How JAWS' baptism of fire gave us a better Steven Spielberg
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For nearly six decades, four words have brought millions of people to the cinema. Those words? “A Steven Spielberg Film” However, there is one film that will forever keep this amazing filmmaker in my mind and that film is JAWS.
It's almost impossible to fathom the amazing success of JAWS. This was a film that was behind budget, over schedule, had a temperamental mechanical star and a young director who feared he’d be fired daily. I think because of all of these obstacles, and despite his great successes over the years, JAWS remains the project Spielberg is most proud of.
It was while finishing post-production work on his first feature film, The Sugarland Express, that Spielberg became aware of JAWS. As an author I know that before a book is approved for publishing a series of “galleys” are prepared. Galleys are the unfinished book which is sent to the author and book editor to look over and make any last-minute corrections. Major publishers also send galleys to various Hollywood executives in the hope it will be read and an offer is made to turn the project into a film. Producer David Brown, who along with Richard D. Zanuck, produced The Sugarland Express, was married to “Cosmopolitan” magazine editor Helen Gurley Brown.
She had given her husband a series of cards that had been compiled by her book editor. On the card devoted to Peter Benchley’s novel “JAWS” was a description of the story and a note that read “might make a good movie.” Brown obtained a copy of the book’s galley, read it, and liked it. He sent it to Dick Zanuck, who did the same thing. It was while in Brown’s office that Spielberg first saw the words “JAWS” on the side of the galley and picked it up, jokingly thinking it might be a novel about dentists. The rest, as they say, is history.
I think the baptism by fire that was the filming of JAWS is why Steven Spielberg went on to become the filmmaker he is. The constant script issues, the shark not working and the film’s budget almost tripling, not to mention a planned 55-day shooting schedule stretched to 159 would have surely destroyed a lesser talent. I think all of the above is the reason JAWS will never be remade.
Like 1979’s Apocalypse Now, every frame of JAWS contains the heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears of the director. In today’s Hollywood, they would throw the ORCA in front of a green screen, computer generate the shark and throw it into 3000 theatres. And it would be terrible! Besides, what director would want to be compared to the genius that is Steven Spielberg? John Hancock, the original director of JAWS 2, told me that, had he known Steven Spielberg would go on to become STEVEN SPIELBERG, he never would have taken the gig.
Steven Spielberg will turn 77 this week. And he gave US the greatest present with JAWS.
Words by Michael A Smith. Michael is co-author of Jaws 2: The Making Of The Hollywood Sequel. You can order the book by contacting Michael at OsFanMike@aol.com.
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