“BA DUM.” Just those two thunderous notes are enough to sink dread into some people’s hearts. Even 50 years after the initial release of “Jaws,” Steven Spielberg’s famous 1975 thriller, the music and images from the film are still iconic to this day. The movie was not only a blockbuster hit, but the catalyst for generations of people to gain fears of sharks, and created a false cultural prejudice that lingers even decades later.
Before “Jaws” came out in 1975, there had been publicized shark attacks in the media over time, but these were few and far between, and not famous enough to create a nationwide fear of sharks. Then “Jaws” was released in theaters, and fear of sharks exploded. What many may not know is that the PG-13 rating for films did not yet exist in 1975, and the scale simply went from PG to R. Since the film had moments of horror and gore, but not enough to give it the rated R label, “Jaws” was released with a PG rating. Because of this, young children were able to go to the theater to see it. If you can imagine, seeing people get ripped to shreds by a giant shark as a kid might not be conducive to getting a good night’s sleep.
In Nina Nesseth’s novel, “Nightmare Fuel,” about the psychological effects of horror films, she brings up a study conducted in the 1990s by Joanne Cantor, who asked undergraduate students to write essays about lasting frights they experienced. Of the 530 essays Cantor collected, a large number of the essays detailed fears originating from horror movies, one of the main examples being “Jaws.”
“Of students who saw the film before they were 13 years old, 43 percent reported that it made them uneasy about swimming in oceans or swimming pools, even years later.” Nesseth wrote.
Howard Fischer, in his article “Jaws” and galeophobia” for the Hektoen International journal, references two studies on “Jaws” creating or exacerbating a fear of sharks. The first study found that in a study of 255 subjects, “72 percent of the study population had seen ‘Jaws,’ and a majority of them said that the film affected them. Some refused to enter the ocean for several months after they had seen the film.”
Another study conducted in 2004 of undergraduate students’ fright reactions recorded that, “23 students described their reactions to seeing ‘Jaws’ between the ages of three and eleven. Nearly half felt that they still had ongoing fears after their viewing of the film. One individual could not swim at the beach for five years afterward.”
While “Jaws” certainly increased public fear of sharks, did the film actually directly cause a decrease in shark populations? Opinions differ. Some attribute many shark deaths to what is called “The Jaws Effect,” a term coined by Dr. Christophe Neff to describe the false belief that sharks intentionally attack humans perpetuated by popular media such as “Jaws.”
David McGuire writes in his article, “How ‘Jaws’ Influenced Shark Perception,” “In California, the film led to vendetta killings, great white shark tournaments, a commercial fishery that along with bycatch in a gillnet fishery almost completely wiped out the population of white sharks along the west coast of North America.”
Jeevoka Buzz writes in the article “‘Jaws’ is Responsible For Killing A Colossal Amount of Sharks,” “George Burgess, the director of the Florida Program for Shark Research, suggests that there was a shocking 50% decline in the population of large sharks on the east coast of North America following the release of ‘Jaws’ in 1975. Research by Dr. Julia Baum reports an alarming drop of 89% in Hammerhead sharks, 79% in Great White sharks and 65% in Tiger sharks between the years of 1886 and 2000, just fourteen years.”
Others are not too sure “Jaws” is to blame. Christopher J. Ferguson claims in his article “Explaining Media Myths,” “If we look at the data on shark populations, we also see that the decline due to over-fishing began years prior to the movie’s release, with the worst depopulation occurring before ‘Jaws.’ Also, to assume that hatred of sharks bounced over into commercial fishing as opposed to, say, killing them off American beaches is arguably a bit of a leap.”
English and Communications professor Mike Reynolds, who teaches a class on horror films at Hamline, is doubtful of the direct correlation as well.
“What I think Jaws did was further strengthen the allure of scary shark stories in the media,” Reynolds said via email. “The perception existed – but ‘Jaws’ helped engender Shark Week, and Sharknado, and eight billion other narratives. ‘Jaws’ was a cultural phenomenon that had the greatest impact as a commercial success and solidified the all-purpose terror of the big thing in the water eating us. The fear of sharks was definitely reinforced. I just don’t think it was new, or newly impactful on the real world.”
While opinions may differ on whether or not “Jaws” had an impact on the sharp decline, there is no denying that the world’s shark population has decreased exponentially. Because of fishing, pollution and trophy hunting, many species of sharks are nearing extinction. “Jaws” is an incredible film with stellar writing, acting and effects, but its depiction of great white sharks is wholly untrue. Take “Jaws” for what it is: an exemplary fictitious thriller film, not a depiction of the truth. Sharks are wonderful, largely harmless creatures. So do not be afraid to take that late-night swim in the ocean.
No ominous music will arise, and no rows of teeth will emerge to pull you under. It will be just you and the water, and if somewhere out there a shark is lurking, you can be sure it is looking for its next meal in a school of fish, not in a chunk of your leg.