‘MAY BE TOO INTENSE FOR YOUNGER CHILDREN’. During the hysteria surrounding the release of JAWS in the summer of 1975, it was suggested the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) felt they had to put a 'special warning' on publicity materials.
This wasn't true. It was a fiendish ploy thought up by producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown. Using clever placement on the poster, it appeared as though an official additional ‘special warning’ about the film.
Zanuck and Brown knew they were practically daring people to see the film while appearing to make JAWS even more unique. This technique was used for another Spielberg film... JURASSIC PARK.
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But was this marketing sleight of hand actually making a valid point? Jaws is often voted one of the scariest films ever made. With a creature unseen for the majority of the movie, but put in the mind’s of audience via John Williams’ now iconic score, JAWS became the text lesson in suspense and the gradual reveal for future creature feature film makers - read: JAWS WITH
I saw Jaws when I was 4 or 5 years old when it was showing on UK TV as part of the channel’s ‘Murder, Mystery, Suspense’ series. I watched with my mum as a late night treat. My mum probably expected me to fall asleep… how wrong she was.
Thinking back, I can remember being transfixed and excited, very aware I was watching my first proper ‘grown-up’ movie. I’d been used to watching The Wizard Of Oz and Star Wars: A New Hope on worn repeat on worn out VHS. But this felt different. Within minutes I was seeing a naked lady and then almost immediately watching her get eaten alive.
Then when Chrissie’s remains are found on the beach, we are shown an obscured but still fairly graphic shot of what is left. This is designed to firmly put the shark’s size and power in our minds.
The next intense moment was the killings of Pipit the black lab and 10 year old Alex Kintner. The suspense of this sequence was built up over three minutes with us seeing Police Chief Brody’s paranoia of another shark attack happening - and when it does it is pretty bloody spectacular.
We hear the music, our hearts start racing, we see the shark zero in on it’s prey and above the surface carnage with Alex being puled underwater in an explosion of his own blood. This is pretty gory for most people, especially seeing a kid (just like me at the time) becoming a snack for a giant, unseen predator. But I kept watching.
Easily the scariest, watch it through your fingers moment is Ben Gardner’s head. Still gets me now. Read my full break down of that moment here: Jaws: The Greatest Movie Jump Scare Of All Time
And Jaws doesn’t stop cranking up the suspense with a false alarm (cardboard fin) followed by the real fin heading into the pond and taking out the estuary victim.
Then we get the intense underwater duel of the anti-shark cage attack swiftly followed by the all out gore of Quint’s death. Jaws knows what it’s doing to us.
Perhaps my mum thought it was going to be more edited for TV than I remember it being. Perhaps she thought it was be a fun mother-son memory that she could control with the swift changing of a channel. Who knows. All I can say is that when I saw Jaws as a youngster (4/5 years old), I was transfixed and it made me fall in love with movies, sharks and the ocean. But I appreciate not all kids are the same.
So, do you think JAWS is too intense for younger children?
Words by Ross Williams
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