The poster artwork was painted by Roger Kastel, who had never drawn a shark before . He went to a local library to find reference photos and inadvertently drew a Mako shark instead of a Great White.

Episode #6
Jaws
Jaws (1975) • Directed by Steven Spielberg
Published 24 July 2025
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About the Movie
Jaws
When the seaside community of Amity finds itself under attack by a dangerous great white shark, the town's chief of police, a young marine biologist, and a grizzled shark hunter embark on a desperate quest to kill the beast before it strikes again.
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Episode Notes
From the Episode
Welcome to the Four Takes Movie Podcast, where we plunge into Jaws for its 50th anniversary! Brace yourselves for an deep dive as we ponder if sharks are just squishy sacks of goodness made entirely of cartilage.
Get ready to meet Colin, our special guest shark expert, whose qualifications include watching every Shark Week episode and owning magnificent shark slippers.
Join us as we navigate the terrifying revelation that some sharks can live for a jaw-dropping 400 years and possess thousands of teeth (in their lifetime). But before the shark talk bites, we take a detour into 2001: Space Odyssey, where Martin was so bewildered by a Directorial choice made him think that his TV was broken.
Then it is back to Jaws, a film so timeless, you might just think it was shot yesterday (apart from the fashion, of course). The team dissect its surprising goriness and the sheer real-life terror it unleashed, making people scared of all water, not just where sharks lurk.
Discover the hilarious truth about how the iconic Jaws poster features the wrong type of shark because the artist had never actually laid eyes on one! We celebrate the legendary Mrs. Kintner slap, which apparently required 17 takes, and question Steven Spielberg's peculiar choice to include a 007 Louisiana license plate, seemingly as a cheeky dig at the James Bond franchise.
Learn how the perpetually broken mechanical shark ironically made the film infinitely better by forcing Spielberg to play on our imaginations.
We also celebrate how Jaws, perhaps unintentionally, became a driving force behind the shark conservation movement. It is a gripping, insightful, and utterly unhinged discussion that proves why some films, like Jaws, just stick with you.
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Did You Know?
Movie Trivia
In Peter Benchley’s original novel, Matt Hooper is killed by the shark in the cage attack scene. However, a stunt team in Australia captured extraordinary footage of a real Great White smashing an empty cage. Because there was no actor inside during the actual footage, Steven Spielberg rewrote the script so Hooper escapes to the sea floor, saving the character's life so they could use the real footage.
The terrifying scene where Ben Gardner's severed head rolls out of the boat hull was filmed in a swimming pool after principal photography had already wrapped
The scene where Mrs. Kintner slaps Sheriff Brody on the dock took 17 takes to film


