Jaws  Turns 50 (And So Do I… Almost) This weekend marks 50 years since Jaws hit theaters—and for my money, it still holds up better than most movies made yesterday. My parents saw it in the theater before I was born, poetically just one week before they took a big couples trip to the beach. According to family legend, my mother has never gone in deeper than her knees since. That same weekend, any time a stray piece of seaweed so much as grazed her leg, she ran screaming back to the sand. I grew up in the era of the Jaws sequels—and I watched them all—but for me, it’s always been about the original. The Holy Trinity: Quint, Brody, and Hooper You’ve got Quint, being as Quint as a man can be. Drinking beer, staring out to sea like he knows something you don’t, gruff as hell with his old-school Penn reel and his perfect little boat, the Orca. Then there’s Chief Brody, terrified of the water, chain-smoking, and not thrilled about taking orders from anyone. Every scene with him feels lik...