Director Steven Spielberg virtually invented the summer blockbuster with this white-knuckle adaptation of Peter Benchley's novel about an insatiable great white shark that terrorizes the townspeople of fictional Amity Island. John Williams' legendary score punctuates the tension as the police chief (Roy Scheider), an oceanographer (Richard Dreyfuss) and a grizzled shark hunter (Robert Shaw) seek to destroy the beast.
Following the film, we’ll be joined via Skype by John McCosker, Senior Scientist and Chair of the Department of Aquatic Biology at the California Academy of Sciences, for a discussion of the actual behavior of sharks and their precarious plight. The first trained marine biologist to swim with great white sharks, Dr. McCosker’s pioneering research transformed our understanding of these top predators. He now he works to raise awareness of the dire threats to shark populations worldwide, especially from the practice of shark finning, and the ecological consequences of removing sharks from ocean ecosystems.
Winner of 3 Academy Awards and nominated for Best Picture.
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Rated PG | 124 min. | USA | 1975
Science Movie Night is presented by the Natural History Museum of Utah in partnership with the Utah Film Center.
We thank the Salt Lake City Public Library, our presenting sponsor.
This event is free and open to the public.