Bartell Community Theatre

Laugh out loud - this weekend at the Bartell
https://bartelltheatre.org/2026/amalgam-improv-second-anniversary-show/

Tonight we screen Jaws on the big screen. Why? Tomorrow’s the 4th of July.

Jaws 4K UHD - "Tomorrow's the 4th of July!" | High-Def Digest Hope everyone has a fun and safe 4th of July tomorrow. And don't fo...

10 bites about JAWS, showing Friday July 3 at 6:30pm ($10/$5 tickets):
1) Jaws played in Madison originally here (then the Esquire movie theater) in June 1975.
2) The famous jump scare showing the fate of Ben Garner was added in post. It was filmed in editor Verna Field's swimming pool in LA.
3) Verna won an Oscar for Film Editing for Jaws. Her nickname was "Mother Cutter"
4) Everyone pretty much knows the shark was nicknamed Bruce and was named after Spielberg's lawyer.
5) Screen writer Carl Gottlieb also played the town newspaper editor Harry Meadows. In re-writes, he realized that character was not essential, so he reduced his own role to a cameo. He later published his notes in a fascinating book on the making of the film.
6) Book author Peter Benchley has a cameo as a TV reporter.
7) Spielberg ripped off Hitchcock (his words) in the famous zoom in/out scene when Brody sees the shark. That effect from Rear Window is now sometimes called a Spielberg zoom.
8) In the book, Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) has an affair with Chief Brody's wife (Lorraine Gary). Wisely cut for the movie.
9) The Esquire Theater was one of 409 theaters in the US to open Jaws all at once in 1975. This was a huge number then (today's 3000-4000 is common for summer films). The film kicked off the concept of summer blockbuster.
10) The film still carries a PG rating. There was no PG-13 then. This film launched a series of Spielberg movies (and others) that ultimately created the PG-13 in 1984. Universal did add "May be too intense for younger viewers" to ads because of the graphic violence. No one ever mentioned the full frontal nudity.