'Jaws' and the parental debates it set off

LOS ANGELES (AP) — It didn't take long for "Jaws" to make an impression. The movie that launched the summer blockbuster season and changed how people view sharks and the ocean 50 years ago also created a dilemma for parents: Was it a movie their children could watch? To help answer that, The Associated Press went to the film's star, Roy Scheider. Legendary AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch interviewed Scheider and others for a story that ran on July 28, 1975, roughly a month after "Jaws" arrived in theaters. The story is included below as it ran. ___ At a sunny hotel swimming pool, a small freckle faced boy rushes up to Roy Scheider and exclaims with delight: "I think you played really good in 'Jaws.'" "You see," says Scheider as the boy runs off to swim. "Some children seem able to handle it." Scheider, star of the smash hit film which is breaking box-office records, was reacting to a stormy issue now almost as hot as the movie itself — should children see "Jaws"? The debate stems from the rating given to the movie — PG, meaning parental guidance suggested. Several critics and members of the movie industry have called the rating too lenient. Some use it as an example of flaws in the frequently criticized rating system. In practice, PG places no restrictions on who may see a film. Any child with the price of a movie ticket can view "Jaws," which climaxes with a man vomiting blood as a giant shark chews him up. Los Angeles Times critic Charles Champlin noted that the PG "does not sufficiently warn parents that the giant shark includes children among its victims and that children are known to be particularly impressed by what happens to children on the screen." Movie makers whose films recently were give the more restrictive "R" rating — requiring an adult to accompany any child under 17 — have protested loudly. Some have even appealed to the rating board of the Motion Picture Association of America for a rating change. "With some of our innocuous action pictures we've been hit with Rs," says Paul Heller, producer of "Enter the Dragon." "But here we get a picture where there's all sorts of gore and blood, where arms and legs are seen floating in the water, where a girl is seen covered by crabs on the beach, and other horrifying scenes, and it gets a PG." Producers of the film "Rollerball" unsuccessfully appealed their R rating after "Jaws" was released, claiming their film's violence was far less objectionable. Universal Studios, which released "Jaws," has taken the unusual steps of warning in its advertisements that the film "may be too intense for younger children." Youngsters interviewed at a Los Angeles area beach after the movie's release expressed fears of swimming in the ocean. One 12-year-old girl confessed "I think about it so much. I dreamed about it. It really scared me." But Universal has no complaints about the PG rating, and, according to Rating Administration, no one may appeal a film's rating other than its producer and distributor. Scheider, who portrays the sheriff of the beach resort menaced by the killer shark, recalls that "Jaws" was made with the intention of obtaining a PG rating. "The picture was judiciously shot to avoid unnecessary amounts of gore," he says, recalling that some bloody scenes were added after final footage was reviewed by the filmmakers. "When the film was brought back to the post, the editor and director found that it was necessary to show, after an hour and a half, what the shark does. the audience demands it." The scene of the girl covered with crabs was added later, he notes and the finale in which Robert Shaw is chewed up was embellished. "I personally think that scene could have been modulated a bit," says Scheider. But Jack Valenti, president of the MPAA and father of the seven-year-old rating system, defends the "Jaws" rating. "In the view of the rating board, 'Jaws' involved nature's violence, rather than man's violence against man," Valenti has said. "This is the same kind of violence as in 'Hansel and Gretel.' Children might imitate other kinds of violence, but not the kind seen in 'Jaws.'" Valenti declared that, "If this were a man or woman committing violence as seen in 'Jaws,' it would definitely go in the R category. But it's a shark, and I don't think people will go around pretending they're a shark." The rating controversy hasn't hurt business. Universal reports that "Jaws" grossed an incredible $60 million in its first month and seems destined to grow richer than "The Godfather," the current record holder. Scheider says his own 12-year-old daughter has seen "Jaws" twice — but only after he and his wife explained "which things she was going to see were real and which ones were not real." "She was scared in many parts, but she knew it was a movie," he says, suggesting that parents who let children see the movie explain first that "This is going to scare you. It's going to be like a roller coaster ride." "Some kids understand his and some don't," he concedes. "... I would be very careful about children under 10. If they're susceptible to nightmares, get scared easily and are impressionable, I'd say no, don't see it. If the child can handle it, fine, see it." Scheider holds the cynical view that the rating system exists because "most parents don't give a damn what their kids see." But he is convinced that a child who sees "Jaws" without guidance won't be permanently traumatized by it. "It'll go away," he says. "You can live through it. Traumatic shocks in entertainment disappear. Traumatic shocks through the lack of love and ill treatment by parents and peers persist through all of life."