JAWS SCREENWRITER EXPLAINS STORY BEHIND THE INDIANAPOLIS SPEECH
That speech. That. Speech. Jaws would not be Jaws without Quint’s retelling of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. It explains Quint’s hatred for sharks, his choice of career and also some of his behaviour hinting at PTSD.
Actor Robert Shaw (Quint) is credited with writing the version of the speech as performed in the movie but the road to the Indianapolis speech was paved in multiple versions from numerous writers.
However, it was the uncredited writer Howard Sackler,(who adapted the Peter Benchley screenplay) that conceived the idea. In an interview with The Writer’s Guild Foundation, Jaws screenwriter Carl Gottlieb explained that Howard Sackler was a navy man so knew the story of the Indianapolis because something was “needed to explain Quint’s character.”
This resulted in 2 pages of dialogue and actors and writers looked at it and ‘blanched’. Steven Spielberg was nervous about it too. He asked all his writer friends to take a pass at it including Robert Zemekis & Bob Gale (Back To The Future) and Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull) to name a few.
In total, there were 10 versions of the speech. All were given to Robert Shaw who its worth noting is a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright (Man in The Glass Booth).
“Robert Shaw knows his way around a typewriter. ”
During the shoot, Shaw ‘synthesised’ previous the versions and one night at dinner announced that he felt he had “that pesky speech licked.” He then performed it at the dinner table and everyone was blown away with Spielberg confirming”that’s what we’re shooting.” And the rest is cinematic history. Watch the full interview with Carl Gottlieb below.
Words by Ross Williams
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