Jaws has been memorable since its release in 1975, but most of its success is due to
the magic of editing, which helped hide mechanical defects of production while
heightening suspense, and its iconic music, both of which cemented Jaws’ position as
a blockbuster. Though the concept of the titular creature becomes obvious shortly
after the film beings, the crazily large man eating shark remains mostly unseen
throughout the film. Unfortunately, the technology was not available to construct a
large realistic shark, so rather than come off looking absurdly unrealistic, the choice
was made to leave the image of the shark up to the editors, who were left with
horrible raw footage of a floating barge, and transformed it into something the
viewers were genuinely afraid of.…