Missing Link: "You'll need a bigger boat" – 50 years of "Jaws"
Jaws opens in US cinemas on June 20, 1975. Steven Spielberg's monster movie becomes an unprecedented success and changes more than just Hollywood.
(Image: Universal)
Even those who haven't seen the movie know the acoustic trademark of the "great white shark": da-dum da-dum da-dum. Two deep menacing tones that alternate, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, usually played with strings. The sound of danger. At first hearing, director Steven Spielberg thinks it's a joke by composer John Williams. But then he understands: sometimes brevity is the spice of life.
The same cannot be said of the filming. The 55 days planned ended up being 159, and the costs tripled. But in the end, the effort pays off. "Jaws" is released in US cinemas on June 20, 1975 and becomes the first film to earn 100 million dollars at the US box office. It went on to make almost 500 million worldwide. It thus knocks the three-year-old record of "The Godfather" off its throne (but cannot enjoy it for long because "Star Wars" is released two years later).
The success gives Hollywood new self-confidence. The film industry suffers from the growing influence of television and a certain lack of direction after the old-fashioned cinema of the 1960s with stars like Doris Day, with whom young audiences in particular can no longer identify.
The first summer hit
"Jaws is the first summer blockbuster (and is even in the Guinness Book of Records). Blockbuster because moviegoers line up in long queues at the box office that stretch around the block. And summer, because previously important films traditionally start in the fall and winter, also to benefit from the Oscars. Jaws" was also originally scheduled for Christmas 1974, but was delayed until June. Its great success leads to a rethink. Christmas remains important, but instead of spring, fall and winter, major films are now released in summer. The film is given three sequels, none of which come close to the original.
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Two other innovations contribute to its success. Previously, cinema films were staggered over a period of weeks and months, if only because of the limited number of film reels. However, "Jaws" is being released simultaneously in 409 cinemas.
In addition, for the first time there is a major advertising campaign on television, which is now seen as a partner rather than a competitor. As in the movie itself, the shark is barely visible in the TV commercials – only what it does. The fear, the screaming. Add to this the calm yet disturbing voice of the well-known trailer narrator Percy Rodriguez: "It's as if God created the devil ... and gave him a maw."
Of course, it also helps that the novel has become a bestseller in the meantime and has already sold 7.5 million copies – and the studio has managed to get the film's iconic poster, a giant shark with its mouth open beneath a swimming woman, as the cover for the paperback. "Jaws" is also one of the first films to be licensed for a wide variety of consumer products: T-shirts, underwear, mugs, badges, books, toys ...
The novel
The novel is the first work by Peter Benchley (who plays a small guest role as a TV reporter in the film). He mulls over the title of the book for ages - it should be something with "Jaws", like "The Jaws of Death", until he gets the decisive tip: "Jaws" is enough. In German, none of the common translations jaws, throat, mouth would work without additions, hence "Der weiße Hai".
The work receives early attention, which leads to a bidding war and proceeds of 150,000 dollars for the film rights; months before its release. An astonishing sum, even for the author, who only had a few hundred dollars to his name.
Spielberg sees the galley proof of the book on the desk of producer duo David Brown and Richard D. Zanuck, with whom he has already made his first feature film "Sugarland Express". "Jaws." What does that mean? Is it about a dentist? He reads it, borrows a copy and is thrilled: the battle of normal people against a higher power reminds him of his TV movie "Duel", in which a harmless driver is chased down the highway by a merciless truck. And both titles have four letters.
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The filming
After some back and forth, he is able to make the movie. But how? He looks at all kinds of underwater films, such as "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", and makes a decision that he later describes as "brave and stupid": It should actually be shot on the sea, not in the studio's water tank like all the feature films before it. With a huge dummy shark, not a small model.
The backdrop is the picturesque vacation island of Martha's Vineyard on the east coast. The locals are not thrilled about a large film crew arriving with trucks and all kinds of equipment. As in the novel, the place is given the ironic name Amity. Harmony.
For Spielberg, however, the real attraction lies beneath the surface: he has found no other place where you can go far out to sea and the water is still shallow enough to work with the artificial shark. This is because the almost eight-meter-long monster requires an even larger piece of equipment, a sled on a crane that carries the shark. The whole thing weighs 12 tons.
