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It’s a people movie, says Laurent Bouzereau, the director of “Jaws @ 50,� a documentary about the blockbuster.

“It’s relatable and feels extremely timeless,� Bouzereau says. When director Steven Spielberg doesn’t show the shark in the beginning, “that stimulates your imagination and you’re fully participating in the action. There are a lot of benchmarks and lessons to get from it, if you want to be a storyteller.�

Spielberg, he says, is a master at the form and, as “Jaws� demonstrated, leaned into other ways of telling that story when things like the mechanical shark didn’t work.

Offered the opportunity to quit the film, Spielberg resisted. “I know there’s a great movie there,� he told a studio head. “It’s a rite of passage.�

“Jaws� was also a rite of passage for the director, Bouzereau says. “It’s a great metaphor for art in general. If you survive the making of ‘Jaws,’ you’re in.�

In “Jaws @ 50,� the documentarian talks to many of the film’s participants and demonstrates how it affected pop culture, circa 1975.

As big as it is today — “Jaws� is considered the first blockbuster by many — “Jaws� was a nightmare during the filming process.

In addition to studio personnel nagging him about cost overruns, Spielberg had to deal with temperamental actors, weather changes and a community of extras wondering what was happening with the movie shot in their town.

Toss in the anticipation of those who had read Peter Benchley’s best-seller and there were a lot of detractors who could have taken Spielberg down. He persevered and went on to make some of the most iconic films in screen history.

“Close Encounters of the Third Kind,� his follow-up film, was a dream project. “On the heels of ‘Jaws,’ he was really into that,� Bouzereau says. “The (‘Jaws’) sequels were not really in his orbit because the path of his storytelling was guiding him to a certain house.�

In the documentary, Spielberg admits the success of “Jaws� gave him final cut on all the rest of his movies — a privilege few directors get.

Talking with a generation of filmmakers inspired by Spielberg, Bouzereau says they owe him a debt of gratitude, often for different reasons. “I wanted this new generation of filmmakers (in the documentary) because ‘Jaws’ is passed on from generation to generation.�

Guillermo del Toro, for example, is obsessed with monsters — and liked that aspect of “Jaws.� Steven Soderbergh “is obsessed with making movies really fast and economically.�

Others were drawn to the film’s ability to draw a huge crowd.

“The thing that’s unique about ‘Jaws’ is the sudden cultural phenomenon that it became,� Bouzereau say. “Everybody was humming the score. (There were skits) on ‘Saturday Night Live.’ There were political cartoons and a book on the making of ‘Jaws,’ which was not something that was done at the time. There were baseball caps and T-shirts and beach towels. People wanted to own it as an experience.�

“Jaws� created a template that “Star Wars� was able to maximize just two years later.

Now, a summer doesn’t seem complete without a film that becomes part of the cultural zeitgeist.

“Jaws,� Bouzereau says, is a story of survival, perseverance and conviction. Like the three men trying to slay the monster, Spielberg had his own monsters. “It’s one of those rare instances where the experience of making it is very much the experience of the actual story.�

“Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story,� which features interviews with Spielberg, actors, production personnel and critics, airs July 10 on National Geographic and streams on Disney+ and Hulu.