Jaws was an E-ticket

Rating: 10/10 (13 February 2002)

A lot of folks have written favorable reviews of this film and they're absolutely right.
I would like to comment, however, on what for me was the greatest experience I ever had at the movies.
"Jaws" played for over 6 months at the same theater during it's initial run in 1975. This was before the era of 3,000 screen saturation openings at large megaplexes. Word of mouth really built up about this film and I knew that I had to see it.
The Golf Mill Theater in Niles, IL was the place to go and I went on a Saturday night with a high school date. It was the wildest, loudest movie audience I had ever experienced. The men yelled, the women screamed and people were hiding behind the seats. A teenage girl sitting near me sobbed hysterically every time we heard John Williams' shark theme. Women were grabbing onto guys they didn't even know and I think I broke the armrest of my chair. You should have seen all those rocking seats fly back when that shark leaped out of the water.
When the film was over the audience stayed in their seats and applauded the credits. It was an incredible and exhausting two hours. This was a time of large, single screen movie houses that would seat over 1,000 people and I believe every one of those chairs was occupied that night. It was as rowdy as any sporting event and there was a real thrill in seeing that we all had the same reaction to this fine film.
We had no idea who this young director was and we didn't really care at the time. "Jaws" was the movie to see that summer and people were lining up around the block to get in.
Whenever I hear a critic or columnist describe some action movie as a "rollercoaster" I'm always a little dubious. I rode the best in the summer of '75. Thank you, Mr Speilberg.