Juicy Tidbits About the Movie Jaws

Photo: twitter

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 42 years since the cultural icon known as Jaws was released in theaters. Being that it was released in June, Jaws is the film that revolutionized the movie industry by creating the idea of the summer blockbuster. Prior to that, it was commonplace for highly anticipated movies to be released around Christmas. There were quite a few hurdles the film’s creators had to get over, but it was worth it once all was said and done. I say that because it actually took home three Academy Awards, not to mention it was a box office smash hit. To pay homage to the film, we compiled some of the juiciest tidbits about the movie we could find, and some of them will catch you by surprise.

25. It’s a Sign, Not a Coincidence

After Spielberg got the job of director for Jaws, he started to second guess his choice to do so. He was worried about being typecast as the “truck and shark” guy because of his first film, Duel, featured a semi-truck as one of the main talking points of the movie. He felt so strongly about it that word started to spread and it eventually made it back to the two main producers. Then, three months before shooting was scheduled to start, Spielberg decided to go to the producers to back out. But when he did, he noticed they all had worn “Jaws crew” t-shirts. The three man started laughing and Spielberg said, “nevermind” and turned around and walked back out.

24. Interesting Game Of Tug Of War

Photo: twitter

One of the most terrifying scenes in the movie was the opening scene where a female is out for a swim and suddenly gets jolted around by an attacking shark. It turns out that Spielberg had to get creative in order to shoot this scene. The actress that played the part was Susan Backlinie, and in order to get the jolting motion just right, she had a harness attached to her legs with cables held by crew members on the shore. The crew pulled pull back and forth which
sent her flailing all over the place. Spielberg wanted to make sure Backlinie had a genuine reaction of terror, so he insisted that the crew not tell her what would happen, or when. Needless to say, it worked.



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