On it's release in June 1975, Steven Spielberg's monster suspense thriller Jaws changed the face of cinema, setting the template for the summer blockbuster and becoming the highest grossing film of all time, until the release of Star Wars two years later. Based on Peter Benchley's 1974 best-selling novel of the same name, Roy Scheider plays the police chief of a fictional New England resort town who teams up with marine biologist Richard Dreyfuss and professional shark hunter Robert Shaw to track down a giant great white shark after it begins attacking beachgoers on Amity Island. Lumbered with malfunctioning mechanical sharks, Spielberg was forced to adopt a Hitchockian suspense approach to filming, often merely suggesting the shark's presence with John William's masterfully ominous and Oscar-winning score. Jaws won two further Academy Awards for Best Film Editing and Best Sound and, capitalising on our fear of the unknown, terrified a generation of would-be swimmers out of the water.

Instrumental in the film's success was the iconic image of the great white, teeth bared, rising up from below to drag an unsuspecting skinny dipper to her watery fate. Inspired by the opening pages of Benchley's novel, artist Roger Kastel designed the artwork for the cover of the paperback release, using stuffed sharks at the American Museum of Natural History as reference material and employing model Allison Maher to stretch across two chairs to replicate a swimming motion. Universal liked Kastel's design so much that they purchased the rights to use Kastel's cover artwork for the film's poster campaign. With it's blood red lettering, the same design was used for numerous international releases including this Japanese B2, and can rightly claim to be one of the most instantly recognisable and influential movie posters in the history of cinema. 

Condition

Excellent (A-)

Backed on linen. Backing has smoothed two light horizontal folds and a few minor nicks and creases to edges. Image and colours excellent.