The movie production Steven Spielberg called “horrendous”
In one of the most extraordinary directing careers American cinema has ever seen, Steven Spielberg pioneered the modern blockbuster, bringing some of the most mesmerising cinematic events to the big screen and becoming one of the most commercially successful filmmakers in history in the process.
The list of Spielberg’s achievements is monolithic, but just considering some of his biggest movies ought to go some way to showcasing his credentials as one of the all-time greats. The likes of Indiana Jones, Empire of the Sun, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan have all arrived as a result of Spielberg’s genius.
However, while Spielberg has overseen some of the most emphatic movie productions of all time, it’s fair to say that not every project he has ever taken on has gone entirely swimmingly. In fact, when it came to 1975’s Jaws, Spielberg suffered a production nightmare that went way over budget and beyond schedule.
Jaws saw Spielberg become a household name, following the story of a police chief who teams up with a marine biologist and a shark hunter to track down a huge man-eating great white shark terrorising the beachgoers of a holiday resort. Spielberg once admitted that he “credits” Jaws with “everything” in an interview with the DGA, noting how it was a pivotal moment in his career.
“Being a movie director, having final cut,” the iconic filmmaker noted. “Jaws gave me freedom, and I’ve never lost my freedom.” However, while Jaws became a hit for Spielberg in both critical and commercial terms, that didn’t stop the director from admitting that actually making it was “horrendous”.
The filming of Jaws began before there was even a script ready, and so too was the cast incomplete. In fact, the shark, the bread and butter of the aquatic thriller, hadn’t even been made, which led Spielberg to concede, “We were all making it up as we went along, not unlike the whole experience with Casablanca.”
Jaws actually became the first major movie to be shot on the ocean, which naturally led to widespread production issues. Discussing these particular problems, Spielberg noted, “Everybody told me not to shoot on water. I mean, everybody. [Universal president] Sid Sheinberg even said, ‘Why don’t you build a tank on the back lot? We’ll pay for it.’”
However, Spielberg had been adamant about “battling the elements” for his 1975 movie and turned down the offer of ease in shooting the water scenes in the studio. “I want[ed] people to think this is really happening,” he recalled, “that the shark is really in the ocean. I don’t want this to look like The Old Man and the Sea, with the obvious painted background and all of that.”
Originally set with a budget of $4million, Jaws ended up costing $9m, with $3m being spent on special effects alone due to ongoing problems with the mechanical sharks. Spielberg later admitted to youthful naivety and inexperience when making his breakthrough hit, which some cheeky crew members dubbed “Flaws”.
Still, even despite the “horrendous” production of Jaws, the film turned Spielberg from a “director-for-hire” into a respected household name. Judging from the following decades in the industry, the difficult making of the aquatic thriller proved dividends in setting him up for a career of genuine excellence.
