9 Things You Might Not Know About ‘Jaws’

Leave a comment

March 20, 2020 by Craig Sutherland

Jaws, one of the greatest films ever made! An absolute masterpiece from Steven Spielberg. Tence, funny and scary. Here’s some of my favourite tidbits about the film:

According to writer Carl Gottlieb, the line “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” was not scripted, but was ad-libbed by Roy Scheider.
According to The Making of ‘Jaws’ (1995) documentary, the shooting star that appears during the night scene where Brody loads his revolver was real, not an optical effect.
Though respected as an actor, Robert Shaw‘s trouble with alcohol was a frequent source of tension during filming. In later interviews, Roy Scheider described his co-star as “a perfect gentleman whenever he was sober. All he needed was one drink and then he turned into a competitive son-of-a-bitch.” According to Carl Gottlieb‘s book “The Jaws Log,” Shaw was having a drink between takes, at which one point he announced, “I wish I could quit drinking.” Much to the surprise and horror of the crew, Richard Dreyfuss simply grabbed Shaw’s glass and tossed it into the ocean. When it came time to shoot the infamous USS Indianapolis Scene, Shaw attempted to do the monologue while intoxicated as it called for the men to be drinking late at night. Nothing in the take could be used. A remorseful Shaw called Steven Spielberg late that night and asked if he could have another try. The next day of shooting, Shaw’s electrifying performance was done in one take. Check out the speech here:

Director Steven Spielberg named the shark “Bruce” after his lawyer.
During the display in which Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw compare battle scars, Roy Scheider lifts up his shirt to reveal an appendix incision. This was not a prosthetic, but Scheider’s own scar. I think in the actual scene Scheider is hinting at the reason his family has moved away from the big city, it could be viewed as a gunshot wound, probably digging too far here. Let me know what you think in the comments…
The “forward tracking, zoom out” shot used when Brody realizes Alex Kintner has been eaten has been called “the Jaws shot” by some video teachers who instruct students on using this move. However, this shot is merely a reverse of the “forward zoom and reverse tracking” (also known as the Trombone Shot) shot invented by Irmin Roberts for the disorienting height shots in Vertigo (1958). A similar shot appears to have been used for the dream sequences in Truffaut’s Fahrenheit 451 (1966), in which Montag runs down an apparently endless corridor, passing doors on both sides but seems to never get closer to the end.
Made film history as the first film to gross more than $100 million.
One of the scariest PG movies ever made. Along with Tourist Trap, It’s Alive, Wait Until Dark, Drag Me To Hell, the Prom Night reboot, Nosferatu, Dracula and Frankenstein, all PG horror sensations in their own right.
Multiple shots are very similar to ones found in Creature from the Black Lagoon, such as the underwater monster viewpoint of a woman swimming on the surface of the water, as well as the fact that early on in both films we barely glimpse the monster at all.