Jaws
Jaws invented the summer blockbuster, and it did so largely by accident. The mechanical shark barely worked — saltwater wrecked it constantly — so Spielberg was forced to suggest the animal rather than show it, using a floating barrel, a point-of-view camera and John Williams's two-note figure.
About Jaws
Jaws invented the summer blockbuster, and it did so largely by accident. The mechanical shark barely worked — saltwater wrecked it constantly — so Spielberg was forced to suggest the animal rather than show it, using a floating barrel, a point-of-view camera and John Williams's two-note figure. The restraint is the reason the film frightens people, and it came from equipment failure rather than from craft. Universal then released it on hundreds of screens at once with a national television campaign, which was not how films were distributed at the time, and the resulting model — wide release, saturation advertising, summer timing — is the one the industry has used ever since.
The mechanical shark was nicknamed Bruce after Spielberg's lawyer, and its constant failure is why the film shows so little of it.
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Key eras
| Era | Years | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| The film | 1975 | A troubled shoot that became the highest-grossing film to that point. |
| Sequels | 1978–1987 | Three follow-ups, none well received. |
| Legacy | 1975– | The wide-release summer blockbuster model it created remains standard. |