Steven Spielberg was not the original director of Jaws. He followed DickRichards, who was fired when he didn’t know the difference between a whale and a shark.Co-stars RichardDreyfuss and RobertShaw couldn’t stand each other and argued all the time, which resulted in some believable tension between oceanographer Matt Hooper and the crusty Captain Quint.The line “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” was ad-libbed by RoyScheider (as Amity Island’s Police Chief Brody).It cost about $750,000 to make three mechanical sharks, each with specialized functions. Spielberg collectively named them Bruce, after his lawyer.Despite having the film named after it, the shark has only four minutes of screen time.Extras were paid $64 each to run on the beach and scream during a shark-attack scene.Richard Dreyfuss initially turned down the part of Hooper, saying that Jaws was a film he would love to watch but not to make.The prop arm looked too fake in the scene where Chrissie’s (SusanBacklinie) remains were discovered, so instead they buried a female crew member in the sand with only her arm exposed.Today, the first several notes of John Williams’ score for Jaws are recognized as a sign of danger, but back when he first played it for Spielberg, Spielberg laughed and said, “That’s funny, John, really; but what did you really have in mind for the theme of Jaws?“Spielberg said that when he first read the novel, he found himself rooting for the shark because the human characters were so unlikeable.According to the Making of Jaws documentary, the shooting star that appears during the night scene where Brody (Scheider) loads his revolver was real, not an optical effect.Spielberg shot roughly 25 percent of the film from water level to provide the viewers the perspective as if they were treading water.Martha’s Vineyard was used as Amity Island primarily because even 12 miles out to sea, the sandy bottom was only 30 feet down, allowing the mechanical shark to function.Jaws’ body count: eight—five people, one dog and two sharks.
