June 20 marks the 50th anniversary of the legendary “Jaws“, a horror film about a killer shark that turned 28-year-old Steven Spielberg into a star of American directing.
Producers David Brown and Richard Zanuck decide to take a risk, betting on a young director, to whom they entrust the film adaptation of a fresh bestseller. The popularity of the book is one of the important guarantees for the producer's risk.
Peter Benchley's novel “Jaws“ was published in February 1974. and spent 44 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.
The rights were purchased by Universal Studios for a whopping $575,000.
And so - the film adaptation was released, lasting 2 hours and 4 minutes. The main roles are played by Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss and Lorraine Gary.
By this time, Spielberg had made two feature films, Duel and The Sugarland Express. Duel was originally made for television and then expanded for theatrical release. Everything else Spielberg had worked on up until then were short films and episodes of TV series, the most famous of which was the legendary “Columbo“ with Peter Falk.
Spielberg is not thrilled with this work, but he admits that he learned a lot from television. Among other things, in the eyes of Brown and Zanuck, Steven is clearly more pliable than his rebellious colleagues from the new Hollywood generation such as Martin Scorsese and Peter Bogdanovich.
Spielberg, like his friends George Lucas and Robert Zemeckis, wants to make films for the people, does not see a particular problem in the studio's rules. Or rather, he sees an opportunity to rework them for himself.
To begin with, he worked with the text of Benchley's novel, getting rid of unnecessary plot lines. However, by today's standards, the plot of “Jaws“ still seems dramatically complex against the background of successors such as the “Meg“ franchise. The action takes place over six summer days - from June 29 to July 5. The residents of Amity Island are preparing for the traditional influx of tourists to the local beaches for Independence Day on July 4. Beach parties are the basis of Amity's economy, which is threatened by the tragic death of a local girl in the mouth of a shark.
The island's sheriff Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) realizes that his lifelong fear of the water was not in vain and wants to close the local beaches to be safe. Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) insists on keeping quiet and hopes to stop the shark panic, especially after the experienced local fisherman Quint (Robert Shaw) promises to catch the toothy fish for $ 10,000. Other fishermen do not demand such fees and go out into the coastal waters in droves, hoping to compensate for their lack of experience with more harpoons.
They even have something of a success - they catch a shark and put it on display for all to see. But oceanographer Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), who arrived on Amity, comparing the smile of the caught fish and the remains of the victims, claims that the culprit of the death is much larger. As a result, Quint's schooner Orca, named after the killer whale, which is at enmity with sharks in the wild, becomes the only hope for the local population. The experienced World War II veteran goes out to fight the predator in the company of Brody and Hooper.
Spielberg, like his character Brody, was terrified of water. The greatest difficulties arise with the mechanical shark, which is to be used in several scenes of the film. During the first tests, she literally suffocated. When director George Lucas' friend came to the set and jokingly stuck his head in Bruce's mouth (the shark was named after Spielberg's lawyer), the entire crew had to pull her out.
Spielberg had to practically rewrite the film on the fly in such a way that it showed less of the main attraction. According to the director himself, “Jaws“ turned from a quasi-Japanese monster movie into a Hitchcockian thriller.
The budget of $4.5 million doubled, and the number of shooting shifts almost tripled. Spielberg worked for 155 days instead of the planned 59. As the work progressed, the director and producers came to the conclusion that they did not want the faces of the stars to distract the viewer from the plot – thus “Jaws“ was left without Charlton Heston, Jon Voight, Steve McQueen and Robert Redford. All of them, as well as many others, were rejected for the central roles.
But “Jaws” made a star out of 43-year-old Roy Scheider - a year later he appeared in Marathon Man with Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier. And a few years later he was forced to return to Amity Island in the role of Sheriff Brody.
Scheider did not want to participate in the project, which Spielberg and Dreyfuss refused (they were busy with “Close Encounters of the Third Kind“), but was forced to fulfill the terms of the contract with Universal. A little earlier, Roy turned down a role in “The Deer Hunter“ by Michael Cimino, but in this case the studio held him responsible.
But for Dreyfuss “Jaws“ became the next complete success in mainstream cinema after his role in “American Graffiti“ with Lucas. After his first collaboration with Spielberg, the artist's career took off and soon led him to an Oscar for his role in The Goodbye, Darling.
Despite all the problems and risks, “Jaws“ becomes a box office phenomenon: $ 260 million at the domestic box office and another $ 210 million internationally.
This is an absolute record that raised Spielberg to the top of the studio system. From now on, the director can afford almost anything he wants - for example, to shoot in his next film not only the same Dreyfus, but also François Truffaut. The Academy gives way to Spielberg later - after – – Schindler's List “. And “ Jaws “ was awarded at the Oscars only with awards for sound, music and editing.
Spielberg's efforts were not in vain - “ Jaws “ looks great even today. This horror film, devoid of a fantastic element, is probably no less frightening than it was in the year of its premiere.
Fidel Castro considers "Jaws" a literal illustration of the expression "the shark of capitalism". Others see in the film a reflection of the Watergate scandal, an echo of the Vietnam War. Perhaps the prologue, in which drunken hippies become victims, really bears the imprint of the severe post-traumatic stress disorder that the United States experienced after the withdrawal of troops from Indochina.
Spielberg acts with maximum freedom and at the plot level, crossing drama, horror, thriller and direct quotes from "Moby Dick".
It is unlikely that there is another director who could so organically fit Quint's brutal monologue about the death of the crew of the cruiser Indianapolis into a funny film. This part was written by John Milius, a self-proclaimed Zen anarchist, author of Conan the Barbarian, screenwriter of Dirty Harry and a recognized sacred monster of American cinema.
The combination of the incompatible, playing on the edge, shameless sentimentality and courage in following the director's intuition. In this sense, "Jaws" is a real time machine, which once again reminds us that every gray-haired conformist was once a cheerful and courageous experimenter.
Source: Lenta.ru