The Case with Jaws (1975)
Hey Cassettes and welcome back to The Black Case Diaries podcast! We’re three old sharks learning everything we can about movies and TV and hopefully teaching you in the process *introduce yourself*
In March of 1975, an audience in Dallas, Texas sat in tense silence during the first screening of a new film from Universal. The director, a young man in his late-20s, stood nervously by the exit, ready to duck into the lobby should the event go sideways. For the last year, his life had been completely dedicated to the 2 hour and 10 minute monstrosity before them, a motion picture that started production without a complete script, and that ended up taking three times longer to film than scheduled. Each day he faced the prospect of losing his job and saying goodbye to his lifelong filmmaking dreams. All of that culminated there, in that theater in Dallas, in front of the first audience that would ever lay eyes on the finished product. And if the film was a financial failure, it surely meant the end of this young man’s career.
The director was Steven Spielberg, and the film was Jaws, the 1970s aquatic thriller that many credit as the first blockbuster. Partway through the screening, the audience started to have audible reactions to the film. Soon, they erupted in screams, and even began cheering after major sequences. Spielberg even noticed a man in the audience get up from his seat and run toward the bathroom, only for him to vomit on the lobby floor. By the film’s end, the audience stood and erupted in applause, a response that no one, especially not the film’s embattled crew and producers, could have ever expected.
Universal gave Jaws an unprecedented simultaneous wide-release in theaters all across the country. It became the highest grossing movie of its time, turning Steven Spielberg into a household name. It was a film unlike anything anyone had ever seen–a HItchcock-esque thriller masquerading as a monster movie. It launched a film franchise and inspired an entire generation of young filmmakers. Nearly 50 years after its release, Jaws is still widely considered to be an essential film that changed the course of movie history.
So today, we’re headed back to Amity Island and diving deep into the history of Jaws!
Like many popular movies, Jaws was based on a book.
Peter Benchley had not previously published any books before he wrote his famous breakout novel about a shark terrorizing a Long Island resort. He claimed that the idea came to him one day when he was looking out over the beach, and wondered what would happen if a monstrous great white shark lurked in the water. Having grown up in Nantucket, Benchley was familiar with the predatory animal.
Tom Congdon, an editor for Doubleday, asked the author if he had any book ideas, so Benchley shared his shark concept with him. He wrote up a four page outline before eventually spending 18 months writing and revising the final novel. Bantam Books purchased the rights for $575,000, and the book was published in 1974.
Benchley and his editor Thomas Congdon could not agree on a name, and the manuscript remained without a title until just before publication. Other names that were discussed were The Stillness in the Water and Leviathan Rising. Finally Benchley said to call it Jaws because it is short, fits the jacket, and it is “the only thing that means anything.”
Producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown purchased the film rights to the book before it was published, based on early samples they had seen of Benchley’s work. One of the stipulations in the purchase was that Benchley would be offered the chance to write the screenplay. Much to the author’s surprise, the book became a bestseller while the Jaws movie was being produced. Of course, this added pressure to Spielberg to make a film that lived up to the expectations set by the book.
The iconic original art made famous as the movie’s poster was on the original paperback book! It was created by Roger Kastel, a prolific illustrator who was also responsible for the iconic poster art for The Empire Strikes Back.
The ending of the book version of Jaws differs from the film, mostly due to production complications that forced script rewrites. The biggest change, however, is the manner in which the shark dies. In the film, the shark famously explodes due to a compressed air canister. In the book, the shark succumbs to harpoon injuries.
Before we get started on the history of Jaws, let’s talk a little bit about Steven Spielberg.
Known today as possibly the most famous director in Hollywood, it’s difficult to imagine a time when Spielberg wasn’t famous. He started his career by making independent short films, and eventually started directing episodes of TV series’ like Rod Serling’s Night Gallery and Columbo. Spielberg directed a few made-for-TV movies before landing his first major motion picture: The Sugarland Express, starring Goldie Hawn.
He was first made aware of Jaws when it was in its earliest stages of development, and another director, Dick Richards, had already been offered the film. Producer Richard Zanuck let Spielberg read the script anyway to get his opinion. The producers ultimately decided to change directors because Richards reportedly kept referring to the film’s main antagonist as a whale instead of a shark, which frustrated and concerned the producers.
Spielberg was the producers’ next choice, but the young director wasn’t so sure about accepting the job. He wanted to do a different movie called Lucky Lady. He consulted Sid Sheinberg, the then-president of Universal and the man that would eventually be credited with “discovering” Spielberg. Sheinberg told Spielberg that he should choose Jaws because it had the potential to be a big hit and to get his name out there. Spielberg was admittedly unhappy with the choice, and had even asked Sheinberg why he made him do “that fish movie.” But, Spielberg followed Sheinberg’s advice, and at just 27-years-old, he was helming the production of a large Hollywood film.
Of course, Jaws was a massive success and jumpstarted Spielberg’s meteoric rise. Over the next several years he would direct classics like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, ET, and Jurassic Park.
Summary
It’s summertime on beautiful Amity Island, a destination for vacationers and the home to a small population of islanders. Just before the beaches become crowded with visitors, a young woman is mauled to death in an apparent shark attack. Chief of Police Martin Brody attempts to close the beaches for fear of another attack, but the mayor of Amity refuses to let one freak event interfere with tourism. Suddenly, panic breaks out on the beach after a young boy is attacked and eaten by a shark in front of hundreds of swimmers. Brody calls on Matt Hooper, a young oceanographer, to organize a hunt for the shark. With a bounty on the shark’s head, a local fisherman named Quint offers his services to kill the shark for $10,000. The three men set out to destroy the 25-foot Great White Shark.
Making of
Producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown had just found success with The Sting, a 1973 film starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman, when they brought the idea to adapt Peter Benchley’s novel Jaws to Universal Pictures.
Universal initially turned down the opportunity to make Jaws.
As laid out in his contract, Peter Benchley penned the original screenplay for Jaws. But when filming began, the script wasn’t up to Spielberg’s standards.
Spielberg started by removing subplots about the mayor of Amity and his ties to the mafia, and one plot about an affair between Matt Hooper and Martin Brody’s wife. He called in Carl Gottlieb, a TV writer, who agreed to help rework the script after filming began. Every night after shooting, Spielberg and Gottlieb worked on the scenes for the next day.
Having a screenwriter on-hand to make changes during the production was immensely helpful. In one scene, the character Matt Hooper climbs into a metal cage and descends into the water to try and shock the shark. In the book, the character dies when the shark attacks Hooper’s cage, killing and eating him. This was written into the script. A secondary crew was filming this sequence off of the Australian coast when a real shark swam over the cage, thrashing it and causing it to break. Luckily, the stuntman that was hired to stand in for Richard Dreyfuss as Hooper was not in the cage at the time. The footage was very compelling, but ultimately unusable with the current script. So, Spielberg and Gottlieb changed the story. They used the footage in the film, but had Hooper escape the cage before the shark destroys it. Because of this, Hooper survives.
Finding the right actors for the main cast proved to be a challenge.
Charlton Heston wanted to play Martin Brody, but Spielberg felt that he was too big, and would upstage the shark. He offered the part to Robert Duvall, who ultimately turned it down. While trying to find his leading man, Spielberg had a chance encounter with actor Roy Scheider at a party. When he told Scheider about the film and his inability to find a proper lead, Roy asked Spielberg if he could play the part.
One of the biggest components of Brody’s character is his family life. We see this reflected in several of the movie’s scenes. In one scene, Brody’s young son copies his father’s mannerisms. Roy Scheider had noticed Jay Mello, the young boy playing his son, copying the older actor. It had been a particularly tough day of shooting, and Scheider showed Spielberg the sweet gesture. Spielberg filmed it and it made the final cut.
Convincing Richard Dreyfuss to accept the role of Matt Hooper was an even bigger task. Spielberg wanted him for the part, but Dreyfuss said no because he (correctly) assumed that filming on the ocean would be a logistical nightmare. He was so against the part, that Dreyfuss even tried to convince Spielberg to abandon the project as well. Dreyfuss had recently starred in a Canadian film, and when he screened it, he felt that his performance was so bad that he would never work again. He promptly called Spielberg and begged him for a role in Jaws.
Robert Shaw rounded out the three main players as the enigmatic Quint, the surly seaman with a personal vendetta against sharks.
Shaw was in The Sting before Jaws, and even though he wasn’t Spielberg’s first or even second choice to play the character, he delivered an iconic performance.
Shaw and Dreyfuss had an on-set feud that was partially reflected on screen as their characters clashed. Shaw was highly competitive, and he reportedly didn’t think much of the young Dreyfuss, a brash screen actor with no stage experience. Dreyfuss later said that privately, Shaw was a kind man, but on set, it was almost like he was another person entirely.
Lorraine Gary, the wife of Universal president Sid Sheiner, was cast as Ellen Brody, Martin Brody’s wife. Spielberg felt that she created that warm familiar vibe, which anchored Brody’s character and helped the audience see themselves in him.
Locals were cast in the movie, which helped bring another element of realness.
Alex Kinter, the shark’s second victim, was played by 12-year-old Jeffrey Voorhees. He was a local kid with no acting experience. In order to make his death look real, a man pulled the child under the water and gave him oxygen until the scene was complete.
Lee Fierro, who played Alex Kinter’s grieving mother, lived on the island for many years before she moved to Ohio where she passed away just a couple years ago. In one of the film’s most poignant and memorable scenes, she slaps Martin Brody in the face. Because of this, many fans of the film would ask her to slap them over the years.
When producers Zanuck and Brown pitched Jaws, they assumed it would be shot in a tank on a Universal backlot. But, Spielberg had other ideas. He felt that the unique texture of ocean water couldn’t be replicated in a pool or a lake, so he insisted that they film on the actual ocean, something that no major Hollywood film had previously done.
Production designer Joe Alves was tasked with finding the right location to shoot Jaws. He was looking for an area that was not only picturesque and perfect for tourists, it also couldn’t have big tides or too much current. His scouting mission took him to Martha’s Vineyard, an island town that had enjoyed relative peace and obscurity until the film crews arrived.
While on his scouting mission, Alves also discovered a fishing boat named “The Warlock,” that he repurposed and renamed “Orca.” This became Quint’s boat used in the film.
The boat stayed on the backlot for a couple years after. Spielberg would sneak onto it every once in a while to reminisce, until one day he noticed it was gone. It turned out that someone chopped it up for scrap wood because it had just been “rotting” on the lot. This truly upset Spielberg, but he was able to get both propeller blades back and the pilot wheel.
A fiberglass version of this boat had been built to film the scenes of it sinking. Over the years, though, fans snuck onto the private lot and stripped it of its features. It was affectionately called the Orca 2.
Finding the right location was only half the battle, as Alves also had to design the film’s main antagonist: a great white shark. He created sketches and models of the animal, and he called on Robert Mattey, a retired production designer known for creating the squid in Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Mattey attached the shark to a mechanical arm on a submersible platform. He was the mastermind behind the animatronic monster. All in all, the equipment it took to make the shark (affectionately named Bruce after Steven Spielberg’s lawyer) weighed twelve tons.
There were three sharks in total. One was a left side, one was a right side, and then one was a full-body model.
A typical large shark is about 12 feet, so Joe Alves decided to roughly double that length to make the shark as formidable as possible. While Alves made Bruce’s skeleton out of chromoly steel tubing, studio sculptor Don Chandler made the clay mold. Luckily, these fit together perfectly!
The residents of Martha’s Vineyard were leary of a Hollywood film crew descending on their island during their peak tourism season. So, Spielberg and the producers agreed to film mostly during their off-season time, and hoped to be done by late June.
The strict filming schedule was also influenced by an impending Screen Actor’s Guild strike. There was a contract dispute between SAG and studio executives, and because that contract was supposed to expire on June 30th, studios refrained from starting any projects that would not be completed by that June 30th deadline. But there was nothing to worry about, because Jaws was expected to wrap before then. Right? RIGHT?!
Wrong. Filming for Jaws began in May of 1974, and ended in early October. The reason for the extended shoot? Bruce, their star and title character, simply refused to work. That, and the challenging conditions of shooting on the ocean.
What we see in the movie is essentially all the frames of usable footage of the shark. Because of this, Spielberg had to get creative with how and when to show the shark, building more suspense for the audience.
Ultimately it was a blessing that the shark did not work most of the time. It made them get more inventive and hold the reveal of the shark.
In the end, production went over budget by 300%. With each passing day, Spielberg was convinced he would get fired and taken off of the project. Studio executives were calling the producers and threatening to pull the plug, and according to Richard Zanuck, he kept these calls from Spielberg because he was already dealing with enough pressure. Even though he was ultimately grateful for Jaws, the director still looks back on it as “the most unhappy time in my life as a filmmaker.”
As the days and weeks marched on, the cast and crew began to lose faith in the project. But after filming one very important scene, Spielberg and his team had a renewed sense of hope in the film.
Spielberg and Gottleib agreed that the character Quint, played by Robert Shaw, needed a compelling backstory as to why he had a personal vendetta against the shark. Spielberg called in playwright Howard Sackler to write a monologue wherein Quint recounts the real-life story of the ill-fated USS Indianapolis. The ship was sunk by a torpedo on its return trip to a US base after delivering parts of the atomic bomb. Because the mission was top secret, there was no distress signal. The defenseless crew waited in the water for several days as sharks circled and attacked. This story was not made public for several years after the war ended, and was relatively unknown. Some survivors of the USS Indianapolis expressed immense gratitude to the writers behind Jaws and Robert Shaw for telling their story.
Shaw filmed the monologue more than once. The first time they filmed, he’d had too much to drink and was having trouble even standing up. He called Steven Spielberg afterward and asked to do it again, this time completely sober. The version seen in the film is a combination of both of those takes.
Check out our episode This Case Was Based on a True Story to hear more about this!
The film’s producers initially hired Spielberg because they knew that he would have a fresh perspective, and they were impressed with his ability to frame a scene.
Many scenes were shot with a camera box. This was a clear, waterproof case that allowed cinematographer Bill Butler to film scenes at the water’s level. Spielberg really wanted the visuals to be at the level of a person who is swimming to give the audience the sense that the shark could be there among the legs of the unsuspecting people. The film is mostly a handheld camera film, which became a popular stylistic choice for thrillers.
Spielberg wanted the audience to feel trapped in the water, as if the characters would not be able to make it to land (and safety). Because of this, he was very precise in filming to make sure the shots did not show land.
When the shoot miraculously came to a close, Steven set up the final shot of the shark exploding in the water. He then boarded a plane and allowed the crew to finish filming the movie without him. He had heard that the crew intended to throw him in the water as the film wrapped, so he made sure not to be there. It then became kind of a tradition that he is never there for the last shot of a movie!
Score
Steven Spielberg first worked with John Williams on his directorial debut film The Sugarland Express. During that time they became friends and Spielberg says that he wanted Williams to do every movie he made.
The Theme: It is basic, animalistic, and unforgettable!
When John Williams was asked by Spielberg what he planned to do for the shark, Williams played a simple E,F,E,F,E,F,D,F. Spielberg replied with something like “You can’t be serious?” At that time the pair did not know each other very well and Spielberg thought that Williams may be pulling his leg.
Using these simple notes, Williams brought Jaws to life. The notes being versatile changed the urgency and fear by being played slow, fast, quiet, or loud.
The American Film Institute ranked Jaws as the 6th greatest film score of all time.
Reception
There have been many copycat films, but Jaws has stood the test of time. It was a worldwide hit.
Television ads truly helped to hype up the movie, which was not a common thing to do.
Percy Rodrigues voiced the trailers. His voice was the first to introduce people to what would become a phenomenon.
During the three nights before release, Universal had all the major networks run ads which cost $700,000 but was well worth it.
It was released in over 400 theaters! It could have been more but Lew Wasserman (chairman at Universal) wanted people to have to travel and go to specific theaters. He thought the best advertisement was a long line, hence the term “blockbuster.” This ensured that Jaws would stay in the theater all summer long. By this time, most theaters were air conditioned so it was easier to see a summer movie and not sweat.
Jaws won Oscars for Best Sound, Best Musical Score, and Best Editing.
There is sooooo much merch for Jaws; when it came out and even still now.
Shortly after filming wrapped, Carl Gottlieb recounted the extraordinary year-long ordeal of filming Jaws in a book called The Jaws Log. It was originally supposed to have the perspective of at least three people, including Spielberg, but it ended up being only Carl Gottlieb’s because they all became too busy. He wrote it in only about a month, and it was originally published in 1975.
Many popular filmmakers like Kevin Smith and Steven Soderburg credit Jaws as a film that inspired them to make movies. The film inspired hundreds of films and launched the tradition of the summer blockbuster.
Fun Facts
Steven Spielberg used a specially designed clapboard that had teeth!
Author Peter Benchley is in the film as the tv reporter on the beach!
Steven Spielberg also made a sneaky appearance! His voice can be heard over the radio on the Orca.
His dog Elmer appears as the Brody family dog.
Some inspiration for the story came from a New York Daily News article about a fisherman who caught a two-ton, five-and-a-half-meter-long shark off the coast of Montauk, Long Island in 1964. The Jersey shore shark attacks in July 1916 and the documentary Blue Water, White Death (1971) also contributed.
After Spielberg and Gottleib did extensive work on the script, the character Matt Hooper evolved into somewhat of an alter ego for Steven Spielberg!
One of the most memorable scenes, because of its jump scare, is when Hooper and Brody find Ben Gardner’s boat. When Hooper dives into the water to investigate, Gardner’s severed head pops out from the bottom. This scene was actually filmed in a swimming pool! Coincidentally it was in the pool of the film's editor Verna Fields. They poured milk into the pool water to give it a murky look.
Jaws is easily one of the most popular films ever made. Still today, many fans aren’t shy about their love for the adventure/thriller that launched Steven Spielberg’s career. Some will even go so far as to say that it’s a perfect movie.
This is a film that tapped into the fears of its audience in the most accessible way possible. It has just enough of those delicious elements of a horror film, moments of adrenaline that jumpstart your heart and remind you that you’re alive. Those experiences are peppered into a familiar tale of man vs beast that’s driven by Martin Brody, a relatable character who was thrust into this epic story without his consent. But since he’s there, he does the thing that everyone watching wishes they could do: he kills the damn shark.
There are a lot of reasons why this movie might not have worked. It was helmed by an inexperienced director in some of the most frustrating filming conditions possible. Universal could have pulled the plug any time, and few would have blamed them. But, they didn’t. And even though filming conditions made the project difficult, the choice to film Jaws on the ocean ultimately turned out to be a great one. It gave the film a unique sense of realism that will likely never be replicated.
So if you’ve never seen Jaws, we suggest you give it a try, or perhaps, a nibble. It’s a great film to sink your teeth into!