Before it turned out swell, Spielberg felt like he was drowning

The Advertiser

17-07-2025

Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story
(M, 88 minutes, Disney+)
4 stars
Half a century ago, one film swam along and changed the film industry.
It sounds like a grand statement to make, but that really was the case with Jaws.
The seminal Steven Spielberg thriller became the first summer blockbuster (though, of course, it was winter in our hemisphere) to break all sorts of box office records and created a cultural juggernaut the size of which had never been seen before.
To mark five decades since its release, Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story on Disney+ takes you back to the famously difficult production with generous archive footage and interviews from the past and present.
The documentary, released under the National Geographic banner, is helmed by Laurent Bouzereau, a prolific film documentary and special features director who already delivered The Making of Jaws back in 1995.
If you're a cinephile or particularly die-hard fan of Jaws, there's a good chance that most of the information in Jaws @ 50 will not come as a shock.
Other documentaries over the years have delved deeply into this film, and even the most casual film fan already knows bits of trivia, like the fact the mechanical shark was named Bruce, and the film was shot on Martha's Vineyard, an island off the Massachusetts coast.
But familiarity with the content doesn't detract from the enjoyment of this film.
Bouzereau has conducted new interviews with people involved with the production, their relatives, shark experts and other filmmakers who have been inspired by Jaws.
It's always nice to see Spielberg talking about the film that really made his career.
Before Jaws came along, the young filmmaker was an up-and-comer, impressing with made-for-TV films including the influential Duel, an action-packed thrill ride about a large truck chasing a smaller car for the length of the film.
When Spielberg came across the not-yet-published galleys of Peter Benchley's novel Jaws, he thought it was just like Duel - this huge, unrelenting predator on the prowl. So he asked if he could direct the film, and when the original choice left the project, he was in.
But the production was far from smooth, and nearly everything that could go wrong with Bruce the shark, did. It was designed for freshwater instead of seawater, which wreaked havoc with the mechanics. It moved the wrong way. When it finally worked, the boat sank.
Spielberg spent the production - which was running significantly over budget and well beyond schedule - thinking he'd be fired, and still suffered traumatic panic attacks and insomnia for years after the film wrapped.
Cast members also failed to get along - Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss particularly butted heads, and Shaw's persistent drinking didn't help matters.
But most of the Jaws cast was made up of locals on the island, and it's fantastic to see how much pride those remaining cast members and islanders still have in the film production.
Jaws has had a huge impact on filmmaking since its release, and industry figures like Mexican Guillermo del Toro (Oscar-winning writer-director of The Shape of Water), Jaws superfan Steven Soderbergh (Oscar-winning director of Traffic) and English actress Emily Blunt (Oscar-nominated star of Oppenheimer), who claims to have seen Jaws more than any other film, are more than happy to talk about how much the shark thriller means to them and has impacted their appreciation of cinema.
What this documentary has that the others don't is the inclusion of a fully restored Bruce to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. If you're a lover of the film, it's a delight to see the huge creature craned into the museum, to be revered by all the visitors who walk through its doors.
While Jaws @ 50 might not be the most eye-opening documentary if you're well-versed in the history of the film, if you've never seen a doco or featurette on Jaws, it's bound to bring you joy.
Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story
(M, 88 minutes, Disney+)
4 stars
Half a century ago, one film swam along and changed the film industry.
It sounds like a grand statement to make, but that really was the case with Jaws.
The seminal Steven Spielberg thriller became the first summer blockbuster (though, of course, it was winter in our hemisphere) to break all sorts of box office records and created a cultural juggernaut the size of which had never been seen before.
To mark five decades since its release, Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story on Disney+ takes you back to the famously difficult production with generous archive footage and interviews from the past and present.
The documentary, released under the National Geographic banner, is helmed by Laurent Bouzereau, a prolific film documentary and special features director who already delivered The Making of Jaws back in 1995.
If you're a cinephile or particularly die-hard fan of Jaws, there's a good chance that most of the information in Jaws @ 50 will not come as a shock.
Other documentaries over the years have delved deeply into this film, and even the most casual film fan already knows bits of trivia, like the fact the mechanical shark was named Bruce, and the film was shot on Martha's Vineyard, an island off the Massachusetts coast.
But familiarity with the content doesn't detract from the enjoyment of this film.
Bouzereau has conducted new interviews with people involved with the production, their relatives, shark experts and other filmmakers who have been inspired by Jaws.
It's always nice to see Spielberg talking about the film that really made his career.
Before Jaws came along, the young filmmaker was an up-and-comer, impressing with made-for-TV films including the influential Duel, an action-packed thrill ride about a large truck chasing a smaller car for the length of the film.
When Spielberg came across the not-yet-published galleys of Peter Benchley's novel Jaws, he thought it was just like Duel - this huge, unrelenting predator on the prowl. So he asked if he could direct the film, and when the original choice left the project, he was in.
But the production was far from smooth, and nearly everything that could go wrong with Bruce the shark, did. It was designed for freshwater instead of seawater, which wreaked havoc with the mechanics. It moved the wrong way. When it finally worked, the boat sank.
Spielberg spent the production - which was running significantly over budget and well beyond schedule - thinking he'd be fired, and still suffered traumatic panic attacks and insomnia for years after the film wrapped.
Cast members also failed to get along - Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss particularly butted heads, and Shaw's persistent drinking didn't help matters.
But most of the Jaws cast was made up of locals on the island, and it's fantastic to see how much pride those remaining cast members and islanders still have in the film production.
Jaws has had a huge impact on filmmaking since its release, and industry figures like Mexican Guillermo del Toro (Oscar-winning writer-director of The Shape of Water), Jaws superfan Steven Soderbergh (Oscar-winning director of Traffic) and English actress Emily Blunt (Oscar-nominated star of Oppenheimer), who claims to have seen Jaws more than any other film, are more than happy to talk about how much the shark thriller means to them and has impacted their appreciation of cinema.
What this documentary has that the others don't is the inclusion of a fully restored Bruce to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. If you're a lover of the film, it's a delight to see the huge creature craned into the museum, to be revered by all the visitors who walk through its doors.
While Jaws @ 50 might not be the most eye-opening documentary if you're well-versed in the history of the film, if you've never seen a doco or featurette on Jaws, it's bound to bring you joy.
Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story
(M, 88 minutes, Disney+)
4 stars
Half a century ago, one film swam along and changed the film industry.
It sounds like a grand statement to make, but that really was the case with Jaws.
The seminal Steven Spielberg thriller became the first summer blockbuster (though, of course, it was winter in our hemisphere) to break all sorts of box office records and created a cultural juggernaut the size of which had never been seen before.
To mark five decades since its release, Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story on Disney+ takes you back to the famously difficult production with generous archive footage and interviews from the past and present.
The documentary, released under the National Geographic banner, is helmed by Laurent Bouzereau, a prolific film documentary and special features director who already delivered The Making of Jaws back in 1995.
If you're a cinephile or particularly die-hard fan of Jaws, there's a good chance that most of the information in Jaws @ 50 will not come as a shock.
Other documentaries over the years have delved deeply into this film, and even the most casual film fan already knows bits of trivia, like the fact the mechanical shark was named Bruce, and the film was shot on Martha's Vineyard, an island off the Massachusetts coast.
But familiarity with the content doesn't detract from the enjoyment of this film.
Bouzereau has conducted new interviews with people involved with the production, their relatives, shark experts and other filmmakers who have been inspired by Jaws.
It's always nice to see Spielberg talking about the film that really made his career.
Before Jaws came along, the young filmmaker was an up-and-comer, impressing with made-for-TV films including the influential Duel, an action-packed thrill ride about a large truck chasing a smaller car for the length of the film.
When Spielberg came across the not-yet-published galleys of Peter Benchley's novel Jaws, he thought it was just like Duel - this huge, unrelenting predator on the prowl. So he asked if he could direct the film, and when the original choice left the project, he was in.
But the production was far from smooth, and nearly everything that could go wrong with Bruce the shark, did. It was designed for freshwater instead of seawater, which wreaked havoc with the mechanics. It moved the wrong way. When it finally worked, the boat sank.
Spielberg spent the production - which was running significantly over budget and well beyond schedule - thinking he'd be fired, and still suffered traumatic panic attacks and insomnia for years after the film wrapped.
Cast members also failed to get along - Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss particularly butted heads, and Shaw's persistent drinking didn't help matters.
But most of the Jaws cast was made up of locals on the island, and it's fantastic to see how much pride those remaining cast members and islanders still have in the film production.
Jaws has had a huge impact on filmmaking since its release, and industry figures like Mexican Guillermo del Toro (Oscar-winning writer-director of The Shape of Water), Jaws superfan Steven Soderbergh (Oscar-winning director of Traffic) and English actress Emily Blunt (Oscar-nominated star of Oppenheimer), who claims to have seen Jaws more than any other film, are more than happy to talk about how much the shark thriller means to them and has impacted their appreciation of cinema.
What this documentary has that the others don't is the inclusion of a fully restored Bruce to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. If you're a lover of the film, it's a delight to see the huge creature craned into the museum, to be revered by all the visitors who walk through its doors.
While Jaws @ 50 might not be the most eye-opening documentary if you're well-versed in the history of the film, if you've never seen a doco or featurette on Jaws, it's bound to bring you joy.
Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story
(M, 88 minutes, Disney+)
4 stars
Half a century ago, one film swam along and changed the film industry.
It sounds like a grand statement to make, but that really was the case with Jaws.
The seminal Steven Spielberg thriller became the first summer blockbuster (though, of course, it was winter in our hemisphere) to break all sorts of box office records and created a cultural juggernaut the size of which had never been seen before.
To mark five decades since its release, Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story on Disney+ takes you back to the famously difficult production with generous archive footage and interviews from the past and present.
The documentary, released under the National Geographic banner, is helmed by Laurent Bouzereau, a prolific film documentary and special features director who already delivered The Making of Jaws back in 1995.
If you're a cinephile or particularly die-hard fan of Jaws, there's a good chance that most of the information in Jaws @ 50 will not come as a shock.
Other documentaries over the years have delved deeply into this film, and even the most casual film fan already knows bits of trivia, like the fact the mechanical shark was named Bruce, and the film was shot on Martha's Vineyard, an island off the Massachusetts coast.
But familiarity with the content doesn't detract from the enjoyment of this film.
Bouzereau has conducted new interviews with people involved with the production, their relatives, shark experts and other filmmakers who have been inspired by Jaws.
It's always nice to see Spielberg talking about the film that really made his career.
Before Jaws came along, the young filmmaker was an up-and-comer, impressing with made-for-TV films including the influential Duel, an action-packed thrill ride about a large truck chasing a smaller car for the length of the film.
When Spielberg came across the not-yet-published galleys of Peter Benchley's novel Jaws, he thought it was just like Duel - this huge, unrelenting predator on the prowl. So he asked if he could direct the film, and when the original choice left the project, he was in.
But the production was far from smooth, and nearly everything that could go wrong with Bruce the shark, did. It was designed for freshwater instead of seawater, which wreaked havoc with the mechanics. It moved the wrong way. When it finally worked, the boat sank.
Spielberg spent the production - which was running significantly over budget and well beyond schedule - thinking he'd be fired, and still suffered traumatic panic attacks and insomnia for years after the film wrapped.
Cast members also failed to get along - Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss particularly butted heads, and Shaw's persistent drinking didn't help matters.
But most of the Jaws cast was made up of locals on the island, and it's fantastic to see how much pride those remaining cast members and islanders still have in the film production.
Jaws has had a huge impact on filmmaking since its release, and industry figures like Mexican Guillermo del Toro (Oscar-winning writer-director of The Shape of Water), Jaws superfan Steven Soderbergh (Oscar-winning director of Traffic) and English actress Emily Blunt (Oscar-nominated star of Oppenheimer), who claims to have seen Jaws more than any other film, are more than happy to talk about how much the shark thriller means to them and has impacted their appreciation of cinema.
What this documentary has that the others don't is the inclusion of a fully restored Bruce to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. If you're a lover of the film, it's a delight to see the huge creature craned into the museum, to be revered by all the visitors who walk through its doors.
While Jaws @ 50 might not be the most eye-opening documentary if you're well-versed in the history of the film, if you've never seen a doco or featurette on Jaws, it's bound to bring you joy.