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Jaws (1975)
Directed by Steven Spielberg.
Directed by Steven Spielberg · Shot by Bill Butler · Cut by Verna Fields · Music by John Williams · Ratio 2.35:1 · 124 min
How it was made
- Spielberg directly referenced his earlier television film Duel by repurposing the sound of the truck being destroyed as the death roar of the shark.
- The film had an estimated budget of $3.5 million and a 55-day shooting schedule, timed to finish before a Screen Actors Guild contract expired at the end of June 1974.
- Because novelist Peter Benchley was not a union member, the producers had him write the first three drafts of the screenplay to keep the script moving despite the threat of a Writers Guild strike.
- Comedy writer Carl Gottlieb ended up rewriting nearly the entire script during the nine-week shoot, with dialogue for each scene typically finished the night before it was filmed, often drawing on conversations at cast and crew dinners.
- Spielberg changed the shark's death from the novel's extensive wounds to a scuba tank explosion for a bigger finish; he estimated the final script contained 27 scenes not present in the book.
- Quint's USS Indianapolis monologue passed through several hands: Howard Sackler wrote an initial three-quarter-page speech, John Milius expanded it into a full monologue, and actor Robert Shaw did a further rewrite.
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Behind the scenes
Elsewhere
More by Steven Spielberg
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