I'm Gilbert Cruz, editor of the New York Times book review, and this is the book review podcast.

In June 1975, 50 years ago, one of my favorite movies ever hit theaters.

It's a movie I've seen upwards of 25, 30, 35 times I've lost count.

That it also happens to be great on almost every level that matters when it comes to a movie,

the performances, the directing, the screenwriting, the cinematography, the score, the editing,

the poster, for God's sake, all that's icing on the

kick.

Jaws, which is what we're here to talk about, began as a phenomenon, and has maintained that

reputation for half a century now.

By the time Stephen Spielberg's movie was released, it'd already been in the public

consciousness for some

time. And that's because it's source material, a best-selling novel by Peter Benchley, had been

published the year prior. To help me celebrate the 50th anniversaries of both the book and the movie,

I'm joined this week by Brian Raftery, a longtime culture journalist and author of the book,

Best Movie Year Ever, How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen.

Brian, welcome to the book review podcast.

Thanks, Phil. We're happy to be here.

So for the 50th anniversary of Peter Benchley's novel, last summer you wrote just a wonderful

piece for us here at the book review, looking back on that book and how it started this

entire thing, this, as I said, phenomenon. Had you read the book prior to starting your work on that

piece? I had, though it put me a long time because this was a book that I flirted with as a child

over and over again, even though I was absolutely terrified to read this book as a kid. And obviously,

...