Required Viewing 04: Jaws

You're gonna need a bigger boat. This week on Required Viewing, we wade into Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975) — the film that invented the summer blockbuster, emptied the beaches of an entire generation, and pulled it off precisely because the shark wouldn't work. We get into the happy accident at the center of it: a malfunctioning mechanical fish that forced a 27-year-old Spielberg to hide his monster, turning technical catastrophe into pure Hitchcockian dread — that, and two notes from John Williams. We dig into the real horror beneath the horror (a town that keeps the beaches open for the money), the perfect Brody–Quint–Hooper triangle, Robert Shaw's Indianapolis speech, and how one problem-plagued shoot rewired Hollywood's entire business model in a single summer. Man versus nature, man versus man, and the blockbuster's original sin — from every angle. Media scholar Dr. David D. Perlmutter and Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, go in the water. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kulturecast--2883470/support. ——— The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast from Weirding Way Media, hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other. Now home to sub-feeds including Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study with Dr. David D. Perlmutter. New episodes weekly. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kulturecast/id931361376 Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5wjxip9XVYapYuY12yEaGY. Back the show: https://www.patreon.com/cw/kulturecast