Star Wars: The truth about the shooting stars in JAWS
Shootings stars have become something of a signature in the films of Steven Spielberg, but the ones that have always caused the biggest debate have been those in Jaws (1975).
It’s always been asserted that they were real, even getting confirmed in a making of Jaws documentary from 1995, but still doubt has remained on their authenticity.
The stars, which streak across the screen during a wide shot of the Orca at night and a closer shot of Chief Brody (Roy Scheider), have almost caused more heated debate amongst Jaws fans than who wrote Quint’s USS Indianapolis speech. Our particular take on that speech is here:
The boat sequences in Jaws were all famously shot at sea, and like the opening attack sequence on Chrissie Watkins and the pier incident, all these scenes are clearly shot as day for night, which means it is shot in the day but simulated to look darker – as if night - in post-production.
If that is the case, then clearly the shooting stars wouldn’t have occurred in the daytime.
Could they have been added as a special effect afterwards? Possibly, although CGI – as seen in Jurassic Park – wasn’t even in existence yet, it was quite likely added optically as an effect, just like they did with the lighting up of Hooper’s tracker at night.
Some rather leftfield comments on social media have even suggested the filmmakers captured a real UFO. Er no, and it wasn’t Spielberg tipping his hat ahead of his next film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind either.
So, what do you think, real or not real?
At the end of the day, real or not, it doesn’t detract from the film or make it any better or worse. It’s always been something of a fascination, so will always be a star of…I wonder.
They’ve always been something I’ve noticed, right from the days of VHS, but with a cleaned up and crisper image, it’s arguable that more people have discovered the shootings stars recently thanks to the spruced-up image of Bruce, Brody, Quint and Hooper on Bluray and now in ultra HD.
To quote Fox Mulder, I want to believe.
The shooting stars in Jaws aren’t the only streaking lights to cameo in a Spielberg film.
Spielberg’s dad, Arnold Spielberg, woke the future film director when he was a child and took him to a hill that was packed with people looking skyward, where they witnessed a spectacular meteor shower. It was an event that clearly had a lasting impression on him as meteors or shooting stars have had cameos in several of his films.
That scene almost brought to life by Spielberg in his 1977 science-fiction classic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a film full of the sense of wonder that the young Spielberg must have felt stood atop that hill with his dad.
As well as Jaws and Close Encounters, shooting stars appear in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984).
Words by Dean Newman
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