Living inland won’t keep you safe from a shark attack – especially if you’re an ardent fan of National Geographic. Both linear TV and Disney+ are going to bring those treacherous jaws so close to you as to make you reconsider your annual time-share at the coast.

• The documentary Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story, takes us behind the scenes of the iconic blockbuster, and it’s available now on Disney+.
• It will also air on National Geographic’s linear channel (DStv 181) on Sunday, 13 July 2025 at 9pm, and Saturday, 26 July 2025 at 6pm, as part of their annual Sharkfest.
• Catch Tat Wolfen’s entertainment commentary on The Sandton Times Hour, every Monday at 7pm on 91.9FM.
• Visit www.sandtontimes.co.za for more stories.

Yes, folks; there are enough hungry jaws here to clear a Sun City buffet in milliseconds, and the info above will help you fill the coming weeks with many hours of sharp-toothed treachery. With the razor-sharp focus of a shark on a kill, however, I’m going to home in here, on the documentary Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story.

First up, we’re given the backstory behind the monster movie-hit, and how it all started with a husband-and-wife underwater cinematography duo, and how their work inspired the creation of the film Blue Water White Death; a film which was one of the triggers that made Peter Benchley write the runaway bestseller Jaws – which, in turn, formed the basis of Steven Spielberg’s movie.

The documentary includes interview segments, sometimes archival, of the movie’s stars, supporting cast, and even bit players, along with various shark and marine biology experts from the pool of National Geographic’s scientists. Perhaps the most notable of these would be Philippe Cousteau, the son of the now-legendary Jacques Cousteau, the French explorer, filmmaker, innovator, and conservationist, whose name is now inextricably tied to the oceans.

Naturally, much is made of the film’s primary star – not Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw or Richard Dreyfuss (although they were all great), but Bruce the mechanical shark. The life-size gobbler was Spielberg’s number one headache, as it had been tested in fresh water but reacted badly to the salt water of the location shoot, and let the side down continuously. That said, he’s regarded with great fondness by movie buffs, to this day. Another non-human star of the film that the doccie addresses is the backdrop of Martha’s Vineyard, the upscale island community that stood in for the fictional town of Amity.

Recent interview footage of Spielberg himself gives us behind-the-scenes info from the horse’s mouth or, more appropriately, the shark’s, and various other Hollywood personalities are also thrown into the mix. Emily Blunt has her say; not because she was in any way involved with the movie, but because she’s clearly a huge fan-girl who’s seen the movie a number of times. George Lucas, Steven Soderbergh, Guillermo del Toro, James Cameron and Robert Zemeckis also offer useful insights about both the movie itself, and the impression it made upon them as filmmakers.

According to Jordan Peele’s perceptual filter, however, the movie’s an indictment of capitalism. Really? With all those story elements going down, that’s what you had to focus on? He really needs to stop and reflect upon whether he’d enjoy making movies under the controlling eyes of a communist regime. But let me not digress…

This film is as much a tribute to Steven Spielberg’s artistic prowess, as it’s a monument to his dogged determination. The logistical challenges presented to the then-young filmmaker were enough to drive most people to the point of throwing up their hands and resigning. And, indeed, the studio had been pressuring him to call it a day, and cut his losses (and theirs). But Spielberg wouldn’t hear of it. He pressed on like a man possessed, and although his perseverance clearly paid dividends, it wasn’t without some cost to his mental well-being. More than once, he refers to the PTSD that shadowed his life for many years after the film had wrapped.

We also get to meet John Williams, whose menacing two-noted approach of the shark has become a part of popular culture. Whether you’re referring to a nasty teacher coming down the corridor or an impending productivity review at work, who hasn’t made that dark and scary “Ta…dum, ta…dum” sound? Although Williams and Spielberg had already been in the movie game previously to this shoreline shocker, Jaws propelled them both into an entirely new pay bracket. Apart from that, Spielberg takes great delight in saying that the film put him in that select group of “final cut directors”; meaning that, going forward, studios would be contractually obligated not to interfere with his final vision of a movie. In the case of A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), I wish they had – but that’s another story, altogether…

The ongoing on-location conflict between two of Jaws’s stars, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss, has passed on into movie-making folklore, and, if anything, the doccie underplays how it added to Spielberg’s production headaches. Their personal warfare isn’t entirely ignored, however, and Spielberg concedes, with hindsight, that it fuelled the rivalry that their characters have on-screen: art imitating life. I suppose it should’ve been expected. Consider Shaw, the rough-and-ready, no-nonsense British thesp versus Dreyfuss, the talky, intellectual Jewish kid from Brooklyn. You couldn’t ask for two more diametrically opposed head-spaces.

The quote from this doccie that, for me, encapsulates this whole beautifully insane adventure into film-making, comes for Guillermo del Toro, who opines that, “Filmmaking is a hostage negotiation with reality.”

Tat Wolfen is a multimedia communicator, entertainment commentator and leisure journalist. Tune in for Tat’s razor-sharp takes on the latest on stage and screen, every week on The Sandton Times Hour – Mondays at 7pm on 91.9FM or on a fine selection of the world’s leading podcast platforms. [Disclaimer: Views expressed by reviewers/contributors are their own, and do not necessarily reflect those of The Sandton Times and its ownership or management.]

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