JAWS 50th Anniversary

Jaws returned to U.S. theaters for one week, from Friday, Aug. 29, 2025, through Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025, for its 50th anniversary.

Jaws was released in theaters on June 20th, 1975, is considered the first blockbuster film of the modern area (some say Gone with the Wind or Disney's Snow White were the first and second, but neither is official). Learn more about this film at this link.

I was 12 years old when this film came out, I and my whole family of 6 went to see it. To say I was a bit freaked out by the shark would be an understatement. At the time I was an active sailor on the ocean aboard my Hobie 14 catamaran, out of Westport WA USA and was also a deckhand at the time. I deckhand on a boat called the Permanant Wave (36' long) that very much looked like the boat in the movie, the Orca. So, the movie was quite acclalabul to my life at the time. My two other brothers were deckhands also. My only sister was not into fishing or boating but very much loved the ocean.

My father with a friend wanted to go out on a boat to catch a white shark (these sharks were not protected at the time) aboard a 16-foot boat right after the movie. Our whole family said, "Dad, no way you're going out on that, did you not watch the movie when those idiots went on various small boats, not turning out well for one in particular." My dad had considered it but decided against it also, smart.

My father was a fish taxidermist and just 2 years later after this film was released he mounted a 16 foot 3200 lb Great White Shark that was caught in Grays Harbor, which is the harbor connected to our hometown, Westport WA. It was caught in 1962 via it swimming into a gillnet and had been in a freezer in Seattle the whole time until my father mounted it in 1977. It was a very difficult mount due to the skin being so hard and some freezer burn. But ultimately it turned out great. I will add a bunch of original and mounted pictures shortly to this article.

I have seen sharks out on the ocean and my life was wrapped around in fishing, fish, sailing, the ocean, and all things sharks all my life and certainly this movie woke me up to the big sharks near me while I sailed and fished.

So, on Monday September 1st, 2025, I treated my family to this movie and dinner at 5 Guys in Coeur d'Alene Idaho. 2 of my boys and my daughter loved it, my wife not so much, but she said, she did have fun going to the movie with her family. My youngest son and wife did not go, saying they are not into movies like this, and I get it as I had invited other friends to go, but no takers. I assume they think the movie is gross, but for me it's simply a silly fun movie to watch, it's a classic for sure.

My sister and brothers and I to this day all watch Shark Week at the same time even though we all live some distance away from each other, but we talk about it with each other. We are all very much still into sharks and love the Jaws movie.

The 100th anniversary of Jaws will be June 20th, 2075, I will be long gone by then unless life extending technology happens soon or Christ returns for his millennium reign, I am counting on the latter.

Pics I took while watching the movie...