Movie Flashback: Jaws

Jaws is a classic Hollywood Horror/Thriller released in the summer of 1975.

The film launched young director Steven Spielberg to stardom and made millions of people afraid to step foot in the ocean, myself included.

I saw this film in theaters when I was 10 years old. I had nightmares for weeks.

Widely considered one of the greatest films of All-Time, the movie was shot on a budget of just over $8 Million dollars and went on to gross over $400 Million in theaters.

The film was based on the best-selling novel JAWS by Peter Benchley.

Benchley has a small cameo as a TV Reporter in the film.

The film starred:

Roy Scheider – Chief Martin Brody
Robert Shaw – Quint
Richard Dreyfuss – Matt Hooper
Lorraine Gary – Ellen Brody
Murray Hamilton – The Mayor

Jaws was the first “Summer Blockbuster” film of it’s kind.

The movie, which takes place on fictional Amity Island, NY…was filmed on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Prior to Jaws, Spielberg had only directed the little-seen Goldie Hawn film “The Sugarland Express“, and a made for TV movie, “Duel“.

The role of Chief Brody was initially offered to Robert Duvall, but he was only interested in playing the “Quint” character.

Charlton Heston expressed interest in playing Chief Brody, but Spielberg thought he would have overshadowed the other actors, and the shark.

The role of Quint was given to Robert Shaw, but only after Lee Marvin and Sterling Hayden had both passed on the role.

Others considered for the role of Matt Hooper included Jon Voigt and Jeff Bridges.

The mechanical sharks used in the production, were highly unreliable and were constantly breaking down. This led to the film going from a planned 55 day production schedule, to taking 159 days to film. As such, the film went grossly over-budget and was on the verge of being shut down by the studio on numerous occasions.

The tension between the Hooper and Quint characters was quite real in that those working on the film have stated that Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss hated each other in real life.

Chief Brody’s famous line “You’re gonna need a bigger boat….” was improvised by Roy Scheider.

Richard Dreyfuss was so sure the film would be a flop that he repeatedly apologized for his performance in the film prior to it’s release.

He would go on to star in Spielberg’s next film, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind“.

The film was the highest-grossing movie in Hollywood History….for two short years, until it was passed by Star Wars.

The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, but lost to “One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest“.

The film did win three Academy Awards in the areas of Editing, Score, and Sound.

The film spawned three sequels, none of which came close to matching the original.