A new documentary looks back at the legacy of Steven Spielberg’s terrifying cinematic classic
In 1974, author Peter Benchley hit the bestseller list with Jaws, his novel about a massive great white shark terrorizing a New England beach community. Hollywood took interest, and the book was adapted for the screen — the second feature film from up-and-coming director Steven Spielberg.
The 1975 thriller proved to be a masterpiece that took the box office by storm, setting the template for the summer blockbuster while spawning a slew of sequels that, while popular, never quite lived up to the genius of the original.
To mark the film’s 50th anniversary, a new documentary, Jaws@50: The Definitive Inside Story, looks back on Spielberg’s monumental achievement, exploring the movie’s legacy while also recalling the behind-the-scenes chaos that nearly scuttled the whole thing.
Shooting on a $3-million budget in the New England tourist enclave of Martha’s Vineyard, Spielberg encountered a string of unforeseen production delays that saw costs triple to $9 million, while what was supposed to be a 55-day shoot ballooned to 159 days. Meanwhile, the mechanical shark that had been custom-built for the movie was a disaster, seldom working the way it was supposed to, instead serving up one headache after another.
“In most circumstances, summer in the Vineyard is a dream. But when you are over budget and over schedule, and when I am over my head, that summer of 1974 was a bad dream before it ever became the dream of a lifetime,” Spielberg said in a video message shown to fans before a Martha’s Vineyard screening of Jaws@50.
“It details how young and unprepared all of us were for the challenges of shooting in the Atlantic Ocean with a mechanical shark that was more temperamental than any movie star I have ever worked with since, and how in the wake of running over schedule and budget, I truly believed that Jaws would be the last movie I would ever be given to direct,” Spielberg continued.
Helmed by Laurent Bouzereau (Music by John Williams), Jaws@50 dives even deeper, with Spielberg himself sharing profound insight into the making of the film. “Jaws was a movie that I thought would really end my career — but is the film that began it,” he says in the doc.
In addition, Bouzereau includes testimonials from cast and crew, and offers viewers a wealth of rarely seen archival footage. Meanwhile, actors and fellow filmmakers like J.J. Abrams, Emily Blunt, James Cameron, Cameron Crowe, George Lucas, Greg Nicotero, Jordan Peele, Steven Soderbergh, Robert Zemeckis and Guillermo del Toro also weigh in; the latter, in fact, still views Jaws as a Hollywood achievement that has yet to be topped. “The movie is as flawless today as it will be a hundred years from now,” declares del Toro.
“I really wanted to tell a human story, the human perspective of what it took to create a masterpiece,” Bouzereau told ABC7, explaining why this 1970s blockbuster has remained ingrained in the zeitgeist for a half-century. “It was part of culture-at-large, and then to have it be a legacy film, sort of — cinema was never the same before Jaws and never the same after Jaws,” he said. “It’s really the icing on the cake and really makes you appreciate the artistry that went into it . . . because that is all Steven.”
Moreover, Jaws@50 includes conversations with leading marine advocates and scientists, including Philippe Cousteau, Candace Fields, Gibbs Kuguru, Austin Gallagher,
Dr. John Mandelman of the New England Aquarium, Dr. Greg Skomal, photographer Brian Skerry and others — along with insights from Benchley’s widow, Wendy Benchley, a renowned ocean policy advocate and shark conservationist.
So, what did Spielberg think of the finished product? According to Bouzereau: “Steven said, ‘Oh, it’s the best film you’ve ever made for me.’ I was happy — and I’m not bragging, I’m just quoting.”
Jaws@50: The Definitive Inside Story, streaming Friday, August 15, on Disney+