'We're gonna need a bigger cinema': 50 years on from the release of Jaws 

Steven Spielberg was just 27 when he broke through with Jaws in 1975. Esther McCarthy looks back on that shark-centred classic 

Robert Shaw, Roy Schieder, and Richard Dreyfuss in Jaws. 

It was the troubled movie production that ran months over schedule and by more than twice its budget. It didn’t help that problems with its mechanical sharks led to the shooting of Jaws being dubbed “Flaws” by some crew members.

But a young filmmaker named Steven Spielberg, aged 27 and with just one other movie credit to his name, took the shortcomings that plagued his shark thriller and turned them into a movie-making miracle. From its iconic ‘dum dum’ score by John Williams, to its distinct and colourful characters, to its sense of tension and toying with its audience, Jaws became the most successful movie of all time when it was released in 1975. It set Spielberg on course to become one of the most celebrated filmmakers ever as Jaws became a punctuation point in the history of cinema.