Jaws Became Frightening Because the Shark Kept Breaking Down

Movie Trivia #1

The Takeaway

The shark in Jaws broke down constantly on set. And it was precisely that “unfilmability” that created the film’s terror.

Here is the story behind it, in brief.

Released in 1975, Jaws — the film about a man-eating shark — is said to have created the shape of the “summer blockbuster” that continues to this day.

Three mechanical sharks were built for the shoot. They were nicknamed “Bruce,” after the lawyer of the film’s director, Steven Spielberg.

But Bruce, who had worked in freshwater tests, began failing one time after another the moment he was put into the real ocean. Salt water corroded his insides, and at times he even sank to the seabed.

The shoot fell into chaos. The schedule, originally 55 days, stretched to 159 days, and the budget ballooned far beyond its original size.

The young Spielberg believed his directing career was finished — something he later recalled in a documentary about the production.

If the shark could not be filmed, then the answer was not to film it. He changed the entire approach to shooting the film.

Show only a fin. Send the yellow barrels — attached to harpoons fired into the shark — racing across the surface of the water. Make the camera itself the shark’s point of view.

And the shark’s approach came to be announced by that famous theme, played on just two notes. You cannot see it, but the sound alone tells you: it is coming.

As a result, the shark does not show its full body until more than an hour into the film. For all that invisible time, the audience had to fill in the blanks with their imagination — and that was what frightened them most of all.

Watch the film again today and you can see it. In the ocean scenes of the first half, look for “the shark itself” — it appears surprisingly little.

Fins, barrels, movement on the surface of the water, music. The ingredients of fear were all assembled in places other than the shark’s body.

If Bruce had worked perfectly, Jaws might have ended up as nothing more than another shark movie. The worst possible trouble — a machine that would not work — gave birth to one of the most famous pieces of direction in film history.

References

• Production documentary “The Shark Is Still Working”