The shoot ran too long and over budget, the script was still being written as scenes were filmed, the young director woke up every day fearing he would get fired, and the mechanical shark built for the movie sank to the bottom of the ocean. And yet, 40 years ago this summer, people lined up around the block and around the world to get scared silly by "Jaws," widely seen as the first summer blockbuster.
A horror story wrapped in an adventure, the movie tapped into our deepest fears about what dangers lurk beneath the ocean's surface. Some people told screenwriter Carl Gottlieb that the movie, about a giant shark terrorizing a summer resort town, even made them afraid to venture into swimming pools.
Yes, the fake shark looks a little cheesy now. But in , long before computers could create any spectacle onscreen, it was plenty terrifying. Read More. The movie overcame a troubled shoot to launch Steven Spielberg's career as a master craftsman of popular entertainments. With its wide release and aggressive ad campaign, it also pioneered the current Hollywood model for how big-budget movies are springboarded into the market.
And it sparked a cultural fascination with sharks -- especially great whites -- that endures today in everything from IMAX documentaries to the "Sharknado" movies to the Discovery Channel's annual Shark Week. The original "Jaws" returned to select theaters nationwide on June 21 and 24 , giving today's moviegoers a rare chance to see it on the big screen.
Which means that 40 years later, it's still not safe to go back in the water. Here's a roundup of 21 salient and strange facts about the movie. Spielberg, whose first film, "Duel," was about a highway motorist being menaced by a mysterious tanker truck, was afraid of being typecast if he took the "Jaws" job.
None of the three main actors -- Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss -- was the producers' first choice for the parts. How Jaws misrepresented the great white. Why the Jaws shark is not a 'man-eating monster'. Image source, Oliver Rosser. Image source, Getty Images. Roy Scheider, pictured during filming with the mechanical shark Bruce, played Chief Brody in the film.
Image source, Helen Maybanks. Ian Shaw says knowledge of the film isn't required to enjoy the play, but it helps with understanding the references. Image source, Sunset Boulevard. The shark was nicknamed Bruce by the Jaws crew, after Steven Spielberg's lawyer. Related Topics. Theatre Film. Published 13 February Published 9 June Bruce makes his first appearance at night, marking his first victim: Chrissie Watkins Susan Backlinie , a young female tourist.
Bruce returns again to the Amity Beach side killing Alex Kintner, a young boy, in the process. Kintner puts up an ad to kill the shark responsible, causing a shark hunting frenzy. When two men, Denherder and Charlie moor onto a nearby pier, they attach Charlie's wife's holiday roast on a hook, attach it onto the wooden dock and use it to catch the shark.
When Bruce takes the bait, it rips apart the whole pier, taking it and Charlie out to sea with it. Charlie slides off the broken pier and swims back to shore, avoiding the shark, chasing after him.
A couple of shark hunters claim to have caught Bruce but Matt Hooper Richard Dreyfuss , the ocean expert, has his doubts as the bite radius on the tiger shark caught were different than the ones on Ms. The two stumble upon Ben Gardners ruined boat and Hooper goes to the hull of the wreckage, finding a tooth from Bruce and Ben Gardner dead, dropping the tooth in the process.
Hooper and Brody insist on closing the beaches, but the mayor denies their pleads and leaves the beaches open for the tourists.
Bruce reappears in the estuary, Bruce first true appearance , killing a man in a raft Ted Grossman and flees back into open sea. After a while at sea with nothing to show, Bruce reveals himself whilst Brody chums the water. Bruce circles around the Orca as the group gets ready to make attempts to kill him.
Bruce is hit with a yellow flotation barrel in korder to tire him to the surface, however, he dives underwater for until the evening. Bruce returns again while the group is trading tales and drinking and rams the Orca, damaging it in the process. Quint and Hooper make attempts to repair the boat until later the next day when Bruce, finally, tires and resurfaces. Quint and Hooper grab the barrel attached to Bruce and in doing so Bruce resurfaces and Quints hand is cut by the rope in the process.
The group gives chase to Bruce, hitting him with two barrels. To get the sound of her drowning to add to the audio postproduction, Backlinie was placed in front of a microphone with her head turned up to the ceiling and water was poured down her throat from above.
A Martha's Vineyard local named Craig Kingsbury — a true salt — was the inspiration for much of Robert Shaw's style as Quint including his improvised ramblings. Not only did Kingsbury end up with a small role as another local fisherman in the film named Ben Gardner , but his disembodied head pops out of a sunken porthole in what's largely considered the movie's biggest scare. Join today and get instant access to discounts, programs, services, and the information you need to benefit every area of your life.
Looking for the ultimate scare, Spielberg had already done extra filming of the discovery of the head by Richard Dreyfuss's character in a special tank back on the mainland after location filming wrapped. But he wasn't happy with it, so his legendary editor Verna Fields offered up her backyard swimming pool as a place to reshoot the scene they poured a gallon of milk from Verna's refrigerator into the pool water to make it look more like the real ocean. If you've seen the movie, you know this take was one for the record books and for the record books, that's a latex recreation of Kingsbury's head.
As an antidote to the rigors of location work, the crew formed a softball team and on Sundays took on locals. We were afraid to go back in the water, and sometimes things got out of hand. One Southern California beach had to be cleared by lifeguards because of a shark-sighting panic. Turns out it was dolphins. On a more serious note, the idea of a vengeful rogue shark a fictional creation spurred a national fervor of fear, a drop in beach tourism, and a rise in shark killings.
It has taken decades of science and activism to help post- Jaws generations understand and respect the role sharks play in the oceans and the ecosystem overall. While a generation of beachgoers emerged from the blockbuster film forever creeped out about swimming in ocean deeps, the director himself had nightmares for months after shooting wrapped. His dreams, though, weren't of shark attacks, but of still being in charge of the shoot. He'd awaken thinking he was still on Martha's Vineyard, riddled with anxiety and panic.
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