Happy 40th Anniversary to the grandaddy of all summer movies, Jaws!
Forty
years! Can you believe it? I vividly remember seeing Jaws in the
theater as a lad. First run, even! It was THE movie to see that year— nothing else even came close. I remember the audience shrieking out
loud every time the shark appeared. And they actually cheered when it
blew up at the end (sorry, SPOILER ALERT!)! When's the last time you heard that happen in a theater?
Jaws
was the only topic of discussion that entire summer. Johnny Carson talked about
it practically every night, it was in the newspaper, dozens of political cartoons referenced it, and even TV shows of the day got in the act. It was definitely a pop culture phenomenon.
The film also traumatized an entire generation, making them literally afraid to so much as dip a toe into the ocean.
People actually went to see the movie dozens of times, like it was some kind of roller coaster or thrill ride. Even I
saw it twice (once in a theater, and once in a drive-in), which was
unusual for me.
If you enjoyed seeing Star Wars, Jurassic Park or The Avengers (and countless others) in the theater during the summer months, then you owe a debt of gratitude to Jaws, which ushered in the age of the Summer Blockbuster Movie. Before it premiered, summer was just another season for movie studios. It's hard to
believe, but back then studio executives thought that in the summer,
people were too busy swimming, tanning and vacationing to go see a movie. Once Jaws hit and hit big, they
realized there was an audience out there who actually wanted to see
movies during the summer. And not just any movies, but big, expensive,
action packed ones.
Jaws
opened on June 20, 1975 in 464 theaters in the US and Canada, which was
the biggest simultaneous opening at that time. Before Jaws, movies
generally premiered in theaters in major cities, then once they
completed their runs there, the prints (which were by then beat up and
full of splices) would slowly make their way across the rest of the
country.
Due
to the film's unprecedented success, the number of theaters was
increased to 700 on July 25 and later 950 on August 15.
It
made $7 million in its opening weekend, which doesn't sound like a lot
now, but was huge at the time. It was the first movie to ever gross $100
million, earning $121 million in its initial release. It was the
highest grossing film of all time until it was defeated by Star Wars in
1977.
There
was an unprecedented avalanche of Jaws merchandise released as well.
T-shirts, books, records, board games, coloring books, trading cards, bedspreads,
posters— you name it. If it would hold still long enough to slap a
shark on it, someone made it.
Jaws was of course based on Peter Benchley's massively popular novel. In fact Universal Pictures bought the movie rights to the novel before it was even published!
The screenplay was written by Benchley and Carl Gottlieb, and directed by Steven Spielberg. It was Spileberg's second time at directing a big screen film, his previous being The Sugarland Express.
Jaws was a very troubled production, running over budget and over schedule.
Shooting on the open ocean caused a few of the delays, but the vast majority of
them were caused by the malfunctioning mechanical shark created for the
film.
It's
an oddly structured film, almost like two movies in one. The first half
takes place on land and features a large cast, but once the trio sets
out in search of the shark, it becomes a completely different movie— a
tense "man vs. nature" film with just three characters.
Of
course the success of Jaws spawned a cottage industry of copycat films
featuring various animals— sometimes aquatic, sometimes not— attacking
humanity.
A few Jaws facts:
• Bantam Publishing artist Roger Kastel painted both the book cover and the movie poster.
• Steven Spielberg said when he read the novel he rooted for the shark, as the human characters were all so unlikable.
I
read the book before I saw the movie, and he's right. Everyone in the book is a miserable asshole. For
example: in the novel, Matt Hooper has an affair with Chief Brody's
wife, which seemingly comes out of nowhere. It has absolutely nothing to
do with the plot, and I'm convinced it exists solely to up the page
count and inject some sex into an otherwise sexless tale.
Hooper also dies at the end of the novel, I suppose as some sort of comeuppance.
Fortunately
Spielberg threw out this superfluous subplot, made everyone more
likable and allowed Hooper to survive. Screenwriter Carl Gottlieb was
hired to inject some much-needed humor into the script, to great effect.
•
Author Peter Benchley wanted to cast Robert Redford, Paul Newman and
Steve McQueen in the film, presumably as Brody, Hooper and Quint. Yawn.
Pretty much every writer & director in the 1970s wanted those three
guys in their movie.
Robert
Duvall was considered for the part of Chief Brody. Lee Marvin and
Sterling Hayden were suggested for Quint. Timothy Bottoms, Joel Grey and
Jeff Bridges were considered for Hooper. Once Richard Dreyfuss was
cast, the role of Hooper was rewritten to better suit him.
Charlton
Heston desperately wanted the Chief Brody part, but lost out to Roy
Scheider. Heston was reported so angry over losing the part that he
vowed to never work with Spielberg. He even turned down the part of
General Stilwell in Spielberg's 1941. If you've ever seen that
particular film, you'll know that Heston did himself a favor.
Peter Benchley appears in the film as a TV reported in the beach attack scene.
• Author Peter Benchley later regretted writing the book, which he said paints
sharks as evil creatures that target humans. He became an ocean
conservationist, and spent much of the rest of his career trying to
convince people that real sharks don't act like the one in his book.
•
In the scene in which Chrissie's remains are found, that's a real hand
sticking out of the sand. Spielberg thought the prosthetic appendage
originally used in the scene was too fake looking, so he had a crew member buried in the sand with just her hand sticking out.
During the entire summer of '75, anytime I was in any body of water, be it a lake or a pool, I'd pretend I was being attacked by a shark. I'd paddle around serenely for a while, then suddenly start thrashing about and pulling my head under water as if I was being dragged down by a shark. Yes, I was quite hilarious, and I'm sure a joy to be around.
• During the shark attack on the beach, Spielberg uses the famous "Hitchcock Zoom" effect to highlight Chief Brody's spine-tingling terror. The camera zooms in on Brody's face, while the background seemingly recedes from him.
It's an interesting, but simple effect. It's created by zooming in on a subject, while the camera is simultaneously being moved away. You can recreate yourself it if you have a camera with a zoom feature.
•
Robert Shaw absolutely hated Richard Dreyfuss, and the two argued
off-screen constantly. This may have actually helped the film, as it
created a palpable tension between the two characters.
•
After Alex Kintner's death by shark, his mother slaps Chief Brody in
the face. Lee Fierro, who played Mrs. Kintner, couldn't convincingly
fake a slap, so she actually hit Scheider in the face. Unfortunately for
Scheider, the scene required multiple takes, and he says it was one of
the most painful of his career.
•
One of the biggest scares in the film is when Ben Gardner's severed
head tumbles out of the boat, terrifying Hooper (and the audience as
well). The head's appearance was one of the last scenes filmed. Spielberg
decided he needed one more big scare in the movie, so he shot the head
in film editor Verna Fields' swimming pool, paying for the shoot out of
his own pocket.
This was the other big scare in the film, in which the shark pops up to say "hi" when Brody's not looking. That scened caused much screaming and soiling of garments in the theater the day I saw the film.
•
According to Spielberg, the shooting star that appears during the scene
where Brody loads his revolver was real, not an optical effect.
There's
a second shooting star that appears over a long shot of the Orca
though, that is most definitely fake. It looks like it's either been
animated or filmed in slow motion.
•
The mechanical shark, nicknamed "Bruce," was a complete and utter
disaster. The harsh saltwater messed with its electronics, causing it to
constantly malfunction. In fact, the first time it was lowered into the
water it promptly sunk to the ocean floor!
Spielberg
then had to figure out how to film a shark movie without a shark. He
solved the problem by asking himself, "What would Alfred Hitchcock do?"
Hitchcock believed that what the audience doesn't see is infinitely
scarier than what they do see. Spielberg decided to shoot many of the
shark scenes from the shark's point of view, which ratcheted up the
tension. The shark was also suggested by the yellow barrels that were
attached to it.
Thank
the film gods for the malfunctioning shark! By "hiding" the shark, the
audience never quite knows where it is, which makes it that much more
frightening. Just think, if the film was made today, the shark would no
doubt be lovingly rendered in CGI and would be splashing away in every scene.
• Chief Brody's famous line, "You're gonna need a bigger boat," was ad libbed.
•
During their little pissing contest, Quint displays his manliness by
crushing a beer can in his bare hand. Hooper counters by crushing a
paper cup.
It's a funny scene, but I wonder if much of the
humor is lost on modern audiences, as beer and soda cans are extremely
flimsy these days. Back in the 1970s cans were much, much thicker, and really were a lot harder to crush.
•
Near the end of the film, the shark attacks Hooper, who's inside a
submerged cage. For these scenes, shark experts Ron and Valerie Taylor
shot underwater footage of real sharks. To make the sharks look bigger,
they filmed them swimming around a scaled-down cage with a little person
inside.
•
The first time Spielberg heard John Williams play the Jaws theme, he
thought it was a joke. He was eventually convinced to use it, and of
course it's gone on to become one of the most famous themes in movie
history.
Spielberg later said that without the score, the film would have been only half as successful. He's right.
Other notable movies celebrating their 30th Anniversary this year: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Monty Python And The Holy Grail, Dog Day Afternoon, A Boy And His Dog, Tommy, Death Race 2000, Rollerball, The Stepford Wives, The Land That Time Forgot, The Devil's Rain, Dolemite and The Hindenburg.
