I love Jaws. I still haul the DVD out quite often just to get lost in the story of “3 men and a shark”. I remember that movie coming out in 1975 when I was like 10 years old. It was the first movie I remember kids arguing over who saw it more times. At 10 I was not quite in that age group. But I did go to Star Wars like 27 times when it came out a couple years later.

Obviously Jaws did not keep me out of the water like it did so many others. In fact I remember thinking I wanted to see a real shark. I was probably more effected by Robert Shaw who reminded me of every male role model I ever had as a kid. You just insert the word “deer” for “shark”. As in “This deer, swallow you whole. No shakin’, no tenderizin’, down you go.” You got to kill the lot of ‘em or they’ll take over the world!! I could easy see the beauty in the shark and enjoy the “monster” movie without deriving “all sharks bad” from the script.

I always felt a bit bad for Peter Benchley who wrote the original novel. In wanting to write a “what if” story, he ended up negatively effecting much of the world’s concepts of sharks. He spend years trying to correct that perception. He often said since, he’d have never witten that novel the same way had he known the reactions some people would have had. Sometimes it’s dangerous to let an idea go free in the world. By the time others are done with it, you just don’t know what it will turn into.

Yesterday Peter Benchley died at the age of 65. For my part I’ll remember him fondly as someone who contributed to my infatuation with the sea. I love sharks! Thanks Peter!

- d

* photographer unknown.