History Film / Jaws

* InCameraEffects: The [[VertigoEffect Tracking Zoom]] is made by having a camera on a dolly zoom in while the dolly moves away. The subject, Sheriff Brody's face, stays in the same place but the perspective of everything around it changes, generating a distorting zoom-in.

* ArtisticLicenseMarineBiology: Suffice to say this movie gets quite a bit about Great White sharks wrong. Author Peter Benchley would admit that at the time of writing the book, he knew absolutely nothing about sharks.

** Though Great Whites can be active all day, they're preferred hunting times are dawn and dusk

* ArtisticLicenseMarineBiology:
** Sharks do not usually attack you unless you provoke them or they can smell your blood in the water. But they will be more likely to attack you if you look like a seal or a turtle (this may be a case of Science Marches On, since sharks seem to act the same way towards their natural prey), which the little kids just happen to look like, but they (usually) won't eat you whole -- so that's a relief. Many of these (including the shark's love of attacking humans) were from the book, and Peter Benchley admitted that at the time of writing, he knew absolutely nothing about sharks. Although, it's easy enough to HandWave that this is just a particularly vicious and man-eating shark, which if nothing else is certainly ''bigger'' than the average Great White. It's rare for sharks to attack humans and rarer for them to actually ''target'' humans... but that doesn't mean it's impossible, or unheard of. [[note]] Like in 2010, when the Egyptian resort of Sharm El Sheik experienced killer shark attacks, they hunted who they thought was the killer shark, declared the beaches safe... only for the shark to ''attack again''.[[/note]]

** The shark can be heard growling, particularly when the barrels are tied to the stern. This is impossible, as sharks do not have vocal cords.

It also spawned plenty of merchandise, including trading cards, toys, and four {{licensed game}}s; ''VideoGame/{{Jaws}}'' for the UsefulNotes/{{NES}}, ''Jaws: The Computer Game'' for UsefulNotes/{{Commodore 64}}, ''VideoGame/JawsUnleashed'' for UsefulNotes/{{PS2}} and UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}}, and ''Jaws: Ultimate Predator'' for UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} and UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS. The Ride/UniversalStudios Theme Parks also had many ''Ride/{{Jaws}}''-inspired rides (though the one in Orlando was deactivated to expand the ''Film/HarryPotter'' area). A [[https://deadline.com/2022/03/jaws-musical-bruce-jarrod-spector-seattle-rep-theater-1234983246/ musical based around the making of the film]], titled ''Bruce'' is also in the works.

** Quint declared that "eleven hundred men went in the water, three hundred and sixteen men come out, and the sharks took the rest". In reality, most of the ''Indianapolis'' crew died due to dehydration, exposure, and wounds they already suffered at the time of the ship's sinking. The share of sharks in the overall death toll was exaggerated over decades, adding to their unfounded notoriety (and the movie -- and Quint's speech -- certainly did not help). Though Quint's wording is vague enough to leave some doubt as to whether the sharks killed all the men they ate. [[FridgeHorror Perhaps this is why Quint hates sharks so much, because they left nothing behind to bring back.]

** Quint declared that "eleven hundred men went in the water, three hundred and sixteen men come out, and the sharks took the rest". In reality, most of the ''Indianapolis'' crew died due to dehydration, exposure, and wounds they already suffered at the time of the ship's sinking. The share of sharks in the overall death toll was exaggerated over decades, adding to their unfounded notoriety (and the movie -- and Quint's speech -- certainly did not help). Though it is fair to say that the sharks weren't too picky about whether the sailor they ate was alive or not.

** He says that they delivered "Little Boy" atomic bomb (which was later used to nuke Hiroshima) to Tinian island. In reality, USS ''Indianapolis'' delivered nuclear components to both "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" bombs.

* HeelRealization: Mayor Vaughn has one when he realizes that he endangered his own kids by insisting that the beaches stay open.

** Way before suspecting about Hooper and Mrs. Brody having a fling, Brody dislikes and resents Hooper considering his expertise as a challenge undermining Brody's authority as sheriff. Both men make genuine efforts to put aside their differences and work together to bring down the shark but the antipathy towards each other is always present in the book. In the film however, Brody is grateful to have Hooper around as reinforcement and advise to his own efforts to solve the shark problem.

* OffscreenVillainy: Only the shark attacks on Chrissie, the pond boating tourist, Hooper and Quint are actually shown. But those on the dog, the Kintner kid and Ben Gardner never appear on screen.

** Way before suspecting about Hooper and Mrs. Brody having a fling, Brody dislikes and resents Hooper as his expertise represents a challenge undermining Brody's authority as sheriff. In the film however, Brody is grateful to have Hooper around as reinforcement and advise to his own efforts to solve the shark problem.

* OffscreenVillainy: Only the shark attacks on Chrissie, the boating tourist, Hooper and Quint are actually shown. But those on the dog, the Kintner kid and Ben Gardner never appear on screen.

** Even before supecting about Hooper and Mrs. Brody having a fling, Brody dislikes and resents Hooper as his expertise represents a challenge to Brody's authority as sheriff. In the film however, Brody is grateful to have Hooper around as reinforcement to his own efforts to solve the shark problem.

* GargleBlaster: Quint's home brew hooch, judging from Brody's reaction to tasting it. He also prevents Hooper from trying some a second later.

** Network TV airings edited Brody's "Come down here and chum some of this shit!" by having the sound of the shark surfacing down out the last word.

* "Smile, you son of a ''[rifle firing]''" ''[BLAM!]'' Only in the 5.1 and Atmos remixes though. The original mono mix has "bitch" intact and still audible over the sound of the rifleshot.
* Network TV airings edited Brody's "Come down here and chum some of this shit!" by having the sound of the shark surfacing down out the last word.

* AnimalsNotToScale: Quint estimates the shark to be twenty-five feet long and three tons, which would make it bigger than any of the largest reliably recorded great whites ever (which were around twenty feet and two tons) and equal to the largest unreliably reported great white sharks. He also refers to it as male, but [[AnimalGenderBender only

* CurseCutShort: "Smile, you son of a ''[rifle firing]''" ''[BLAM!]'' Only in the 5.1 and Atmos remixes though. The original mono mix has "bitch" intact and still audible over the sound of the rifleshot.