel tapped into a primeval fear of the deep". The Guardian. Retrieved August 18, 2008.
Morgan, Ted (April 21, 1974). "Sharks". The New York Times Book Review. Retrieved March 18, 2015.
Gilliam, Brett (2007). "Peter Benchley: The Father of Jaws and Other Tales of the Deep". Diving Pioneers and Innovators. New World Publications. ISBN 978-1-878348-42-5. Retrieved March 18, 2015.
Perez, Steve (December 15, 2004). "'Jaws' author explores sharks' territory". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved August 18, 2008.
Marks, Ben (June 29, 2012). "Real Hollywood Thriller: Who Stole Jaws?". Collectors Weekly. Retrieved December 1, 2014.
Freer, Ian. "The Unsung Heroes of Jaws". Empire. Retrieved December 1, 2014.
O'Reilly, Terry. "How J. Edgar Hoover accidentally invented the Ten Most Wanted poster". Under the Influence. CBC.ca. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
Sutherland, John (2010). "10: Jaws". Bestsellers (Routledge Revivals): Popular Fiction of the 1970s. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-83063-1. Retrieved March 18, 2015.
Curtis, Bryan (February 16, 2006). "Peter Benchley - The man who loved sharks". Slate. Retrieved March 18, 2015.
Willbern, David (2013). The American Popular Novel After World War II: A Study of 25 Best Sellers, 1947–2000. McFarland. pp. 66–71. ISBN 978-0-7864-7450-9.
Andriano, Joseph (1999). Immortal Monster: The Mythological Evolution of the Fantastic Beast in Modern Fiction and Film. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 17–23. ISBN 0-313-30667-2.
Nelson, Valerie J. (February 13, 2006). "Peter Benchley, 65; 'Jaws' Author Became Shark Conservationist". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 18, 2015.
Skow, John. "Overbite". Time. Vol. 103. February 4, 1974. p76.
Fremont-Smith, Eliot. "Satisfactions Guaranteed" New York - January 28, 1974.
Gottlieb 1975, pp. 11–13.
Benchley 2006, p. 19.
"Summer of the Shark". Time. New York City. June 23, 1975. Archived from the original on June 19, 2009. Retrieved December 9, 2011.
Knight, Sam (February 13, 2006). "'Jaws' creator loved sharks, wife reveals". The Times. London. Retrieved January 26, 2008.
"Jaws". BBC Radio. BBC. 2008. Retrieved August 22, 2018.
Goodman, Henry (September 1, 2018). "Jaws by Peter Benchley". BBC Radio. BBC. Retrieved August 22, 2018.
Casanova, Pascal (June 28, 2018). "Les dents de la mer". Audible.com. Amazon. Retrieved August 22, 2018.
Rogers, Michael. "Jaws review". Rolling Stone. April 11, 1974. p75.
Newlove, Donald. The Village Voice. February 7, 1974. pp. 23–4.
The Listener. Vol. 91. May 9, 1974. p. 606.
Bergman, Andrew. "Jaws'. The New York Times Book Review. February 3, 1974. p14.
Spurling, John. New Statesman. Vol. 87. May 17, 1974. p703.
Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher. "A Fish Story or Two" The New York Times - January 17, 1974.
Jones, Robert F. "Book World", The Washington Post. Sunday, January 27, 1974. p3.
Benchley, Peter (April 2000). "Great white sharks". National Geographic: 12. ISSN 0027-9358.
Brode 1995, p. 50.
McBride 1999, p. 232.
Pangolin Pictures (June 16, 2010). Jaws: The Inside Story (Television documentary). The Biography Channel.
Bouzereau, Laurent (1995). "A Look Inside Jaws: Casting". Jaws: 30th Anniversary Edition DVD (2005). Universal Home Video.
Friedman & Notbohm 2000, pp. 11–12.
Vespe, Eric (Quint) (June 6, 2011). "Steven Spielberg and Quint have an epic chat all about JAWS as it approaches its 36th Anniversary!". Ain't It Cool News. Retrieved January 2, 2012.
Bouzereau, Laurent (1995). "A Look Inside Jaws: Climax". Jaws: 30th Anniversary Edition DVD (2005). Universal Home Video.
Priggé, Steven (2004). Movie Moguls Speak: Interviews with Top Film Producers. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. p. 7. ISBN 0-7864-1929-6.
Fenner, Pat. C. (January 16, 1978). "Independent Action". Evening Independent. p. 11–A.
New York (AP) (May 26, 1978). "Scariness of Jaws 2 unknown quantity". The StarPhoenix. p. 21.
Kidd, James (September 4, 2014). "Jaws at 40 – is Peter Benchley's book a forgotten masterpiece?". The Independent. Retrieved January 28, 2015.
Sources
Baxter, John (1997). Steven Spielberg: The Unauthorised Biography. London: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-00-638444-7.
Benchley, Peter (2006). Shark Life: True Stories About Sharks & the Sea. New York: Random HouseCollins. ISBN 0-307-54574-1.
Brode, Douglas (1995). The Films of Steven Spielberg. New York: Carol Publishing. ISBN 0-8065-1951-7.
Capuzzo, Michael (2001). Close to Shore: A True Story of Terror in an Age of Innocence. New York: Broadway Books. ISBN 0-7679-0413-3.
Ellis, Richard (1983). The Book of Sharks. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. ISBN 0-15-613552-3.
Fernicola, Richard G. (2002). Twelve Days of Terror: A Definitive Investigation of the 1916 New Jersey Shark Attacks. Guilford, Conn.: The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-575-8.
Friedman, Lester D.; Notbohm, Brent (2000). Steven Spielberg: Interviews. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 1-57806-113-X.
Gottlieb, Carl (1975). The Jaws Log (in German). New York, New York: Dell. ISBN 978-0-440-14689-6.
McBride, Joseph (1999). Steven Spielberg: A Biography. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80900-1.
Yule, Andrew (1996). Steven Spielberg: Father to the Man. London: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-91363-4.
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5thCasablanca
Casablanca
In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unfores
6thSchindler's List
Schindler's List
In German-occupied Poland during World War II, Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish
7thAnnie Hall
Annie Hall
Neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer falls in love with the ditzy Annie Hall.
8thTaxi Driver
Taxi Driver
A mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran works as a night-time taxi driver in New York City where the perc
9thVertigo
Vertigo
A San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend'
10thPulp Fiction
Pulp Fiction
The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four
11thThe Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz
Dorothy Gale is swept away to a magical land in a tornado and embarks on a quest to see the Wizard who ca
12thLawrence of Arabia
Lawrence of Arabia
The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and lead the diverse, often warri
13thThe Godfather: Part II
The Godfather: Part II
The early life and career of Vito Corleone in 1920s New York is portrayed while his son, Michael, expands
14thApocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now
During the Vietnam War, Captain Willard is sent on a dangerous mission into Cambodia to assassinate a ren
15thGoodfellas
Goodfellas
Henry Hill and his friends work their way up through the mob hierarchy.
16thChinatown
Chinatown
A private detective hired to expose an adulterer finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption a
17thThe Searchers
The Searchers
A Civil War veteran embarks on a journey to rescue his niece from an Indian tribe.
18thPsycho
Psycho
A Phoenix secretary steals $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote m
19thSome Like It Hot
Some Like It Hot
When two musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but f
20thAll About Eve
All About Eve
An ingenue insinuates herself into the company of an established but aging stage actress and her circle o
21stDr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
An insane general triggers a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals f
22ndOn the Waterfront
On the Waterfront
An ex-prize fighter turned longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses.
23rdBicycle Thieves
Bicycle Thieves
Set in Post-WWII Italy, a working class man's bicycle is stolen. He and his son set out to find it.
24thIt's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life
An angel helps a compassionate but despairingly frustrated businessman by showing what life would have be
25thSeven Samurai
Seven Samurai
A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves.
26thGone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind
A manipulative Southern belle carries on a turbulent affair with a blockade runner during the American Ci
27thThe Third Man
The Third Man
Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the my
28thA Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange
In future Britain, charismatic delinquent Alex DeLarge is jailed and volunteers for an experimental avers
29thE.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
A troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape Earth and return to his home-world.
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30thNorth by Northwest
North by Northwest
A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies,
31stOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
A criminal pleads insanity after getting into trouble again and once in the mental institution rebels aga
32ndSunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscur
33rdRaging Bull
Raging Bull
An emotionally self-destructive boxer's journey through life, as the violence and temper that leads him t
34thThe Best Years of Our Lives
The Best Years of Our Lives
Three World War II veterans return home to small-town America to discover that they and their families ha
35thJaws
Jaws
When a gigantic great white shark begins to menace the small island community of Amity, a police chief, a
36thThe Bridge on the River Kwai
The Bridge on the River Kwai
After settling his differences with a Japanese PoW camp commander, a British colonel co-operates to overs
37thThe Hurt Locker
The Hurt Locker
During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mat
38thThe Graduate
The Graduate
A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.
39thTokyo Story
Tokyo Story
An old couple visit their children and grandchildren in the city; but the children have little time for t
40thStar Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
Luke Skywalker joins forces with a Jedi Knight, a cocky pilot, a wookiee and two droids to save the galax
41stThe Silence of the Lambs
The Silence of the Lambs
A young F.B.I. cadet must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catch
42nd8½
8½
A harried movie director retreats into his memories and fantasies.
43rdThe Apartment
The Apartment
A man tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complicati
44thSunrise
Sunrise
A married farmer falls under the spell of a slatternly woman from the city, who tries to convince him to
45thRear Window
Rear Window
A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbours from his apartment window and becomes convinced o
46thCity Lights
City Lights
With the aid of a wealthy erratic tippler, a dewy-eyed tramp who has fallen in love with a sightless flow
47thTo Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird
Atticus Finch, a lawyer in the Depression-era South, defends a black man against an undeserved rape charg
48thThe Gold Rush
The Gold Rush
A prospector goes to the Klondike in search of gold and finds it and more.
49thForrest Gump
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump, while not intelligent, has accidentally been present at many historic moments, but his true
50thThe Rules of the Game
The Rules of the Game
A bourgeois life in France at the onset of World War II, as the rich and their poor servants meet up at a
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51stNashville
Nashville
Over the course of a few hectic days, numerous interrelated people prepare for a political convention as
52ndRashomon
Rashomon
A heinous crime and its aftermath are recalled from differing points of view.
53rdThe Shining
The Shining
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the fa
54thThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Gandalf and Aragorn lead the World of Men against Sauron's army to draw his gaze from Frodo and Sam as th
55thRaiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenan
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56thBlade Runner
Blade Runner
A blade runner must pursue and try to terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space and have return
57thIt Happened One Night
It Happened One Night
A spoiled heiress, running away from her family, is helped by a man who is actually a reporter in need of
58thWest Side Story
West Side Story
Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends
59thStar Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
After the rebels have been brutally overpowered by the Empire on their newly established base, Luke Skywa
60thModern Times
Modern Times
The Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman.
61stThe Maltese Falcon
The Maltese Falcon
A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, an
62ndFargo
Fargo
Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent poli
63rdAmerican Beauty
American Beauty
A sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter's
64thBoyhood
Boyhood
The life of Mason, from early childhood to his arrival at college.
65thThe Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath
A poor Midwest family is forced off of their land. They travel to California, suffering the misfortunes o
66thThere Will Be Blood
There Will Be Blood
A story of family, religion, hatred, oil and madness, focusing on a turn-of-the-century prospector in the
67thAll the President's Men
All the President's Men
"The Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the details of the Watergate scan
68thThe Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch
An aging group of outlaws look for one last big score as the "traditional" American West is disappearing
69thL.A. Confidential
L.A. Confidential
As corruption grows in 1950s LA, three policemen - one strait-laced, one brutal, and one sleazy - investi
70thMean Streets
Mean Streets
Following the life of a small-time hood who struggles with a moral crisis regarding his friends, family,
71stDouble Indemnity
Double Indemnity
An insurance representative lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an i
72ndThe Night of the Hunter
The Night of the Hunter
A religious fanatic marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their r
73rdBrokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain
The story of a forbidden and secretive relationship between two cowboys, and their lives over the years.
74thTouch of Evil
Touch of Evil
A stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in a Mexican border town.
75thThe Sound of Music
The Sound of Music
A woman leaves an Austrian convent to become a governess to the children of a Naval officer widower.
76thMidnight Cowboy
Midnight Cowboy
A naive hustler goes to New York to seek personal fortune but in the process finds himself a new friend.
77thKing Kong
King Kong
A film crew goes to a tropical island for an exotic location shoot and discovers a colossal giant gorilla
78thThe Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Fred Dobbs and Bob Curtin, two Americans searching for work in Mexico, convince an old prospector to help
79thThe 400 Blows
The 400 Blows
Moving story of a young boy who, left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime.
80thBonnie and Clyde
Bonnie and Clyde
A somewhat romanticized account of the career of the notoriously violent bank robbing couple and their ga
81stSaving Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan
Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper
82ndBattleship Potemkin
Battleship Potemkin
A dramatized account of a great Russian naval mutiny and a resulting street demonstration which brought o
83rdDo the Right Thing
Do the Right Thing
On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate
84thMulholland Drive
Mulholland Drive
After a car wreck on the winding Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a perky Hollywood-hop
85thThe Shawshank Redemption
The Shawshank Redemption
Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of co
86th12 Years a Slave
12 Years a Slave
In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and
87thGandhi
Gandhi
Gandhi's character is fully explained as a man of nonviolence. Through his patience, he is able to drive
88thThe Deer Hunter
The Deer Hunter
An in-depth examination of the ways in which the U.S. Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of peopl
89thToy Story
Toy Story
A cowboy doll is profoundly threatened and jealous when a new spaceman figure supplants him as top toy in
90thA Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire
Disturbed Blanche DuBois moves in with her sister in New Orleans and is tormented by her brutish brother-
91stNotorious
Notorious
A woman is asked to spy on a group of Nazi friends in South America. How far will she have to go to ingra
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92ndDuck Soup
Duck Soup
Rufus T. Firefly is named president/dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvan
93rdBen-Hur
Ben-Hur
When a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend, he regains his freedom and come
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94thGladiator
Gladiator
When a Roman general is betrayed and his family murdered by an emperor's corrupt son, he comes to Rome as
95thPersona
Persona
A nurse is put in charge of an actress who can't talk and finds that the actress's persona is melding wit
96thThe Social Network
The Social Network
Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg creates the social networking site that would become known as Facebook, b
97thThe Dark Knight
The Dark Knight
When the menace known as the Joker wreaks havoc and chaos on the people of Gotham, the caped crusader mus
98thThe Philadelphia Story
The Philadelphia Story
When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, sh
99thThe General
The General
When Union spies steal an engineer's beloved locomotive, he pursues it single-handedly and straight throu
100thAmadeus
Amadeus
The incredible story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, told by his peer and secret rival Antonio Salieri - now