Why It Took Steven Spielberg 50 Years To Watch His Personal Thriller Masterpiece


Steven Spielberg’s Jaws is undoubtedly probably the greatest horror motion pictures of all time, having a significant cultural influence and sparking shark phobias worldwide. Many nice killer shark motion pictures have tried to recreate Jaws ever since its launch in 1975, however none have come near its masterpiece standing. Nonetheless, whereas the film is known, the making of Jaws was infamously beset by issues.

Jaws celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2025, and the related film Jaws @ 50 revealed some stunning behind-the-scenes tales. It documented among the many difficulties that the forged and crew discovered, displaying that the manufacturing of Jaws was broadly thought-about a multitude. It was so memorably unhealthy that Steven Spielberg refused to look at certainly one of his finest motion pictures for almost 50 years.

Steven Spielberg Refused To Watch Jaws For 50 Years


The shark attacking Brody in Jaws

Steven Spielberg is without doubt one of the best administrators of all time, answerable for iconic motion pictures like Raiders of the Misplaced Ark, Jurassic Park, and Shut Encounters of the Third Form. That stated, whereas he famously doesn’t watch his personal motion pictures, explaining to E! Information, “I do not dwell,” he refused to look at Jaws for a really totally different motive.

Spielberg mentioned his reluctance to look at his masterpiece in an interview with Deadline, saying that he had been involved that watching Jaws would remind him of constructing it. He defined, “I needed to see the film on the day it initially opened [in 1975] and see if I might… get to the top of the film with out reliving the nightmares of constructing the film.”

Jaws’ Manufacturing Was Full Of Issues


Brody looking at the camera with the shark in the background
Brody trying on the digital camera with the shark within the background

Jaws has some iconic moments, however many of those have been created out of necessity, working round points on set. Certainly one of these is Quint’s well-known monologue in regards to the shark assault on the Indianapolis. Robert Shaw, who performed the shark hunter, was drunk in the course of the first takes, which have been unusable. Whereas he returned and nailed the speech in a single take, the second was a disturbing one.

The shark not often appeared onscreen, and whereas this turned Jaws right into a masterclass in suspense, it was a choice made as a result of the animatronic shark continually malfunctioned, even sinking often. The finances skyrocketed, scripts have been rewritten on the final second, and manufacturing took over 150 days relatively than the anticipated 55. This made filming Jaws an disagreeable expertise for all concerned, together with its director.

Spielberg Ultimately Watched His Personal Film (And Favored It)


Quint, Brody, and Hooper in a small boat
Quint, Brody, and Hooper in a small boat

Whereas Spielberg didn’t watch Jaws within the theater on the day of its launch, he lastly watched it almost 50 years later, across the time of its anniversary. He instructed Deadline, “I used to be alone, no person was with me,” happening to say that “it was the primary time I ever watched Jaws as an viewers, not as a filmmaker.”

Jaws‘ iconic opening scene made it a horror film masterpiece inside the first 10 minutes, however Spielberg’s response to seeing his film for the primary time was extra modest. He instructed Deadline, “I favored it!Jaws has a well-deserved place among the many finest motion pictures of all time, with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 97%, and it’s nonetheless terrifying at present.

Sources: E! Information , Deadline



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Launch Date

June 20, 1975

Runtime

124 minutes

Writers

Peter Benchley, Carl Gottlieb

Producers

David Brown

  • Headshot Of Roy Scheider

  • Cast Placeholder Image


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