The movie that gave Steven Spielberg PTSD: “My hands would shake”
Poor old Steven Spielberg has not had an easy go of things throughout his glittering career, with the director helming notoriously difficult productions that made history as a result of their cataclysmic obstacles.
Spielberg is known for being one of the most influential directors within the New Hollywood movement, inadvertently creating the blockbuster through the success of beloved films like Jaws and ET The Extra-Terrestrial and forever changing the landscape of cinema. Alongside directors such as Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich and William Friedkin, he is considered one of the key auteurs from the 1970s and ’80s, ringing in a new era of filmmaking in which directors reclaimed power from the studio heads and ushered in a period of creative enlightenment.
However, while his work is renowned and respected by global audiences and critics, the director was not always met with the same level of reverence. His first feature film remains one of the most horrific experiences of his career, which also had a harrowing impact on his personal life.
Many directors have voiced their anxiety over the process of filmmaking, whether it be sleepless nights before the first day of shooting, nightmares over missing a key shot or fits of rage during production when a location or actor falls through. Regardless of the amount of money that is pumped into Hollywood, it sadly does not prevent calamity or disaster, and often creates more stress due to the high stakes of the project.
This is something that Spielberg experienced the hard way during the creation of his debut feature, Jaws, which was released in 1975. The film is infamous for its haunting opening sequence and musical motif, sparking a genre of shark-based horror stories that have failed to live up to the sheer terror and ingenuity of Spielberg’s masterpiece.
However, despite the later warm reception of the film, the production was notorious for its turmoil and creative challenges, with the crew hating the director for inflicting his complex vision onto them, which involved shooting at sea and becoming the first production to do so on open water. Equipment failure plagued them each day, with cameras cutting out and making it impossible to shoot more than one take on some days. As well as this, some of the cast members hated each other, leading to increased tension on set, only making it the worst professional experience of Spielberg’s life as the budget kept ballooning and everyone reminded him of the beyond-low expectations they had for the film.
When discussing this, Spielberg described the sustained emotional impact of the film on his mental health, saying, “I used to come out for a couple of years after I made the movie to get over my PTSD. I would work through my own trauma, because it was traumatic. I would just sit in that boat alone for hours, just working through, and I would shake. My hands would shake.”
The process of creating can take its toll on anyone, but the sheer amount of pressure on Spielberg and the disbelief in his vision would be understandably difficult to cope with. However, he came out the other side and proved everyone wrong – making one of the most celebrated horror films of all time.
