Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” changed the game. It not only made moviegoers afraid to go swimming at the beach, but it also demonstrated that a practical shark could work on screen. 50-plus years later, the summertime flick gets the ultimate documentary treatment, courtesy of producers behind the “In Search of Darkness” series.
The creative team promises the documentary will be “a new way of looking at Spielberg’s classic that will deliver the deepest analysis ever made.” The project brings together several editors, directors and film historians to discuss “Jaws” in graphic detail and sees the crew using previous documentaries as the jump-off point.
“We’ve seen them, and we love them, but we want more,” they share, adding that their documentary “asks different questions: not what happened on set, but instead examining how and why this film has worked so well, for so long.”
“Jaws Explored” is now up for pre-order and ships in August 2027. Orders will also include an 80-page companion guide and the buyer’s name in the credits.
‘Jaws Explored’ Promises Analytical Approach
The official trailer opens with a clip of Robert Shaw’s character Quint singing a sea shanty from the original 1975 film. His voice carries over lapping ocean waves. Writer/director Ian Nathan stresses how “Jaws Explored” is the most “wide-ranging” and “penetrating” documentary of them all. “What we’re doing is looking at the film and asking the question of: Why is it still here? Why do we still care? What is it doing? What is its fabric? It’s anew language, a new way of talking about film.”
Nathan goes on to share how “Jaws Explored” will take an analytical approach to every creative decision made. From the studio to the actors, each choice directly ties into the legacy of the film. “Let it all spill out onto the floor of the decking,” he adds.
“Jaws Explored” serves as the first installment of a brand new “Explored” series that Nathan and his creative team plan on building.
The ‘Jaws’ Legacy
“Jaws” is based on a real incident from 1916 when sharks attacked inland in New Jersey. Author Peter Benchley turned the story into a 1974 novel, and Steve Spielberg later turned it into one of the biggest summer blockbusters of all time.
In their original 1975 review, The L.A. Times described the film as a “coarse-grained and exploitive work which depends on excess for its impact” before labeling it “awkwardly staged and lumpily written.” Film critic Charles Champlin goes on to tear Robert Shaw’s performance apart, calling him a “poor man’s Captain Ahab.”
But Champlin did get one thing right, though, as he writes, “Still, it would not be surprising if ‘Don’t go near the water’ turned out to be the motto along the ocean beaches this summer.”
Writer Tom Gliatto shared his story about how the film “ruined the beach for me forever” for People Magazine. “In the five decades since that Saturday, I’ve been afraid to venture into the ocean much farther than my knees,” he wrote. “The fear is more like a soft surge of dread, as if my synapses had been rewired to the thrusting strings of John Williams’ famous theme.”
Tom Gliatto’s experience with “Jaws” isn’t unique and suggests a larger cultural trend of the fear of sharks. George Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research in Gainesville, told the BBC that the population of large sharks along the eastern seaboard of North America fell by 50% in the years following the film’s release. Research biologist Dr. Julia Baum adds three startling statistics. From 1986 to 2000, hammerhead shark populations decreased by 89%, great white sharks by 79% and tiger sharks by 65%.
In the decades since, countless shark films have attempted to capture the magic of “Jaws,” particularly the look and design of the signature shark. To this day, no film has ever managed to strike the same level of terror in audiences all over the world.
