Steven Spielberg stepped in to direct the shark horror movieJawsafter its first director was fired for repeatedly making the same mistake. While the making ofJawswas famously difficult, Spielberg devised ways to get around issues like a broken animatronic shark, accidentally making the movie a suspense-filled masterpiece and transforming Spielberg into a household name.Jawscontains some of thegreatest camera shots of Steven Spielberg’s movies, kick-starting his career as one of the most influential directors of all time. Even now,Jawsis still considered one ofSpielberg’s most rewatchable movies.
TheJawsmovie franchisefeatures multiple killer sharks, and whileJawsdemonstrates a similar central plot to the rest of the movies in the franchise, it is significantly different from its sequels.On first viewing,Jawsis a movie about a shark, but it is actually about the way the small town reacts to the threat,with the mayor brushing the danger under the carpet. The multiple story threads and infamously troubled production have keptJaws(and Spielberg’s direction of the movie) under discussion. That said, Spielberg was not the first director associated withJaws.
Jaws' First Director Kept Calling The Shark A Whale (& It Got Him Fired)
The Shark In Jaws Is A Great White Shark
Jawswas originally set to be directed by the celebrated filmmaker Dick Richards, but despite him being enthusiastic about making the movie, he repeatedly referred to the shark in the story as a whale (viaFarOut).This irritated theJawsproducers and Peter Benchley, who wrote theJawsnovel, so much that Richards was fired from the project. It appears that Richards may have been confusingJawswithMoby Dick, which is about a whale. Sharks and whales are not the same, and to repeatedly get such a basic detail wrong is a major error, so he was replaced with Spielberg.
How Steven Spielberg Parodied The Iconic Jaws Opening Scene Four Years Later
Jaws' opening scene is now part of pop culture, and Spielberg himself parodied it four years later in a comedy movie that wasn’t as big as Jaws.
WhileJawsis not based on a real shark attack, the shark is modeled on a real species: the great white. Great white sharks look intimidating, with large triangular teeth, black eyes, and a clear distinction between their white bellies and grey backs. The shark on the poster forJawsis an exaggerated version of a great white shark, and its teeth are much larger in proportion to its mouth than a real great white shark’s. Still, while sharks and whales are distinctly different,Jawsfeatures many references to a famous story about a whale.
For A Movie About A Shark (Definitely Not A Whale), There Are A Lot Of Moby Dick References In Jaws
Quint Shares The Same Fate As A Moby Dick Character In The Original Novel
JawsandMoby Dickmight not share a main threat, but the stories share some key details. They are both based on books, whereinthe monster is not the point of the story. WhileJawsis about prioritizing profit over safety,Moby Dickis about Captain Ahab’s desire for revenge on a whale.A shop onJaws' Amity Island shares its name with a harpooner inMoby Dick, while the boat “The Orca” is named after animals often called “killer whales.” EvenJaws' Quint (Robert Shaw) is very similar to Ahab, as the two men share the same fate in theJawsnovel.
Jawswas originally going to show Quint watchingMoby Dickin his first scene.
Quint is meant to resemble Captain Ahab. Both are consumed by their revenge mission, which ends up killing them in the end. That said,while Quint is killed by the shark in the movie’s goriest scene, theJawsnovel depicts Quint getting tangled in a line, which pulls him into the sea to drown. This is the same ending that Captain Ahab has inMoby Dick, andJawswas originally going to show Quint watchingMoby Dickin his first scene. However, this scene was later cut in favor ofQuint’s iconic blackboard scratch.
Jaws
Cast
Jaws, directed by Steven Spielberg, follows the residents of Amity Island as they face terror from a menacing great white shark. The town’s police chief, a marine biologist, and a seasoned shark hunter join forces to track and kill the predator threatening their coastal community. Released in 1975.
