The movies that influenced Steven Spielberg's Jaws
Steven Spielberg was raised on movies, they were everything to him, an escape from the world, a place where he could control things and was free to dream. His earliest memory of going to the cinema was when his father took him to see ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ and for the first few minutes he was angry, he thought he was being taken to the actual circus - this wasn’t real at all! But then, as he sat back and watched, he became utterly transfixed. He was swept up by the spectacle of it, by the story telling and how Cecil B DeMille carved out this wonderful piece of entertainment and then put it up on that gigantic screen.
Once young Steven had seen it, there was nothing else he wanted to do with his life.
When you’re that in love with movies, you’re bound to carry fragments of your favourites with you inside your head. They inspire you and because they made you so happy, you also kind of want to share them with the world.
Your past informs your future and the movies Spielberg saw growing up were bound to bubble up to the surface every now and again, shaping his own work.
So what movies do I think inform Jaws?
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
A very good friend of mine told me about the time he was working as part of the security on ‘The Color Purple’. He asked Spielberg about where he got his ideas from, because he reckoned the director watched a lot of the same movies as he did growing up. Spielberg was confused for a moment until my friend mentioned…The Creature.
The ‘Bearded One’ quickly put a finger to his lips, whispering - “Shhh, don’t tell anyone, I’ve got away with that one for 10 years.”
It’s perhaps Jaws’ most famous moment - the opening attack. Chrissie strips off and goes for a nighttime swim to see if the drunk boy (Tom - rich kid, goes to Trinity, probably never been ditched in his life) can keep up with her.
And of course…it doesn’t end well for Chrissie.
Anyway, if you watch the ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’, you’ll see nearly this exact same scene. There are some key differences, it takes place during daylight, Gill Man is seen lurking in the weeds and also, this being 1954 - Julie Adams playing swimmer Fay Lawrence - wears a swimsuit. And she doesn’t get eaten either.
Other than that though, it’s almost shot for shot.
This is what you’d call a direct reference, it’s a homage, and a nod to a great piece of popular cinema. It was so perfect, why pretend it’s your idea? Just switch some bits around, chuck in a few effects, lots of screaming and gurgling and you’ve got yourself one of the most nerve-shredding death scenes since Psycho.
Oh, would you look at that…
Psycho (1960)
Hitchcock loved a bit of tension and terror and his 1960’s classic has a one big parallel with Jaws: Water.
When you get in the shower, you’re naked - unless your washing machine broke and you’re killing two birds with one stone.
So immediately you’re not exactly ready for a fight to the death. Who wants a scrap when they don’t even have their pants on? John McClane had enough trouble and all he was missing was his shoes and shirt.
Poor Janet Leigh as Marion Crane could easily slip, hit her head and die while her attacker has the upper hand - and that hand’s holding a big carving knife.
Marion’s brain doesn’t have a chance to process anything she’d been repeatedly stabbed (even though we don’t see it) and before she knows what’s happening, the blood’s swirling round the plug hole and she’s done for.
In Jaws, things are not too dissimilar. Our victim is, once again, vulnerable, naked and in water. The killer is powerful, unforgiving and relentless. He is in his natural habitat and Chrissie’s totally defenceless. She shouts and screams, pleads for mercy but in the end… “despite all the poundin’ and hollerin’ those sharks come in and…they rip you to pieces”.
And there we have it, two blonde women, both naked, both under attack from unseen, unknown killers who strike without warning.
There’s also a more troubling parallel - that both female characters seem to have been brutally punishment for their actions.
I’m not saying that this was what Hitchcock and Spielberg were going for, but it is possible to view both deaths from that angle.
So what did these women do?
Marion Crane stole $40,000 to pay off her lover’s debts then leaves town in a hurry. Yes, she broke the law but she was desperate and acted rashly. But she tries to make amends, deciding to pay the money back. Unfortunately, it’s all too late for Marion, her sentence has been set and there will be no appeal hearing. She strayed into Norman Bates’s territory after breaking the rules and ‘pays for her crime’ with her life.
Chrissie Watkins (Susan Backlinie) was also on the run - literally - from Tom and ‘escapes’ into the ocean, the territory of the shark. Is she punished for deciding to avoid the drunken advances of a man? Is this why she’s killed so horrifically by the shark?
Now ok, you can’t make films about knife-wielding maniacs or killer sharks without people dying, but there does seem to be a cruel machine at work here. Would the first attacks have been quite so affecting and visceral if the victims had been men? And would male characters have been cut down in the same way? It’s a bit like ‘The Rules’ in Wes Craven’s ‘Scream’ series.
You may not survive the movie is you have sex. Marion did this (or rather it is implied) and Chrissie’s fate was sealed when she ran off across the dunes with Tom.
You may not survive the movie if you drink or take drugs. No drugs but Chrissie was at a boozy beach party.
The past will come back to bite you in the ass. This mostly applies to Marion but even the smallest of dalliance by Chrissie means she doesn’t stand a chance.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
One of the things Jaws is very famous for is the legend of it’s uncooperative star. Bruce (dubbed the Great White Turd by Spielberg) looked like a shark but as soon as he got in the water, he went cross-eyed and sank - almost taking the movie with him.
Charged with creating the monster was special effects guru, Bob Mattey - the man who built the giant squid for ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’. He’d been suggested by Spielberg, because surely the guy who made something that big wouldn’t think twice about make a 25 foot long Great White.
Just about everyone else passed on the chance, but the famously optimistic Bob happily signed on the dotted line and began work.
‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ was a massive box office hit, it elevating the craft of special effects, showing what could really be done. But it wasn’t just the effects where the movies are similar, it’s things about the characters too. Specifically, the leads. Kirk Douglas’s character who fights the giant squid is called Ned Land. And when you look at Jaws you have Brody, an Everyman hero cop who hates the sea. He wants nothing to do with it, much preferring to stay on terra firma - or LAND as it’s otherwise known. Add into this his first attempt to fight off the shark is with a long boat hook - that looks very much like an old fashioned harpoon. The Disney film definitely informed Jaws. Quint and Captain Nemo seem to be cut from some of the same cloth too. Both are more at home on the sea, distrusting those who live on the land. Nemo lost his family because of the march of British imperialism, Quint lost his buddies on the Indianapolis because the ship was torpedoed by the submarine - representing the very worse of man’s technological progress. Nemo (or rather his submarine Nautalis) represents both Quint and Bruce. In ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’, Nemo only rises to the surface to destroy the British ships, Bruce only comes to the surface to attack the humans who dare to invade his home. Nemo and Quint are maniacal, lost souls. Driven by revenge and unhinged they are fearless and uncompromising.
The Searchers (1956)
The first western to inform the story of Jaws is ‘The Searchers’ - a movie Spielberg claims to watch whenever he’s preparing to start filming a new project.
Made in 1956, The Searchers stars John Wayne as Ethan Edwards, a man beaten down mentally by the Civil War (not that he’d ever admit it, of course) and directed by John Ford who - in public at least - was something of a ‘Quint character’ himself. He cultivated the outward image of a “tough, two-fisted, hard-drinking Irish sonofabitch” but by all accounts was quite the opposite in private. The Searchers is all about doggedly hunting down a dangerous foe - in this case a Native American chief named Scar. Ethan has escaped the madness of war and finds himself back in the world and somewhat adrift - but the violence and terror follows him.
It’s quite similar to Brody’s situation where he left the city behind with its high crime rate - a place he felt powerless to change, so he moved away. But once again, violence reemerges - disrupting his life again.
In The Searchers, Ethan’s brother’s homestead is attacked and his nieces are abducted by Comanches. Ethan sets out to exact revenge upon the tribe and the role is played brilliantly by Wayne, you’re both repelled and attracted to him - much the same as an audience feels about Quint.
Ethan is Quint in this movie, we see the same cold blooded determination in both Wayne and Shaw’s acting, neither of their characters really care if they causing collateral damage, both men are myopic in their worldview. They don’t want to know that things might be changing, they’ve been set on a course and they will finish the job - and they’ll do it how they want to, everyone else can go hang.
This is not Brody’s view of course, he thinks about how his actions affect others, he considers risk and when he needs to be, he’s cautious. He understands about how things look to others, he can’t just go charging off, gun in hand (in fact, you only see him with a revolver onboard the Orca) railing against this beast.
Rio Bravo (1959)
The second western reflected by Jaws is Rio Bravo. Made in 1959 and directed by Howard Hawks, once again starring John Wayne, this time as Sheriff John T Chance.
The movie tells the story of a small town sheriff, facing off against a gang of outlaws, who are determined to spring one of their number from the jail. The sheriff has the help of a young gunfighter, and a booze-soaked morose, plus the occasional assistance of Stumpy - an old man with an itchy trigger finger and one good leg. The gunfighter, semi-drunk and sheriff form an uneasy alliance as they try to save the townsfolk from danger.
There are quite a few obvious links to the premise of Jaws but it’s the idea of ‘facing down the odds and holding your nerve’ that really shines through. In a way, Wayne plays Sheriff Chance - as an amalgam of Quint (unflinching, certain of his actions and beliefs) and Brody - they’re both lawmen who know it’s up to them to do the right thing and defend the people.
Rio Bravo was made - in part - as an answer to High Noon, a movie that Wayne saw as ‘un-American.’ According to reports, the Gary Cooper picture criticised the McCarthy blacklisting trials of the 1950s - something Wayne enthusiastically supported and took part in. Both The Duke and Howard Hawks didn’t take to the idea of a sheriff ‘running round town like a chicken’ asking everybody he could for help. In Jaws, Brody is certainly not a carbon copy of the Wayne character but neither is he all Gary Cooper, it’s yet another combination of two characters.
In the scene at Amity Harbour, during the hunt for the shark by local fishermen, Brody explains the reality of the situation to Hendricks and how they need to deal with the chaos brewing on the water themselves.
Hendricks: What happened to the extra help we’re supposed to get?
Brody: That’s not till the Fourth of July, between now and then it’s just you and me.
Hooper (to Brody): You know those those eight guys on the fan tail launch out there?
Brody: Yeah?
Hooper: Well, none of them are going to get out of the harbour alive.
Brody:(to Hendricks) Lenny, that’s what I’m talking about, you know their first names, talk to those clowns.
Brody knows he needs help but he also recognises that needing help and actually receiving it are two very different things, especially in a small town like Amity - this isn’t New York. So he’s just as self reliant as John T Chance but with a softer, more amicable edge.
Jaws was not a movie that was inspired by another shark picture, it took different genres and folded them all together to create something beautiful, scary, funny and thrilling. It takes cues from submarines, giant squids, a part man/part fish and the owner of a hotel who keeps the body of his dead mother in the basement.
Oh and it’s also a Western.
And with inspirations like that, how could it miss?
Words by Tim Armitage
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