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4 Fascinating Facts About the Movie Jaws
by Devin Caldwell
The story of a great white shark that terrorizes a New York coastal town, Jaws was the original summer blockbuster. Until Star Wars came along two years later, it was the highest-grossing movie of all time. It came to exemplify what a summer movie should be and launched Steven Spielberg's directing career. However, its success was by no means guaranteed. In fact, the production was so fraught with difficulty that the cast and crew, as well as the director, had legitimate fears that it would turn out to be a flop. Here are some fascinating behind-the-scenes stories from the making of Jaws that are almost as good as the movie itself.
1. The First Major Movie to Be Shot on the Ocean
In the past, a film like Jaws would have been shot on an artificially created body of water in a studio or on a smaller, more manageable body of water, such as an inland lake. However, director Steven Spielberg insisted on shooting on location on the ocean in the interest of authenticity. Though the decision made the production more challenging and contributed to many of the problems associated with it, it's part of what makes the movie seem so real and therefore so unnerving.
Incidentally, the movie was shot far north of Island Cay at Clearwater Beach on the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard, even though the movie takes place in a fictional town on the coast of New York.
2. The Shark Originally Had More Screen Time
The shark may have been the most temperamental performer on the set of the movie Jaws. Producers originally wanted to use a real shark, but it wasn't practical or safe to do so. A mechanical shark was built to use instead, but the effects crew had difficulty getting it to work right, especially underwater. Because so much of the shark footage was unusable, Spielberg instead recorded many underwater shots from the shark's point of view.
It was a decision that many credited for the movie being so effective. Economical use of shark footage helped to increase the suspense, building up the shark as a threat in the audience's imagination. In a movie, what is not seen is often a lot scarier than what is.
3. Spielberg Initially Thought the Score Was a Joke
Part of the reason that the economical use of the shark is so effective is that John Williams' deep, ominous score is so suspenseful. With the benefit of hindsight, Spielberg has readily admitted that Williams' score is a major contributor to the overall success of the film and its longevity. At the time, however, Spielberg didn't recognize the potential of the haunting pattern of two alternating musical notes; he thought the demo that Williams had produced was a joke.
4. Spielberg Had Second Thoughts About Making the Film
Today, Steven Spielberg is one of the most well-known and respected directors in Hollywood, and the ultimate success of Jaws had a lot to do with that. At the time, however, he was a young director who only had one other film credit to his name. Though initially eager to take on the project, he later feared that it would cause him to be typecast and prevent him from making the projects he wanted.
Later, as the production became fraught with difficulties and the budget spun out of control, Spielberg feared that he would gain a reputation as an unreliable director and that Jaws would end his career. He became so stressed out about it that he reportedly could only get to sleep with a fresh stalk of celery under his pillow because the smell was calming for him.
Fortunately, all his fears turned out to be unfounded. The success of Jaws established him as a household name and box-office draw. It would eventually give him the license he needed as an auteur to make whatever type of film he wanted.
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