My Buddy Bruce

It is Friday, June 20, 2025. The anniversary to top all anniversaries. On this date in 1975, the most gripping, suspenseful, and ground-breaking film in the world....according to yours truly, this has no basis in fact.....was released in theaters. Like The Exorcist (another favorite) a few years earlier, audiences had their minds blown with story telling like it had never been seen before. Sadly, I wasn't even eight years old yet, so I did not get to experience this film in theaters until years later, but when it was first released in my city, it played at the old Bailey Theater in downtown Wilmington for....get this... $1.50.

Now, I'm not going to take the time to explain the plot for this blog. If you don't know the story by now, you either never wanted to know, or you just woke from a 50 year coma, in which case you have much bigger events to wrap your brain around.

My first memory of seeing the movie was in the pilot's lounge of Aeronautics, the private charter airport my father owned when I was growing up. I spent much of my childhood wreaking havoc within those walls (and without - like the time I hit an airplane with the golf cart....in front of the owner of said airplane), practiced my telephone answering skills, enjoyed cookouts with the grown-ups during the Azalea Festival that my dad would host so that we could watch the air show (during which he also gave helicopter rides), and spontaneous trips with my Dad to visit the Smithsonian for the day or see a Phillies game.

The pilot's lounge was obviously a place for the pilots to relax between flights, but it was also where my parents sent me to watch a movie when I was getting on everyone's nerves. As far as I was concerned, that lounge was mine. You grown men, weary from a long or uncomfortable flight want to come in and stretch out on the couch for a nap until it's time to take off again? F*ck you, we're watching JAWS. Then JAWS 2. I don't know why no one ever said anything, but I loved hunkering down in there where it was dark and cozy, watching a mostly unseen predator terrorize Martha's Vineyard.

I honestly cannot tell you why I have always been so fascinated with this film. I guess I just love to be scared! What we can't see is what is most frightening, and the reason this film turned out so terrifying can all be chalked up to mechanical difficulties. I'm sure Steven Spielberg would like to say he planned it that way, but with all of the documentaries out there about the making of the film, the truth is out. The shark, fondly referred to as "Bruce", had some serious difficulties adjusting to the cold saltwater of Martha's Vineyard, so until they could get the combination just right, they had to make it work with music. And boy did it work. Fifty years later my younger brother would not go into the ocean if you dangled Luke Skywalker's original light saber in front of him. It's likely what made The Blair Witch Project so popular, and started a long-standing fascination with found footage horror films. You NEVER. SEE. ANYTHING. It's both terrifying and exhilarating.

The 50th anniversary has brought out all kinds of collectibles, and your girl is taking full advantage! When your friends know you so well that they send you swag without even being asked, you may or may not have a problem. Coffee mugs, tote bags, classic lunch boxes, and even quirky, silky Jaws jammies! I am in heaven. The film will be in theaters for a few days in July, but the cherry on top of this bloody, flesh-filled celebration is going to be seeing JAWS in concert live. There aren't enough words to express my delight and anticipation. And if you've read any blogs in which I complain about not having money, not saving money, and not being good with money, ignore all that until August. This is totally worth it.

All of us have films and television shows that, no matter how many times we've seen them, if we turn the channel and see that it's on, we stop everything we're doing to watch it. JAWS is that for me. All I have to do is post "Oh, look....JAWS is on" on Facebook, and my friends know not to interrupt me for the next 2.5 hours.

I have more favorite characters than I can list, and can (and usually do) recite the movie line by line as it plays on my television. Obviously Chief Brody because, let's face it, Roy Scheider was smokin' hot. I can't imagine anyone else playing that role. If this movie was ever re-made, though, it's the role of Mrs. Kintner that I would walk across a floor covered in frenzied cockroaches for. Need a graying, post-menopausal woman who somehow has a ten year old? Call me, Steven.

So, as I sit here (with my dog Brody) watching JAWS for the third time this weekend, I hope all of you have a film that stirs such joy and nostalgia. I'd love to hear what they are and why. And by the way, Pippit does live.