Jaws (1975)
- To accurately portray their role in Jaws, Roy Scheider spent weeks conducting hands-on research and rehearsing directly with director Steven Spielberg.
- Jaws utilized mostly practical sets and locations to ground the story, a specific choice insisted upon by Steven Spielberg.
Jaws is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg, widely credited as the first summer blockbuster and one of the most influential films in cinema history. Based on Peter Benchley's 1974 novel, the film follows Police Chief Martin Brody, played by Roy Scheider, marine biologist Matt Hooper, played by Richard Dreyfuss, and grizzled shark hunter Quint, played by Robert Shaw, as they attempt to stop a great white shark that is terrorizing the fictional New England beach town of Amity Island during tourist season. The mechanical shark, nicknamed "Bruce" by the crew, famously malfunctioned repeatedly during production, forcing Spielberg to suggest the shark's presence through underwater camera angles, John Williams's iconic two-note theme, and the reactions of terrified swimmers rather than showing the creature โ a limitation that inadvertently made the film far more suspenseful than a fully visible shark would have been.
Robert Shaw's monologue about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, delivered in a single mesmerizing take, is considered one of the greatest scenes in American cinema. John Williams's score โ perhaps the most recognizable musical motif in film history โ won the Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score. Jaws earned $472 million worldwide on a $7 million budget, becoming the first film to earn over $100 million domestically and inventing the concept of the wide-release summer blockbuster that would transform the film industry.
The film won three Academy Awards and fundamentally altered humanity's relationship with the ocean.
