A screenplay is your blueprint. Your map. The seed that grows the tree, or, if you will, the Holiday roast that tempts an aquatic predator. Jaws is many things, but it harks back to a time when the Summer Blockbuster was in its infancy, and story was still the draw, rather than spectacle.

Often overlooked is Carl Gottlieb’s script—one of the most efficient and economical screenplays put to screen. It all starts with Peter Benchley’s novel. I first read Jaws all the way through around fifth grade. I was shocked at how different the book was from the film that I saw only a year or so before.