EDGARTOWN, Mass. – Cue the ominous bass line and close the beaches: Jaws is back on Martha’s Vineyard.
This weekend, 30 years after “Jaws” premiered on the big screen, hundreds of movie buffs have flocked to this island off the southeastern coast of Massachusetts to celebrate the great white shark that terrified millions of movie-goers.
The Vineyard’s “JawsFest ’05” also brought back some of’ cast and crew, including screenwriter Carl Gottlieb and Peter Benchley, who wrote the novel that inspired Steven Spielberg’s enduring classic.
And, of course, the weekend wouldn’t be complete without an appearance from the real star.
The festival’s organizers hired a special-effects artist to build a head-to-gills replica of “Bruce,” the mechanical shark from the movie. Mounted on a truck, it was expected to pop up all over the island – which was disguised as Amity Island in the film.
The fanfare seemed to surprise some of the movie’s creators, who mingled with fans on the streets of Edgartown.
“It’s a bizarre experience to have it even remembered 30 years later,” said Benchley, whose novel was a best seller before he helped Spielberg adapt it for the screen. “When I wrote this book, I didn’t think it could possibly succeed.”
“Jaws” is widely hailed as the movie that single-handedly launched the era of the Hollywood blockbuster. It was the first film to earn $100 million at the box office.
“I can’t believe how many people remember this movie,” said Mary Spence, who works at the Edgartown bank immortalized on film as “Amity National Bank.”
Jaws padded the bank accounts of many islanders and gave others much more than 15 minutes of fame.
Jeffrey Voorhees was 12 years old and living in Edgartown when he was cast as Alex Kintner, the boy who paid dearly for leaving the beach and swimming out into the ocean. For getting devoured by Jaws, he earns up to $1,000 a year in royalties and still gets fan letters and autograph requests in the mail.
“It pays to die,” said Voorhees, who still lives on the island.
Not all of the island’s inhabitants were thrilled when Spielberg and company showed up in 1974, renting 50 hotel rooms for five months, closing streets and snarling traffic. The grueling shoot prompted crew members to refer to the production as “Flaws.”
“There were a lot of people who didn’t want us there,” said Gottlieb, who also played a newspaper publisher in the movie. “They didn’t want to see a big, sloppy film crew tying up traffic.”
But the island has come to embrace its role in “Jaws.” The local chamber of commerce sponsored the festival, and shopkeepers hung “Amity” signs and slashed prices to 1975 levels.
Spielberg and the movie’s best-known stars, including Richard Dreyfus and Roy Scheider, were noticeably absent from Jawsfest. The director, however, recorded a greeting that was to be played before a Friday night screening of the movie.
“I think it’s amazing, the shelf life that this film has had,” Spielberg said, according to a transcript. “And that’s only because fans like yourself have kept this film alive.”
A 30th anniversary DVD of the film due out June 14 includes never-before-seen footage shot on the Vineyard.
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