Jaws
The terrifying motion picture from the terrifying No. 1 best seller.
Jaws (1975)
Production
Budget
$7 000 000
Revenue
$470 653 000
Director
Scenario
Peter Benchley
Author
Composer
Producer
Richard D. Zanuck
Actors
Roy Scheider
Brody
Robert Shaw
Quint
Richard Dreyfuss
Hooper
Lorraine Gary
Ellen Brody
Murray Hamilton
Vaughn
Carl Gottlieb
Meadows
Jeffrey Kramer
Hendricks
Susan Backlinie
Chrissie
Short description
Jaws is set in Amity, a small seaside resort town on the Atlantic coast, where the discovery of a young woman's body on the shore raises the alarm. Police chief Martin Brody becomes convinced that a great white shark is responsible and wants the beaches closed, but the mayor and local business owners, anxious about the summer tourist season, resist and keep the town open. After further attacks make the danger impossible to ignore, Brody joins forces with Quint, an experienced shark hunter, and Matt Hooper, an oceanographer, to pursue the animal out on the water.
The film was directed by Steven Spielberg, the fifth of the forty features listed in his filmography in chronological order, following The Sugarland Express and preceding Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb wrote the screenplay, and Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown produced. Roy Scheider plays Brody, Robert Shaw plays Quint, Richard Dreyfuss plays Hooper, and Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton and Carl Gottlieb appear in supporting roles.
Made for about 7 million dollars, Jaws took roughly 471 million dollars worldwide, a total far beyond its production cost. On IMDb it holds 8.1 out of 10 from around 733,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.7 from nearly 12,000 votes. A critics' rating of 9.5 out of 10 from 178 reviews places it above both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- A curious situation unfolded at the Academy Awards ceremony in February 1976. John Williams was the orchestra's conductor at the time, and after receiving the award for Best Original Score, he was forced to rush onto the stage to collect the statuette and then return to fulfilling his duties.
- The team that created the mechanical shark model named it "Bruce" – after Steven Spielberg's lawyer.
- The story told by fisherman Quint in the film about the tragic fate of the crew of the warship “Indianapolis” (out of over a thousand people rescued after the ship’s sinking on July 30, 1945, only 316 survived: the rest were eaten by sharks) was written by Howard Sackler, John Milius, and Robert Shaw.
- The working title of the film was "Stillness in the Water".
- The mechanical shark, when it was brought to Martha's Vineyard and put in the water for the first time, simply sank, so the team of technicians had to urgently rework it.
- Residents of Martha's Vineyard were hired as extras for the mass panic scene on the beach, for $64 each, to scream and bump into each other.
- Later, the producers admitted that if they had known how many problems there would be during the film's production, they would never have taken on the project.
- Peter Benchley's bestseller and Steven Spielberg's film drew inspiration from the following sources: Herman Melville's novel "Moby Dick"; Ibsen's play "An Enemy of the People"; the documentary film "Blue Water, White Death" (1971) about the expeditions of scuba diver Peter Gimbel; the scientific book "Blue Meridian: The Search for the Great White Shark" by Peter Matthiessen; two classic American horror films from the 1950s: "Creature from the Black Lagoon" (1954) and "The Monster That Challenged the World" (1957); and the real-life events that occurred in New Jersey in the summer of 1916, when five people were killed by a shark in two weeks.
- Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss simply couldn't stand each other and frequently argued on set, so the scenes of conflict between Hooper and Quint have a partially real undertone.
- The film brought profit not only to its creators but also to Martha's Vineyard, as the number of tourists per season there was around 5,000 before 1975, and tripled after the film's release.
- The character Matt Hooper was originally intended to die in the cage during the shark attack.
- Work on the film continued from February 1974 to April 1975. Filming took place from May 2nd to September 15th, 1974, with some additional shooting from October to December, and the rest of the time was spent on editing and preparing for the premiere.
- The 2005 television version has a runtime of 130 minutes.
- The shark that was killed, supposedly a man-eater, was actually caught and brought from Florida, as such large specimens are not found near Martha's Vineyard.
- Following the film's overwhelming success at the box office, film critics quickly credited editor Verna Fields with all the praise. 28-year-old Steven Spielberg was not taken into consideration. That is why in subsequent works, Steven refused the services of Ms. Fields.
- For the 1970s, the film's budget was enormous, and the shark, packed with electronics, alone cost two million.
- From June 3-6, 2005, the "JAWSFest-2005" festival was held on Martha's Vineyard Island (Massachusetts), dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the classic horror film "Jaws".
- The film's producers decided to avoid casting superstars in the project to prevent distracting viewers from the plot and to fully focus on the sharks and their victims.
- Filming stretched to 155 days instead of the initially planned 52.
- Steven Spielberg initially wanted Lee Marvin, then Sterling Hayden, to play Quint. However, the latter had problems with the tax authorities. Furthermore, the producers considered his payment scheme risky, whereby he would receive a fee for filming (taxable) on the one hand, and the studio would buy his literary material for a new film from Hayden for a large sum (the actor was also a writer), which would be tax-free income. Due to all these complications, the deal with Hayden ultimately fell through, and Robert Shaw was cast as Quint instead. Ironically, Robert Shaw also had tax problems, so he had to flee the United States immediately after filming.
- Quint's house for the film was built in a remote location on Martha's Vineyard, but the island municipality insisted that the crew dismantle and destroy the structure after filming, as it resembled a garbage dump more than a dwelling.
- Two versions of the film's ending were shot – one where the shark's head explodes, and one where it dies from blood loss due to numerous harpoons. Steven Spielberg favored the first version, Peter Benchley the second, which led to considerable disagreement between them. However, the audience at the premiere effectively "legalized" the first version of the shark's death.
- The first "summer blockbuster" in history. Approximately 67 million tickets were sold during the summer of 1975.
- Steven Spielberg (in the beach scene where he played the clarinet in the orchestra) and Peter Benchley (the television reporter covering the shark story in Amity) appeared in cameo roles.
- In the scene where the shark attacks the cage with Hooper inside, underwater photographers Ron and Valerie Taylor used a real shark. But since the live shark was much smaller than the mechanical one, a reduced cage was built, inside which was a very short woman. And, by the way, in the initial version, the shark was not supposed to break the cage, but after the real fish began to break into the cage, and these rare shots were taken, the script was revised and these scenes were inserted into the film.
- The film's protagonist, Sheriff Martin Brody, as we know, cannot swim, which amusingly echoes the fact that Spielberg himself was terrified of water while filming 'Jaws'.
- Steven Spielberg did not appear on set during the filming of the final scene of the film, where the shark explodes – he was convinced that the crew had conspired and planned to throw him into the water after the call of "cut." Since then, Spielberg has made it a tradition not to attend the filming of the final scene of every film he directs.
- The name Quint means "fifth" in Latin, corresponding to the fifth human victim of the man-eating shark in the film. And the name of his vessel, "ORCA," corresponds to the popular name for the killer whale – the orca, the eternal enemy of sharks.
- Charlton Heston auditioned for the role of Martin Brody, and Jeff Bridges, Timothy Bottoms, and Jan-Michael Vincent auditioned for the role of Matt Hooper.
- Lee Marvin and John Voight initially turned down the role of Quint.
- The film is based on Peter Benchley's novel "Jaws" (1974).
- The scene in which Jeffrey Voorhees' character dies was so gruesome that it had to be cut from the final version. This allowed the film to receive a PG rating.
- According to the original script, Quint was supposed to drown. The harpoon rope was caught on his leg, and the shark dragged him into the depths of the sea, where Quint met his death. However, during filming, it was decided that Quint should be eaten by the shark.
- Actress Lee Fierro, who played the mother of the deceased boy Alex Kintner in the film, could not convincingly simulate slapping Martin Brody in one scene, so actor Roy Scheider received several quite palpable hits to the face from her during takes.
- Filming took place on Martha's Vineyard Island (Massachusetts) near the east coast of the United States (home to six small resort towns). Some scenes with a real shark were filmed in Seal Rocks (Victoria, Australia), and underwater shots were taken near Santa Catalina Island (California) on the west coast of the United States.
- After first listening to the soundtrack composed by John Williams, Steven Spielberg couldn't contain his laughter: “John, that’s very funny. I’m curious what you were thinking when you wrote the music?” Later, Steven admitted that it was thanks to Williams' music that the film became so successful.
- The first film in history to surpass the coveted $100 million mark. In total, it earned approximately $260 million at the US box office and $210 million worldwide.
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