Written by Linda Deutsch
Los Angeles (AP) Jaws made a lasting effect very quickly.Fifty years ago, a film that transformed people’s perceptions of sharks and the ocean and kicked off the summer blockbuster season also left parents wondering if their kids could see it.
The star of the movie, Roy Scheider, was consulted by The Associated Press to help answer that.
Approximately one month after Jaws hit theaters, on July 28, 1975, legendary AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch conducted interviews with Scheider and others for a report.
The story as it ran is presented here.
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A little child with freckles comes up to Roy Scheider at a bright hotel pool and joyfully proclaims, “I think you played really good in Jaws.”
As the youngster dashes out to swim, Scheider remarks, “You see.” It appears that some kids can manage it.
Should kids watch Jaws? Scheider, star of the blockbuster hit movie that is shattering box office records, was responding to a stormy subject that is now nearly as hot as the picture itself.
The argument is based on the film’s PG rating, which indicates that parental supervision is advised.
The rating has been deemed excessively lenient by a number of critics and film industry professionals. It is cited by some as an illustration of the shortcomings of the often criticized rating system.
In reality, PG doesn’t restrict who can watch a movie. Jaws, which culminates with a man vomiting blood as a big shark eats him up, is accessible to any child for the price of a cinema ticket.
Charles Champlin, a critic for the Los Angeles Times, pointed out that the PG fails to adequately alert parents that children are among the victims of the gigantic shark and that kids are known to be especially intrigued by what happens to them on screen.
There has been a strong outcry from filmmakers whose films were recently given the more stringent R rating, which requires an adult to accompany any child under the age of 17.
There have even been requests for a rating modification made to the Motion Picture Association of America’s rating board.
Enter the Dragon producer Paul Heller claims that we have received Rs for some of our harmless action films.
However, this image, which receives a PG rating, shows a female covered in crabs on the beach, blood and gore of various kinds, arms and legs floating in the water, and other graphic sights.
After Jaws was released, the makers of Rollerball unsuccessfully appealed their R rating, arguing that the violence in their movie was much less offensive.
In an unusual move, Universal Studios, the company that released Jaws, has warned in its ads that the movie might be too graphic for younger audiences.
After the film’s debut, children interviewed at a beach in the Los Angeles area talked about their worries of swimming in the ocean.
According to a 12-year-old girl, I think about it a lot. I had a dream about it. I was frightened.
However, Universal has no issues with the PG rating, and the Rating Administration states that only the distributor and producer of a picture may contest its rating.
Jaws was intended to receive a PG rating, according to Scheider, who plays the sheriff of the beach resort that is threatened by the monster shark.
He recalls that several violent sequences were inserted after the filmmakers assessed the final video, indicating that the film was carefully shot to minimize excessive levels of gore.
After an hour and a half, the director and editor decided it was essential to show what the shark does when the movie was returned to the post. It is required by the audience.
He points out that the climactic scene, in which Robert Shaw is gnawed up, was enhanced and that the sight of the girl covered in crabs was inserted later.
According to Scheider, “I personally believe that scene could have been modulated a bit.”
However, the MPAA’s president and the creator of the seven-year-old rating system, Jack Valenti, supports the Jaws rating.
According to Valenti, the grading board believed that Jaws featured violence from nature rather than from humans against one another.
This type of brutality is similar to that found in Hansel and Gretel. Youngsters may mimic other forms of violence, but not the kind seen in Jaws.
According to Valenti, this would undoubtedly fall within the R category if it involved a male or woman using violence, as in Jaws. However, it’s a shark, and I doubt anyone will walk around acting like one.
Business has not been harmed by the rating dispute. According to Universal, Jaws made an astounding $60 million in its first month of release and is expected to surpass the existing record-holder, The Godfather, in terms of wealth.
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According to Scheider, his own 12-year-old daughter has seen Jaws twice, but only after he and his spouse clarified which of the images she would be seeing were real and which weren’t.
He suggests that parents who allow their children to see a film should warn them beforehand that it will be frightening. “She was scared in many parts, but she knew it was a movie,” he says. The experience will resemble a roller coaster.
He admits that some children comprehend his, while others do not.
With kids younger than ten, I would use extreme caution. I would say no, don’t view it if they are prone to nightmares, easily frightened, and impressionable. See it if the child is capable of handling it.
Scheider is skeptical and believes that the rating system is in place because most parents don’t care what their children see. However, he is certain that a toddler who watches Jaws unaccompanied won’t suffer from lifelong trauma.
He says it will go away. You can endure it. Traumatic shocks vanish in entertainment. The lack of affection and cruel behavior from parents and peers can cause traumatic shocks that last a lifetime.
