JAWS at 50 - How JAWS sank its Teeth into a Generation

WN MOVIE TALK

🦈 JAWS at 50: How Jaws sank its Teeth into a Generation 🦈

“We’re gonna need a bigger podcast...”

In this special episode of WN Movie Talk, I take a different kind of look at Spielberg’s Jaws — not just as a blockbuster or a creature feature, but as a cultural phenomenon that carved itself deep into the memory of Generation X.

Joined by my lifelong friend and fellow JAWS nerd Carl we chat through the lasting legacy of the 1975 classic — the fears it sparked, the characters that anchored it, and why it still resonates nearly 50 years on.

And between this candid and honest discussion I also look closer at other aspects of the history of Jaws not usually front and centre in the movies discussions.

From Spielberg being refused a meeting with his idol to how the mayor of Amity Island, Murray Hamilton’s Vaughn, became the archetype for every smarmy authority figure ever since — from why it resonated so well with our generation and why now, 50 years on, we finally gets the Jaws toys that we were denied - in this fantastic episode - we leave no barrel unturned.

Whether you saw it in theatres, on VHS, or snuck a peek too young and never swam again — JAWS wasn’t just a movie. It was a moment. A reflex. A shared cultural fear that became a comfort.

👉 Drop a comment below: What’s your first memory of JAWS? Did you pretend your lilo was the Orca? Or just avoid the sea altogether?

🎧 Listen to more deep dives on classic cinema in the WN Movie Talk Podcast, available wherever you get your pods.

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