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116-511: Mundus' early techniques, which included killing whales merely for chum and harpooning sharks (practices which are outlawed today), earned him criticism even at the time. In the last few years of his life, Mundus campaigned for shark fishermen to catch and release their prey, even going as far as to publish a conservation book titled White Shark Sam Meets The Monster Man. Mundus died on September 10, 2008, in Honolulu due to complications from

232-537: A Shark Week documentary, which was narrated by actor Roy Scheider , who played Martin Brody in Jaws and Jaws II . The special told of Mundus' early career, how he became the inspiration for Quint, his world record capture, and how he turned from shark hunter to shark conservationist. Mundus also joined Chris Fallows and other shark conservationists in viewing great whites in their natural habitat. In one such viewing of

348-420: A grasshopper and encourage it to jump into a flowing stream where the fish would consume the grasshopper. The Native Americans would then bait their hook with a grasshopper and hence catch the fish. Additionally, indigenous people would tie a dead animal from a tree above a stream encouraging flies to lay eggs. After weeks, the eggs became maggots and fell into the water, bringing a concentration of fish into

464-402: A 1986 study by G. Sparks found that particularly violent films, including Jaws , tended to cause the most intense reactions in viewers. Universal spent $ 1.8 million marketing Jaws , including an unprecedented $ 700,000 on national television spot advertising. The media blitz included about two dozen 30-second advertisements airing each night on prime-time network TV between June 18, 1975, and

580-564: A 300-foot (91 m) line, and two "platform sharks", one that moved from camera-left to right (with its hidden left side exposing an array of pneumatic hoses), and an opposite model with its right flank uncovered. The sharks were designed by art director and production designer Joe Alves during the third quarter of 1973. Between November 1973 and April 1974, the sharks were fabricated at Rolly Harper's Motion Picture & Equipment Rental in Sun Valley, California . Their construction involved

696-531: A boat. Spielberg was apprehensive about hiring Scheider, fearing he would portray a "tough guy", similar to his role in The French Connection . Nine days before the start of production, neither Quint nor Hooper had been cast. The role of Quint was originally offered to actors Lee Marvin and Sterling Hayden , both of whom passed. Zanuck and Brown had just finished working with Robert Shaw on The Sting , and suggested him to Spielberg. Shaw

812-428: A book about the making of the movie, the book the movie was based on, beach towels, blankets, shark costumes, toy sharks, hobby kits, iron-on transfers, games, posters, shark's tooth necklaces, sleepwear, water pistols, and more." The Ideal Toy Company , for instance, produced a game in which the player had to use a hook to fish out items from the shark's mouth before the jaws closed. The glowing audience response to

928-489: A ceremony for the restoration of ideological confidence." He suggests that the experience of the film is "inconceivable" without the mass audience's jubilation when the shark is annihilated, signifying the obliteration of evil itself. In his view, Brody serves to demonstrate that "individual action by the one just man is still a viable source for social change". Peter Biskind argues that the film does maintain post-Watergate cynicism concerning politics and politicians insofar as

1044-722: A charter fishing operation in Brielle, New Jersey, with the Cricket . In 1947, he had the Cricket II custom-built. Mundus moved to Montauk in 1951 saying he wanted to start charters for bluefish . In his first year at Montauk, he played an important role in the rescue and retrieval of the Pelican , an overloaded party boat in which 45 of 64 on board perished after capsizing in a squall, including its captain Eddie Carroll. He

1160-399: A comedy writer-actor then working on the sitcom The Odd Couple . Spielberg sent Gottlieb a script, asking what the writer would change and if there was a role he would be interested in performing. Gottlieb sent Spielberg three pages of notes, and picked the part of Meadows, the politically connected editor of the local paper. He passed the audition one week before Spielberg took him to meet

1276-427: A conflict with other forms of biological existence." He views Quint's demise as the symbolic overthrow of an old, populist, New Deal America and Brody and Hooper's partnership as an "allegory of an alliance between the forces of law-and-order and the new technocracy of the multinational corporations ... in which the viewer rejoices without understanding that he or she is excluded from it." Neal Gabler analyzed

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1392-432: A filmmaker was over. I heard rumors ... that I would never work again because no one had ever taken a film 100 days over schedule." Spielberg himself was not present for the shooting of the final scene in which the shark explodes, as he believed that the crew were planning to throw him in the water when the scene was done. It has since become a tradition for Spielberg to be absent when the final scene of one of his films

1508-418: A good day, three in an average day, and none in a bad day." The delays proved beneficial in some regards. The script was refined during production, and the unreliable mechanical sharks forced Spielberg to shoot many scenes so that the shark was only hinted at. For example, for much of the shark hunt, its location is indicated by the floating yellow barrels. The opening had the shark devouring Chrissie, but it

1624-570: A heart attack he suffered on September 6, the day he returned home to Hawaii after spending the summer in Montauk. According to his obituary he spent the last night in Montauk aboard the Cricket II which made him famous and had his heart attack in the Hawaii airport immediately after returning. Mundus was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and moved to Brooklyn when he was young. In 1945 he began

1740-489: A local fisherman. Hooper dons a scuba suit and goes underwater to check the boat's hull, where he finds a large shark tooth embedded into it. He accidentally drops the tooth in fright after encountering Gardner's corpse. Vaughn dismisses Brody and Hooper's assertions that a great white shark caused the deaths and refuses to close the beaches, allowing only increased safety precautions. On the Fourth of July weekend, tourists pack

1856-456: A pre-release screening of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz , which he had just completed. Disappointed in his performance and fearing that no one would want to hire him once Kravitz was released, he immediately called Spielberg and accepted the role in Jaws . Because the film the director envisioned was so dissimilar to Benchley's novel, Spielberg asked Dreyfuss not to read it. As a result of

1972-529: A professional shark hunter ( Robert Shaw ), hunts a man-eating great white shark that attacks beachgoers at a summer resort town. Murray Hamilton plays the mayor, and Lorraine Gary portrays Brody's wife. The screenplay is credited to Benchley, who wrote the first drafts, and actor-writer Carl Gottlieb , who rewrote the script during principal photography . Shot mostly on location at Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts from May to October 1974, Jaws

2088-538: A rough cut of the film at two test screenings in Dallas on March 26, 1975, and one in Long Beach , on March 28, along with the success of Benchley's novel and the early stages of Universal's marketing campaign, generated great interest among theater owners, facilitating the studio's plan to debut Jaws at hundreds of cinemas simultaneously. A third and final preview screening, of a cut incorporating changes inspired by

2204-444: A seaside town's medicinal hot springs, a major tourist attraction and revenue source, are contaminated. When the doctor attempts to convince the townspeople of the danger, he loses his job and is shunned. This plotline is paralleled in Jaws by Brody's conflict with Mayor Vaughn, who refuses to acknowledge the presence of a shark that may dissuade summer beachgoers from coming to Amity. Brody is vindicated when more shark attacks occur at

2320-422: A series of problems including bad weather, pneumatic hoses taking on salt water, frames fracturing due to water resistance, corroding skin, and electrolysis . From the first water test onward, the "non-absorbent" neoprene foam that made up the sharks' skin soaked up liquid, causing the sharks to balloon, and the sea-sled model frequently got entangled among forests of seaweed. Spielberg later calculated that during

2436-459: A short actor in a miniature shark cage to create the illusion that the sharks were enormous. During the Taylors' shoot, a great white attacked the boat and cage. The footage of the cage attack was so stunning that Spielberg was eager to incorporate it in the film. No one had been in the cage at the time and the script, following the novel, originally had the shark killing Hooper in it. The storyline

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2552-450: A signal example of the film as "industrial product" that sells on the basis of "the pleasure of cinema, thus yielding the perpetuation of the industry (which is why part of the meaning of Jaws is to be the most profitable movie)". Andrew Britton contrasts the film to the novel's post-Watergate cynicism, suggesting that its narrative alterations from the book (Hooper's survival, the shark's explosive death) help make it "a communal exorcism,

2668-574: A similar obsession with sharks; even his boat, the Orca , is named after the only natural enemy of the white shark . In the novel and original screenplay, Quint dies after being dragged under the ocean by a harpoon tied to his leg, similar to the death of Ahab in Melville's novel. A direct reference to these similarities may be found in Spielberg's draft of the screenplay, which introduces Quint watching

2784-585: A slow, scaled release. Building on the film's success, the release was subsequently expanded on July 25 to nearly 700 theaters, and on August 15 to more than 950. Overseas distribution followed the same pattern, with intensive television campaigns and wide releases—in Great Britain, for instance, Jaws opened in December at more than 100 theaters. For its 40th anniversary, the film was released in selected theaters (across approximately 500 theaters) in

2900-516: A team of as many as 40 effects technicians, supervised by mechanical effects supervisor Bob Mattey , best known for creating the giant squid in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea . After the sharks were completed, they were trucked to the shooting location. In early July, the platform used to tow the two side-view sharks capsized as it was being lowered to the ocean floor, forcing a team of divers to retrieve it. The model required 14 operators to control all of

3016-414: A title logo that would appear on both the paperback and in all of the advertising for the film. The centerpieces of the joint marketing strategy were John Williams's theme and the poster image featuring the shark approaching a lone female swimmer. The poster was based on the paperback's cover, and had the same artist, Bantam employee Roger Kastel . The Seiniger Advertising agency spent six months designing

3132-527: A trend toward wider releases, but even that film had debuted in just five theaters, before going wide in its second weekend. On June 20, Jaws opened across North America on 464 screens—409 in the United States, the remainder in Canada. The coupling of this broad distribution pattern with the movie's then even rarer national television marketing campaign yielded a release method virtually unheard-of at

3248-535: Is 25 feet (7.6 m) long and weighs 3 tonnes (3.0 long tons; 3.3 short tons), harpoons it with a line attached to a flotation barrel, but the shark pulls the barrel underwater and disappears. At nightfall, Quint and Hooper drunkenly exchange stories about their assorted body scars. One of Quint's is a removed tattoo, and he reveals that he survived the attack on the USS ; Indianapolis , during which many US sailors were killed by sharks. The shark returns, ramming

3364-455: Is a condition in which viewers exhibit mental health disturbances, or a worsening of existing mental health disturbances, after viewing a film. The symptoms first presented as sleep disturbances and anxiety, but one day later the patient was screaming "Sharks! Sharks!" and experiencing convulsions. This case study caused the film to become notable in the medical community alongside The Exorcist for causing stress reactions in its viewers, and

3480-478: Is also taken advantage of in the way the audience is conditioned to associate the shark with its theme, which is exploited toward the film's climax when the shark suddenly appears with no musical introduction. Spielberg later said that without Williams's score the film would have been only half as successful, and according to Williams it jumpstarted his career. He had previously scored Spielberg's debut feature, The Sugarland Express , and went on to collaborate with

3596-529: Is being shot. Afterward, underwater scenes were shot at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer water tank in Culver City , with stuntmen Dick Warlock and Frank James Sparks as stand-ins for Dreyfuss in the scene where the shark attacks the cage, as well as near Santa Catalina Island, California . Fields, who had completed a rough cut of the first two-thirds of the film, up until the shark hunt, finished

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3712-415: Is marginalized from the conclusive action, if less terminally than Quint. Britton sees the film more as concerned with the "vulnerability of children and the need to protect and guard them", which in turn helps generate a "pervasive sense of the supreme value of family life: a value clearly related to [ideological] stability and cultural continuity". Fredric Jameson 's analysis highlights the polysemy of

3828-486: Is often said to be the inspiration for charter captain Quint in the book and film Jaws . The novel's author, Peter Benchley says that Mundus was the inspiration but Mundus was not notably credited as a source in the movie. Nevertheless, Montauk residents have said that Mundus was definitely the inspiration for the character. John Ebel, a mate on the Cricket II said that Benchley had privately acknowledged that Mundus

3944-528: Is taken from horror, with the core of a nature-based monster movie while adding elements of a slasher film. The second half is both a buddy film in the interaction between the crew of the Orca , and a supernatural horror based on the shark's depiction of a nearly Satanic menace. Ian Freer describes Jaws as an aquatic monster movie, citing the influence of earlier monster films such as King Kong and Godzilla . Charles Derry, in 1977, also compared Jaws to Godzilla ; and Spielberg cited Godzilla, King of

4060-443: The Cricket II and moved to Hawaii. The sale did not go through although the boat was operated by others. He officially retired as a charter captain in 1997. In the years before his death he returned to Montauk for its shark tournaments and rode along on higher priced Cricket II excursions. He died in Hawaii shortly after returning from Montauk. Mundus' reputation was enhanced by his eccentric personality and ostentatious displays of

4176-647: The Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the United States National Film Registry . In the New England beach town of Amity Island, a young woman goes for a late-night ocean swim during a beach party. An unseen force attacks and pulls her underwater. Her remains are found washed up on the beach the next morning. After the medical examiner concludes it was a shark attack, newly hired police chief Martin Brody closes

4292-478: The Screen Actors Guild was due to expire, to avoid any disruptions due to a potential strike. For the screen adaptation, Spielberg wanted to stay with the novel's basic plot, but discarded many of Benchley's subplots . He declared that his favorite part of the book was the shark hunt on the last 120 pages, and told Zanuck when he accepted the job, "I'd like to do the picture if I could change

4408-447: The film version of Moby-Dick ; his continuous laughter prompts other audience members to get up and leave the theater. However, the scene from Moby-Dick could not be licensed from the film's star, Gregory Peck , its copyright holder. Screenwriter Carl Gottlieb also drew comparisons to Ernest Hemingway 's The Old Man and the Sea : " Jaws is ... a titanic struggle, like Melville or Hemingway." The underwater scenes shot from

4524-650: The 12-hour daily work schedule, on average only four hours were actually spent filming. Gottlieb was nearly decapitated by the boat's propellers, and Dreyfuss was almost imprisoned in the steel cage. The actors were frequently seasick . Shaw also fled to Canada whenever he could due to tax problems, engaged in binge drinking , and developed a grudge against Dreyfuss, who was getting rave reviews for his performance in Duddy Kravitz . Editor Verna Fields rarely had material to work with during principal photography, as according to Spielberg "we would shoot five scenes in

4640-522: The Monsters! (1956) as a formative influence growing up, due to the "masterful" way in which "it made you believe it was really happening." Critics such as Neil Sinyard have described similarities to Henrik Ibsen 's play An Enemy of the People . Gottlieb himself said he and Spielberg referred to Jaws as " Moby-Dick meets Enemy of the People ". The Ibsen work features a doctor who discovers that

4756-425: The Sea —before offering the job to Dick Richards , whose directorial debut, The Culpepper Cattle Co. , had come out the previous year. 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. At

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4872-552: The United States on Sunday, June 21, and Wednesday, June 24, 2015. Another theatrical reissue was released on September 2, 2022, usually under the title Jaws in 3D (not to be confused with the second sequel, Jaws 3-D ) with the film debuting in both IMAX and RealD 3D formats, as part of the 40th anniversary celebration of another Spielberg film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial . On the announcement, Travis Reed of RealD 3D remarked: " Jaws redefined what it means to be

4988-406: The aquatic sequences relatively close-up to resemble what people see while swimming, cinematographer Bill Butler devised new equipment to facilitate marine and underwater shooting, including a rig to keep the camera stable, regardless of tide, and a sealed submersible camera box. Spielberg asked the art department to avoid red in both scenery and wardrobe, so that the blood from the attacks would be

5104-575: The area. Chumming is illegal in some parts of the world (such as in the U.S. state of Alabama ) because of the danger it can pose by conditioning sharks to associate feeding with human presence. Floridan restrictions for chumming include local laws in saltwater areas. Due to the vast barren sandy bottom structure around most of the state, using chum is a necessity and common practice. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) approved changes to shark fishing regulations, including prohibiting chumming when fishing for any species from

5220-404: The audience "believe this was happening to people like you and me", whereas "stars bring a lot of memories along with them, and those memories can sometimes ... corrupt the story." The director added that in his plans "the superstar was gonna be the shark". The first actors cast were Lorraine Gary , the wife of Universal president, Sidney Sheinberg , as Ellen Brody, and Murray Hamilton as

5336-409: The audience's screams had covered up Scheider's "bigger boat" one-liner, Brody's reaction after the shark jumps behind him was extended, and the volume of the line was raised. Spielberg also decided that he was greedy for "one more scream", and reshot the scene in which Hooper discovers Ben Gardner's body, using $ 3,000 of his own money after Universal refused to pay for the reshoot. The underwater scene

5452-416: The beach. The new ruling went into effect July 1, 2019. This fishing -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Jaws (film) Jaws is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg , based on the 1974 novel by Peter Benchley . It stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, who, with the help of a marine biologist ( Richard Dreyfuss ) and

5568-416: The beaches. The shark enters a nearby lagoon, killing a boater and coming close to killing Brody's son. Brody then convinces a guilt-ridden Vaughn to hire Quint. Despite initial tension between Quint and Hooper, as well as Brody's fear of the ocean, the three head out to sea on Quint's boat to hunt for the shark. As Brody lays down a chum line, the shark suddenly appears behind the boat. Quint, estimating it

5684-528: The beaches; Mayor Larry Vaughn persuades him to reconsider, fearing the town's summer economy will suffer. The coroner, apparently under pressure, now concurs with the mayor's theory that it was a boating accident. Brody reluctantly accepts their conclusion until a young boy, Alex Kintner, is killed at a crowded beach. A bounty is placed on the shark, causing an amateur shark-hunting frenzy. Quint, an eccentric and roughened local shark hunter, offers his services for $ 10,000. Consulting oceanographer Matt Hooper examines

5800-474: The boat's hull and disabling the power. The men work through the night, repairing the engine. In the morning, Brody attempts to call the Coast Guard, but Quint, obsessed with killing the shark without outside assistance, smashes the radio. After a long chase, Quint harpoons the shark with another barrel. The line is tied to the stern cleats, but the shark drags the boat backward, swamping the deck and flooding

5916-457: The breaching great whites (made famous in the Air Jaws series of specials), during which Fallows brought out a seal decoy he had humorously named "Frank" after Mundus (a hat like the ones Mundus usually wore was even added to it) and they used it to fool them into breaching. He said that the name of his boat was inspired by the fact that his profile resembled that of Jiminy Cricket . Mundus

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6032-427: The casting, Hooper was rewritten to better suit the actor, as well as to be more representative of Spielberg, who came to view Dreyfuss as his "alter ego". We started the film without a script, without a cast and without a shark. —Actor Richard Dreyfuss on the film's troubled production Principal photography began May 2, 1974, on the island of Martha's Vineyard , Massachusetts, selected after consideration

6148-569: The crowded beach in broad daylight. Sinyard calls the film a "deft combination of Watergate and Ibsen's play". Jaws has received attention from academic critics. Stephen Heath relates the film's ideological meanings to the then-recent Watergate scandal . He argues that Brody represents the "white male middle class—[there is] not a single black and, very quickly, not a single woman in the film", who restores public order "with an ordinary-guy kind of heroism born of fear-and-decency". Yet Heath moves beyond ideological content analysis to examine Jaws as

6264-413: The director on almost all of his films. The original soundtrack for Jaws was released by MCA Records on LP in 1975, and as a CD in 1992, including roughly a half hour of music that Williams redid for the album. In 2000, two versions of the score were released: Decca / Universal reissued the soundtrack album to coincide with the release of the 25th-anniversary DVD, featuring the entire 51 minutes of

6380-462: The director to veto his departure. Brown helped convince Spielberg to stick with the project, saying that "after [ Jaws ], you can make all the films you want". The film was given an estimated budget of $ 3.5 million and a shooting schedule of 55 days. Principal photography was set to begin in May 1974. Universal wanted the shoot to finish by the end of June, when the major studios' contract with

6496-460: The editing and reworked some of the material. According to Zanuck, "She actually came in and reconstructed some scenes that Steven had constructed for comedy and made them terrifying, and some scenes he shot to be terrifying and made them comedy scenes." The boat used for the Orca was brought to Los Angeles so the sound effects team could record sounds for both the ship and the underwater scenes. Two scenes were altered following test screenings. As

6612-431: The effects outlays alone grew to $ 3 million due to the problems with the mechanical sharks. Disgruntled crew members gave the film the nickname "Flaws". Spielberg attributed many problems to his perfectionism and his inexperience. The former was epitomized by his insistence on shooting at sea with a life-sized shark; "I could have shot the movie in the tank or even in a protected lake somewhere, but it would not have looked

6728-426: The end of a meeting in their office, Spielberg noticed their copy of the still-unpublished Benchley novel, and after reading it was immediately captivated. He later observed that it was similar to his 1971 television film Duel in that both deal with "these leviathans targeting everymen ". He also revealed in "The Making of Jaws " documentary on the 2012 DVD release that he directly referenced Duel by repurposing

6844-411: The engine compartment. As Quint is about to sever the line to save the boat's transom, the cleats break off. The barrels stay attached to the shark. To Brody's relief, Quint heads toward shore to draw the shark into shallower waters, but the overtaxed engine fails. As the boat takes on water, the trio attempt a riskier approach. Hooper suits up and enters a shark-proof cage , intending to lethally inject

6960-418: The film as showing three different approaches to solving an obstacle: science (represented by Hooper), spiritualism (represented by Quint), and the common man (represented by Brody). The last of the three is the one which succeeds and is in that way endorsed by the film. While in theaters, the film was said to have caused a single case of cinematic neurosis in a 17-year-old, female viewer. Cinematic neurosis

7076-488: The film avoids the novel's theme of social class conflicts on Amity Island, Biskind detects class divisions in the screen version and argues for their significance. "Authority must be restored", he writes, "but not by Quint". The seaman's "working class toughness and bourgeois independence is alien and frightening ... irrational and out of control". Hooper, meanwhile, is "associated with technology rather than experience, inherited wealth rather than self-made sufficiency"; he

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7192-446: The film rights in 1973, before the book's publication, for approximately $ 175,000 (equivalent to $ 1,200,000 in 2023). Brown claimed that had they read the book twice, they would never have made the film because they would have realized how difficult it would be to execute certain sequences. To direct, Zanuck and Brown first considered veteran filmmaker John Sturges —whose résumé included another maritime adventure, The Old Man and

7308-439: The film to over 450 screens was an exceptionally wide release for a major studio picture at the time, and it was accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign that heavily emphasized television spots and tie-in merchandise. Regarded as a watershed moment in motion picture history , Jaws was the prototypical summer blockbuster and won several awards for its music and editing. It was the highest-grossing film of all time until

7424-417: The film's opening two days later. Beyond that, in the description of film industry scholar Searle Kochberg, Universal "devised and co-ordinated a highly innovative plan" for the picture's marketing. As early as October 1974, Zanuck, Brown, and Benchley hit the television and radio talk show circuit to promote the paperback edition of the novel and the forthcoming film. The studio and publisher Bantam agreed on

7540-482: The film. Many pieces of dialogue originated from the actors' improvisations during these meals; a few were created on set just prior to filming. John Milius contributed other dialogue polishes, and Sugarland Express writers Matthew Robbins and Hal Barwood also made uncredited contributions. Spielberg has claimed that he prepared his own draft, although it is unclear to what degree the other screenwriters drew on his material. One specific alteration he called for in

7656-452: The first two acts and base the first two acts on original screenplay material, and then be very true to the book for the last third." When the producers purchased the rights to his novel, they promised Benchley that he could write the first draft of the screenplay . The intent was to make sure a script could be done despite an impending threat of a Writer's Guild strike, given Benchley was not unionized. Overall, he wrote three drafts before

7772-462: The girl's remains, confirming that an abnormally large shark killed her. When local fishermen catch a tiger shark , Vaughn declares the beaches safe. A skeptical Hooper dissects the tiger shark and, finding no human remains inside its stomach, concludes that the killer shark is still out there. While searching the night waters in Hooper's boat, Hooper and Brody find the half-sunken boat of Ben Gardner,

7888-540: The killed sharks (something he later regretted). "He always said the charter business was 90 percent show and 10 percent go," said Chris Miller, a Montauk resident who had seen him on the docks. He colored his big toenails red and green for port and starboard. He wore a hoop earring and an Australian slouch hat and a shark tooth necklace. In 2005, he appeared in Shark Hunter: Chasing the Great White ,

8004-488: The largest shark, but for the largest fish of any kind ever caught by rod and reel. The capture of the shark was controversial at the time, with some saying the shark was feeding on a whale when caught (which would have negated the so-called "official record"). The International Game Fishing Association ruled that the catch was legitimate based on photographs. In 1991 the U.S. Coast Guard said that Mundus' license had expired and he had to reapply. He initially attempted to sell

8120-399: The last reel"; and It Came From Outer Space , where "the suspense was built up because the creature was always off-camera". Those precedents helped Spielberg and Gottlieb to "concentrate on showing the 'effects' of the shark rather than the shark itself". Scholars such as Thomas Schatz have described how Jaws melds various genres while essentially being an action film and a thriller. Most

8236-401: The magazine's book editor gave a detailed description of the plot, concluding with the comment "might make a good movie". The producers each read the book over the course of a single night and agreed the next morning that it was "the most exciting thing that they had ever read" and that they wanted to produce a film version, although they were unsure how it would be accomplished. They purchased

8352-487: The mayor of Amity Island. Stuntwoman-turned-actress Susan Backlinie was cast as Chrissie (the first victim) as she knew how to swim and was willing to perform nude. Most minor roles were played by residents of Martha's Vineyard , where the film was shot. One example was Deputy Hendricks, played by future television producer Jeffrey Kramer . Lee Fierro plays Mrs. Kintner, the mother of the shark's second victim Alex Kintner (played by Jeffrey Voorhees). The role of Brody

8468-426: The movie", so everyone kept overworking, and while as a writer he did not have to attend the ocean set every day, once the crewmen returned they arrived "ravaged and sunburnt, windblown and covered with salt water". Shooting at sea led to many delays: unwanted sailboats drifted into frame, cameras got soaked, and the Orca once began to sink with the actors on board. The prop sharks frequently malfunctioned owing to

8584-440: The moving parts. For Quint's boat, the Orca , Alves and his team constructed two identical 42-foot models for the film. The second boat, dubbed Orca II , had no motor and was designed to sink on command. Jaws was the first major motion picture to be shot on the ocean, resulting in a troubled shoot, and went far over budget. David Brown said that the budget "was $ 4 million and the picture wound up costing $ 9 million";

8700-403: The only red element and cause a bigger shock. Initially the film's producers wanted to train a great white shark but quickly realized this was not possible, so three full-size pneumatically powered prop sharks—which the film crew nicknamed "Bruce" after Spielberg's lawyer, Bruce Ramer—were made for the production: a "sea-sled shark", a full-body prop with its belly missing that was towed with

8816-635: The original release of its sequel The Trial of Billy Jack , the Dirty Harry sequel Magnum Force , and the latest installments in the James Bond series . Still, the typical major studio film release at the time involved opening at a few big-city theaters, which allowed for a series of premieres. Distributors would then slowly forward prints to additional locales across the country, capitalizing on any positive critical or audience response. The outsized success of The Godfather in 1972 had sparked

8932-612: The original score, and Varèse Sarabande put out a rerecording of the score performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra , conducted by Joel McNeely . Herman Melville 's Moby-Dick is the most notable artistic antecedent to Jaws . The character of Quint strongly resembles Captain Ahab , the obsessed captain of the Pequod who devotes his life to hunting a sperm whale . Quint's monologue reveals

9048-471: The otherwise rejected or unwanted parts of slaughtered animals such as internal organs . In Australia and New Zealand, chum is referred to as burley , berley or berleying . In the United Kingdom, it is also known as rubby dubby ( West Country and Yorkshire ), shirvey or chirvey ( Guernsey ), and bait balls . Chumming is a common practice seen as effective by fishermen all over

9164-416: The port at Lake Montauk. Mundus with his colorful character became immediately popular. He further helped his reputation by catching a 4,500 pound great white shark by harpoon (the weight was estimated without the shark having been weighed). In 1986 he and Donnie Braddick caught a 3,427-pound great white about 28 miles off Montauk, and only 18 miles from Block Island, which still holds the record, not only for

9280-460: The poster; principal Tony Seiniger explained that "no matter what we did, it didn't look scary enough". Seiniger ultimately decided that "you had to actually go underneath the shark so you could see his teeth." More merchandise was created to take advantage of the film's release. In 1999, Graeme Turner wrote that Jaws was accompanied by what was "probably the most elaborate array of tie-ins" including "a sound-track album, T-shirts, plastic tumblers,

9396-581: The previous presentations, was held in Hollywood on April 24. After Universal chairman Lew Wasserman attended one of the screenings, he ordered the film's initial release—planned for a massive total of as many as 900 theaters—to be cut down, declaring, "I want this picture to run all summer long. I don't want people in Palm Springs to see the picture in Palm Springs. I want them to have to get in their cars and drive to see it in Hollywood." Nonetheless,

9512-427: The producers regarding a writing job. While the deal was initially for a "one-week dialogue polish", Gottlieb eventually became the primary screenwriter, rewriting nearly the entire script during a nine-week period of principal photography. The script for each scene was typically finished the night before it was shot, after Gottlieb had dinner with Spielberg and members of the cast and crew to decide what would go into

9628-430: The release of Star Wars two years later; both films were pivotal in establishing the modern Hollywood business model, which pursues high box-office returns from action and adventure films with simple high-concept premises, released during the summer in thousands of theaters and advertised heavily. Jaws was followed by three sequels (none of which involved Spielberg or Benchley) and many imitative thrillers. In 2001,

9744-483: The same," he said. As for his lack of experience: "I was naive about the ocean, basically. I was pretty naive about mother nature and the hubris of a filmmaker who thinks he can conquer the elements was foolhardy, but I was too young to know I was being foolhardy when I demanded that we shoot the film in the Atlantic Ocean and not in a North Hollywood tank." Gottlieb said that "there was nothing to do except make

9860-478: The score he evoked "pirate music", which he called "primal, but fun and entertaining". Calling for rapid, percussive string playing, the score contains echoes of Claude Debussy 's La mer and of Igor Stravinsky 's The Rite of Spring . There are various interpretations of the meaning and effectiveness of the primary music theme, which is widely described as one of the most recognizable cinematic themes of all time. Music scholar Joseph Cancellaro proposes that

9976-623: The script as lines of both Gardner and Quint. Another source for some of Quint's dialogue and mannerisms, especially in the third act at sea, was Vineyard mechanic and boat-owner Lynn Murphy. For the role of Hooper, Spielberg initially wanted Jon Voight . Timothy Bottoms , Jan-Michael Vincent , Joel Grey , and Jeff Bridges were also considered for the part. Spielberg's friend George Lucas suggested Richard Dreyfuss , whom he had directed in American Graffiti . The actor initially passed but changed his decision after he attended

10092-466: The script was turned over to other writers; delivering his final version to Spielberg, he declared, "I'm written out on this, and that's the best I can do." Benchley later described his contribution to the finished film as "the storyline and the ocean stuff—basically, the mechanics", given he "didn't know how to put the character texture into a screenplay." One of his changes was to remove the novel's adulterous affair between Ellen Brody and Matt Hooper, at

10208-431: The several hundred theaters that were still booked for the opening represented what was then an unusually wide release. At the time, wide openings were associated with movies of doubtful quality; not uncommon on the exploitation side of the industry, they were customarily employed to diminish the effect of negative reviews and word of mouth. There had been some recent exceptions, including the rerelease of Billy Jack and

10324-621: The shark and the multiple ways in which it can be and has been read—from representing alien menaces such as communism or the Third World to more intimate dreads concerning the unreality of contemporary American life and the vain efforts to sanitize and suppress the knowledge of death. He asserts that its symbolic function is to be found in this very "polysemousness which is profoundly ideological, insofar as it allows essentially social and historical anxieties to be folded back into apparently 'natural' ones ... to be recontained in what looks like

10440-433: The shark with strychnine via a hypodermic spear. The shark viciously attacks the cage, causing Hooper to drop the spear. While the shark destroys the cage, Hooper escapes to the seabed. The shark leaps onto the boat's stern, subsequently devouring Quint. Trapped on the sinking vessel, Brody shoves a scuba tank into the shark's mouth and, climbing onto the crow's nest, shoots the tank with a rifle. The resulting explosion kills

10556-517: The shark's point of view have been compared with passages in two 1950s horror films, Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Monster That Challenged the World . Gottlieb named two science fiction productions from the same era as influences on how the shark was depicted, or not: The Thing from Another World , which Gottlieb described as "a great horror film where you only see the monster in

10672-402: The shark. Hooper resurfaces and he and Brody paddle back to Amity Island, clinging to the remaining barrels. Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown , producers at Universal Pictures , independently heard about Peter Benchley's novel Jaws . Brown came across it in the literature section of lifestyle magazine Cosmopolitan , then edited by his wife, Helen Gurley Brown . A small card written by

10788-437: The sole villain beside the shark is the town's venal mayor. Yet he observes that, far from the narrative formulas so often employed by New Hollywood filmmakers of the era—involving Us vs. Them, hip counterculture figures vs. " The Man "—the overarching conflict in Jaws does not pit the heroes against authority figures, but against a menace that targets everyone regardless of socioeconomic position. Whereas Britton states that

10904-523: The sound of the truck being destroyed as the death roar of the shark. After Richards's departure, the producers signed Spielberg to direct in June 1973, before the release of The Sugarland Express . Before production began, Spielberg grew reluctant to continue with Jaws , in fear of becoming typecast as the "truck and shark director". He wanted to move over to 20th Century Fox 's Lucky Lady instead, but Universal exercised its right under its contract with

11020-416: The story was to change the cause of the shark's death from extensive wounds to a scuba tank explosion, as he felt audiences would respond better to a "big rousing ending". The director estimated the final script had a total of 27 scenes that were not in the book. Benchley had written Jaws after reading about sport fisherman Frank Mundus 's capture of an enormous shark in 1964. According to Gottlieb, Quint

11136-601: The suggestion of Spielberg, who feared it would compromise the camaraderie between the men on the Orca . During the film's production, Benchley agreed to return and play a small onscreen role as a reporter. Spielberg, who felt that the characters in Benchley's script were still unlikable, invited the young screenwriter John Byrum to do a rewrite, but he declined the offer. Columbo creators William Link and Richard Levinson also declined Spielberg's invitation. Tony and Pulitzer Prize -winning playwright Howard Sackler

11252-436: The time. (A month earlier, Columbia Pictures had done something similar with a Charles Bronson thriller, Breakout , though that film's prospects for an extended run were much slimmer, and it is today a common misconception that Jaws was the first to use an ad saturation strategy.) Universal president Sid Sheinberg reasoned that nationwide marketing costs would be amortized at a more favorable rate per print relative to

11368-428: The two-note expression mimics the shark's heartbeat. According to Alexandre Tylski, like themes Bernard Herrmann wrote for Taxi Driver , North by Northwest , and particularly Mysterious Island , it suggests human respiration. He further argues that the score's strongest motif is actually "the split, the rupture"—when it dramatically cuts off, as after Chrissie's death. The relationship between sound and silence

11484-440: The water in order to lure various marine animals (usually large game fish ) to a designated fishing ground , so the target animals are more easily caught by hooking or spearing . Chums typically consist of fresh chunks of fish meat with bone and blood, the scent of which attracts predatory fish , particularly sharks , billfishes , tunas and groupers . In the past, the chum contents have also been made from " offal ",

11600-537: The world, typically in open oceans. Multiple forms of chum are available and used by anglers . Bunker consists of fish parts with a fish-enticing aroma. Stink bait contains oily fish parts and blood that releases the scent of dead fish into the water. Sour grain is a commonly used form of chum bait when fishing for catfish in inland waters of the Southern United States. Native Americans used two methods of chumming. First, they would lie alongside

11716-479: Was a godsend. It made me become more like Alfred Hitchcock than like Ray Harryhausen ." The acting became crucial for making audiences believe in such a big shark: "The more fake the shark looked in the water, the more my anxiety told me to heighten the naturalism of the performances." Footage of real sharks was shot by Ron and Valerie Taylor in the waters off Dangerous Reef in South Australia , with

11832-435: Was also a playwright. According to the director, Milius turned Sackler's "three-quarters of a page" speech into a monologue, and that was then partially rewritten by Shaw. Gottlieb gives primary credit to Shaw, downplaying Milius's contribution. Though Spielberg complied with a request from Zanuck and Brown to cast known actors, he wanted to avoid hiring any big stars. He felt that "somewhat anonymous" performers would help

11948-457: Was among the second wave of searchers, and helped tow the hull of the Pelican to port with ten dead bodies still trapped inside. The disaster was the worst in Montauk recreational history and led to numerous laws regulating the industry. Mundus soon discovered that bluefish were not plentiful in Montauk waters, but sharks were. Mundus started what he called "Monster Fishing" with boats leaving

12064-485: Was consequently altered to have Hooper escape from the cage, which allowed the footage to be used. As production executive Bill Gilmore put it, "The shark down in Australia rewrote the script and saved Dreyfuss's character." Although principal photography was scheduled to take 55 days, it did not wrap until October 6, 1974, after 159 days. Spielberg, reflecting on the protracted shoot, stated, "I thought my career as

12180-486: Was given to eastern Long Island . Brown explained later that the production "needed a vacation area that was lower middle class enough so that an appearance of a shark would destroy the tourist business." Martha's Vineyard was also chosen because the surrounding ocean had a sandy bottom that never dropped below 35 feet (11 m) for 12 miles (19 km) out from shore, which allowed the mechanical sharks to operate while also beyond sight of land. As Spielberg wanted to film

12296-596: Was in Los Angeles when the filmmakers began looking for another writer and offered to do an uncredited rewrite; since the producers and Spielberg were unhappy with Benchley's drafts, they quickly agreed. At the suggestion of Spielberg, Brody's characterization made him afraid of water, "coming from an urban jungle to find something more terrifying off this placid island near Massachusetts." Spielberg wanted "some levity" in Jaws , humor that would avoid making it "a dark sea hunt", so he turned to his friend Carl Gottlieb ,

12412-506: Was later ranked the sixth-greatest score by the American Film Institute . The main "shark" theme, a simple alternating pattern of two notes —variously identified as "E and F" or "F and F sharp" —became a classic piece of suspense music, synonymous with approaching danger (see leading-tone ). Williams described the theme as "grinding away at you, just as a shark would do, instinctual, relentless, unstoppable." The piece

12528-415: Was later used in a study by Brian R. Johnson to test how susceptible audiences were to cinematic stress inducers. His study found that stress could be induced by cinema in segments of the general population, and Jaws specifically caused stress reactions in its viewers. While Johnson could not find an exact cause for the stress response in viewers, whether it be the suspense, the gore or the music production,

12644-568: Was loosely based on Mundus, whose book Sportfishing for Sharks he read for research. Sackler came up with the backstory of Quint as a survivor of the World War II USS ; Indianapolis disaster. The question of who deserves the most credit for writing Quint's monologue about the Indianapolis has caused substantial controversy. Spielberg described it as a collaboration between Sackler, Milius, and actor Robert Shaw , who

12760-410: Was offered to Robert Duvall , but the actor was interested only in portraying Quint. Charlton Heston expressed a desire for the role but Spielberg felt that Heston would bring a screen persona too grand for the part of a police chief of a modest community. Roy Scheider became interested in the project after overhearing Spielberg at a party talk with a screenwriter about having the shark jump up onto

12876-488: Was performed by tuba player Tommy Johnson . When asked by Johnson why the melody was written in such a high register and not played by the more appropriate French horn, Williams responded that he wanted it to sound "a little more threatening". When Williams first demonstrated his idea to Spielberg, playing just the two notes on a piano, Spielberg was said to have laughed, thinking that it was a joke. As Williams saw similarities between Jaws and pirate movies, at other points in

12992-568: Was reluctant to take the role since he did not like the book but decided to accept at the urging of both his wife, actress Mary Ure and his secretary—"The last time they were that enthusiastic was From Russia with Love . And they were right". Shaw based his performance on fellow cast member Craig Kingsbury, a local fisherman, farmer and legendary eccentric, who was cast in the small role of fisherman Ben Gardner. Spielberg described Kingsbury as "the purest version of who, in my mind, Quint was" and some of his offscreen utterances were incorporated into

13108-488: Was rewritten so that it would be shot with Backlinie being dragged and yanked by cables to simulate an attack. Spielberg also included multiple shots of just the dorsal fin. This forced restraint is widely thought to have added to the film's suspense. As Spielberg put it years later, "The film went from a Japanese Saturday matinee horror flick to more of a Hitchcock , the less-you-see-the-more-you-get thriller." In another interview, he similarly declared, "The shark not working

13224-515: Was shot in Fields's swimming pool in Encino, California , using a lifecast latex model of Craig Kingsbury's head attached to a fake body, which was placed in the wrecked boat's hull. To simulate the murky waters of Martha's Vineyard, powdered milk was poured into the pool, which was then covered with a tarpaulin . John Williams composed the film's score , which earned him an Academy Award and

13340-505: Was the first major motion picture to be shot on the ocean and consequently had a troubled production, going over budget and schedule. As the art department's mechanical sharks often malfunctioned, Spielberg decided to mostly suggest the shark's presence, employing an ominous and minimalist theme created by composer John Williams to indicate its impending appearances. Spielberg and others have compared this suggestive approach to that of director Alfred Hitchcock . Universal Pictures ' release of

13456-539: Was the inspiration but had publicly denied the association for legal reasons. They note the following: In comparisons to his character in Jaws , his website quotes him: What did you think about the movie Jaws? Is it true that the shark hunter "Quint" in Jaws is based on you? In what ways does he resemble you? Chumming Chumming ( American English from Powhatan ) is the blue water fishing practice of throwing meat -based groundbait called " chum " into

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