Spielberg was only 26 when he made Jaws, and he wasn't sure he'd be able to pull it off: plagued by malfunctioning mechanical sharks, not to mention a feud between two of his stars, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss, the picture seemed doomed as he was filming it on Martha's Vineyard.
They soon grew irritated by Richards's habit of describing the shark as a whale and dropped him from the project. Meanwhile, Steven Spielberg very much wanted the job. The 26-year-old had just directed his first theatrical film, The Sugarland Express, for Zanuck and Brown.
How old was Steven Spielberg when he directed his first movie?
Spielberg used his father's movie camera to make amateur features, and began taking the camera along on every Scout trip. At age 13, Spielberg made a 40-minute war film, Escape to Nowhere, with a cast of classmates.
Jaws shot on the Vineyard and at sea, with principal photography commencing on May 2, 1974 and, due to issues both technical and weather-related, didn't wrap until 159 days later.
Jaws' largest and most iconic cast member, dubbed Bruce, was actually three different mechanical sharks—and for a couple scenes, was played by a real great white. Before filming started in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, a crew went to Australia to get some cage-diving close-ups with a great white.
At the 1976 Academy Awards, Jaws won for best film editing, best original score, and best sound. It was nominated for best picture, but Spielberg was not nominated for directing. Nonetheless, it is the film that signaled his career as a major filmmaker and cinematic storyteller.
The work of up-and-coming director Steven Spielberg, dealing with pneumatically-powered prop sharks and seasick actors, came to be seen as the first-ever summer blockbuster. Though the film takes place in the fictional town of Amity Island in New York, it was actually filmed throughout Martha's Vineyard, Mass.
1. Jurassic Park. A pragmatic paleontologist touring an almost complete theme park on an island in Central America is tasked with protecting a couple of kids after a power failure causes the park's cloned dinosaurs to run loose.
For many of those years Steven knew better. Arnold remarried. In a 2012 interview with 60 Minutes (Leslie Stahl) Arnold and Leah discussed the breakup of the Spielberg marriage. When Stahl questioned Leah about the failed marriage Adler admitted Arnold left because she had fallen in love with his best friend.
Spielberg's first major directorial effort was The Sugarland Express (1974), with Goldie Hawn, a film that marked him as a rising star. It was his next effort, however, that made him an international superstar among directors: Jaws (1975).
Spielberg's first wife was actress and singer Amy Irving, with whom he shares son Max. Irving and Spielberg amicably split in 1989. He and Capshaw reportedly moved in together that same year after becoming close following Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
In a recent interview with W Magazine, Spielberg reveals that he actually thought the shark's appearance in Jaws was rather lackluster. The director recalls being very surprised that the movie was such a hit and that the shark ended up having the effect that it did on audiences.
It's simple. Peter Benchley, who penned the novel on which Jaws is based and co-wrote the screen treatment, says the book and film are works of fiction. Although Benchley was a resident of New Jersey, he has said he didn't take any inspiration from the New Jersey shark attacks of 1916.
Call the book Jaws. He said "What does it mean?" I said, "I don't know, but it's short; it fits on a jacket, and it may work." He said, "Okay, we'll call the thing Jaws. For the cover, Benchley wanted an illustration of Amity as seen through the jaws of a shark.
Assuming he lied about his age, as many young men did in World War II, and using Robert Shaw as a template, Quint would have been 17 when the ship was sunk. Presumably once he was discharged from the Navy he moved to Amity and began his shark fishing days.
Steven Spielberg Filmed a Terrifying 'Jaws' Scene in a Swimming Pool. Another horrific scene from the movie didn't take place on the open ocean in Massachusetts or Australia or anywhere. Rather, it was filmed in a swimming pool. Once principal filming was done, Spielberg thought something was missing.
But good news, surfers — Amity Island doesn't really exist! Its stand-in, Martha's Vineyard (which is, yes, an island), was chosen for its East Coast locale, isolated feeling, and, perhaps most importantly, its wide, shallow beaches.
That person is none other than English-acting legend Pete Postlethwaite, who starred in Spielberg's 1997 science fiction action movie The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Spielberg had once called Postlethwaite “the best actor in the world”.
Spielberg, 65, reveals that as a child in New Jersey, it took him more than two years to learn how to read. He says growing up in the 1950s, including time spent in Arizona, before dyslexia was even a diagnosis, was tough, especially during the junior high years.
2. The Last Bruce Shark Was Restored. A mould of the original Bruce shark (found hanging on display in a junkyard in California) was recently restored by SFX maestro Greg Nictotero. It is now on exhiited at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
What makes the movie still stand its ground is not the effects, of course, it is the solid storyline and the amazing performances by the cast. "Jaws" have some really impressive and very memorable performances by Roy Scheider (playing Brody), Robert Shaw (playing Quint) and Richard Dreyfuss (playing Matt Hooper).
Williams won the Oscar for Best Original Score for Jaws in 1976 and his first Grammy for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture in 1975.
