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T R I V I A
Steven
Spielberg wanted Sterling Hayden for the role of Quint. Hayden, however, was
in trouble with the Internal Revenue Service for unpaid tax. All Hayden's income
from acting was subject to a levy by the IRS, so there was an attempt to
circumvent that: Hayden was also a writer, so one idea was to pay him union
scale for his acting, and buy a story from him (his literary income wasn't
subject to levy) for a large sum. It was concluded that the IRS would see
through this scheme, so Robert Shaw
was cast instead.
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During pre-production, director
Steven Spielberg, accompanied by
friends George Lucas and John Milius visited the effects shop where Bruce the
shark was being constructed. Lucas stuck his head in the shark's mouth to see
how it worked, and as a joke, Milius and Spielberg sneaked to the controls and
made the jaw clamp shut on Lucas' head. Unfortunately, and rather prophetically,
considering the later technical difficulties the production would suffer, the
shark malfunctioned, and Lucas got stuck in the mouth of the shark. When
Spielberg and Milius were finally able to free him, the three men ran out of the
workshop, afraid they'd done major damage to the creature.
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Charlton
Heston was considered for the role of Chief Brody. Jeff Bridges, Timothy
Bottoms, Jon Voight, and Jan-Michael Vincent were considered for the role of
Hooper.
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Author Peter Benchley's choices for whom to cast
in the film: Robert Redford, Paul Newman and Steve McQueen.
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The live shark footage was shot at Seal Rocks,
Australia. A real white pointer was cut up and "extended" for the close-up
shots.
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When Jaws attacks Hooper's cage, there's live
footage of a real Great White with a rope hanging from its mouth. This shark's
mouth is clearly much smaller than Jaws' mouth when it attacks the boat moments
later. These scenes were filmed by noted shark photographers Ron Taylor and
Valerie Taylor specifically for the movie. Because the Great White sharks they
filmed would be smaller than the mechanical shark in the movie, they constructed
a smaller version of Hooper's shark cage. Inside the cage they alternately used
a small mannequin or a little person. One of the sharks they attracted got
caught in the cage's cables and tore it apart trying to escape. The footage was
so good that they changed the script to reflect the destroyed cage and Hooper
escaping by hiding on the ocean floor. However, the small person used in the
scene refused to go back in the miniature cage, which was damaged in the
incident.
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Quint's boathouse set was built in Martha's
Vineyard on an abandoned lot. The city council made the production crew sign an
agreement to demolish it after filming and replace everything exactly as it had
been - right down to the litter.
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Preview audiences screamed when the head of a
shark victim appears in the hole in the bottom of the boat. Director
Steven Spielberg re-shot the scene
in editor Verna Fields swimming pool because he wanted them to "scream louder".
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Author
Peter Benchley was thrown off the set after objecting to the climax.
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Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, was used as
Amity Island primarily because even 12 miles out to sea, the sandy bottom was
only 30 feet down, allowing the mechanical shark to function. Residents were
paid $64 to scream and run across the beach as extras.
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The first shark killed on the docks which is
supposed to be the "man-eater" in the movie is actually a real shark killed in
Florida because there wasn't a big enough one in Martha's Vineyard.
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Brody's dog in the movie was actually
Steven Spielberg's real dog.
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The mechanical shark spent most of the movie
broken-down, and was unavailable for certain shots. This led
Steven Spielberg to use the camera
as the "shark", and film from the shark's point of view. Many think this added
to the "chilling/haunting" quality in the final release saying that it would
have made it too "cheesy" had they shown the shark as much as originally
planned.
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When Roy
Scheider was trapped in the sinking Orca, it took 75 takes to get the shot
right. Scheider did not trust the special effects team to rescue him in case of
an emergency so he hid axes and hatchets around the cabin just in case.
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After the shark was built, it was never tested in
the water, and when it was put in the water at Martha's Vineyard, it sank
straight to the ocean floor. It took a team of divers to retrieve it.
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The lighthouse in the film near the beach is an
actual lighthouse on Martha's Vineyard where the filming took place. Because of
the billboard in the scene, the lighthouse had to be "moved" with special
effects in postproduction
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Steven
Spielberg named the shark "Bruce" after his lawyer.
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In the actual Jersey Beach shark attacks of 1916
(which Hooper mentions in the film), the sequence of attacks is similar to that
of the film: a swimmer in the surf; a dog; a boy; and the leg of a man in a
tidal slough.
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This was the first movie to reach the coveted $100
million mark.
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Robert Shaw could not stand Richard Dreyfuss and
they argued all the time, which resulted in some good tension between Hooper and
Quint.
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The average summer tourist population of Martha's
Vineyard before the film was released was approximately 5,000 people. After it
came out, the population ballooned to 15,000.
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Cameo: [Peter Benchley] reporter on the
beach.
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The movie's line "You're gonna need a bigger
boat." was voted as the #35 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of
100).
(IMDB.COM) |
