Today, Steven Spielberg is a household name worldwide with his work being the embodiment of perfection. But what was the film that proved to be the lucky charm for the filmmaker’s career in the entertainment industry? The film that made Steven Spielberg a household name was none other than our favorite thriller of all time, Jaws.
The 1974 film did not come without its challenges. Despite the fact that Steven Spielberg was quite young at the time, he aimed further than his age. A fan of realism, the filmmaker decided that he wants to shoot the film in an actual ocean. And thus, began unending problems for the cast and crew which forced Steven Spielberg to take the Alfred Hitchcock route.
Steven Spielberg Had to Think Like Alfred Hitchcock
Since Steven Spielberg wanted realism, he spent about $250,000 on a mechanical shark built by Bob Mattey. Unfortunately, the sharks weren’t working out like Spielberg had thought they would. Apart from the funny looks of the shark they lovingly named ‘Bruce’, it came with its fair share of mechanical setbacks as well.
During the first day of filming with Bruce, the shark sunk to the bottom. In the coming days, the saltwater had begun to erode the shark’s motor and it had to be refitted with pneumatic hoses. Adding to the problems, the shark had to be drained, scrubbed, and repainted every night for it to maintain its looks.
On the other hand, accidents in the ocean almost killed some of the cast and crew of Jaws. For example, Carl Gottlieb was nearly decapitated by a boat’s propellers. Things could not have been going worse for Spielberg’s film.
Now, coming back to the shark problem, Spielberg had to quickly find a way to make a film about the predator, without the predator. Putting his thinking cap on, the filmmaker asked himself a question that would solve all of his worries.
Quoted in Robson Green’s book, Extreme Fishing, Spielberg stated,
“I had no choice but to figure out how to tell the story without the shark. So I just went back to Alfred Hitchcock. ‘What would Hitchcock do in a situation like this?’…It’s what we don’t see which is truly frightening.”
And thus, Spielberg completely changed his course of action thanks to Alfred Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense responsible for films like Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, and so on. In the end, Spielberg managed to overcome the constant failures and delivered a film that is still considered to be one of the best in the genre.
Made on a budget of $9 million, Jaws grossed $476 million at the box office, defying all odds. It was well-received by both critics and fans and brought home three Academy Awards. This just goes on to prove Spielberg’s brilliance and the fact that he can achieve anything he sets his mind on!
Steven Spielberg Never Got to Meet Alfred Hitchcock
If you did not figure it out by now, Spielberg is a huge fan of Hitchcock. However, the two never came face to face as the late filmmaker could not stand the idea of meeting Spielberg. According to the book Tales of Hollywood by Stephen Schochet, Hitchcock was once quite “upset by an uninvited young man hovering around the movie set” while he was filming Family Plot. He had ordered to have the man in question removed from the area not knowing that it was Spielberg who simply wanted to meet the source of his inspiration.
In another account shared in Bruce Dern’s autobiography, it was said that Hitchcock refused to meet Spielberg for a very strange reason. Dern wrote,
“I said, ‘You’re his idol. He just [wants] to sit at your feet for five minutes and chat with you.’ [Hitchcock stated] ‘Isn’t that the boy who made the fish movie? I could never sit down and talk to him…because I look at him and feel like such a wh*re.’ I said, ‘Why do you feel Spielberg makes you a wh*re?’ Hitch said, ‘Because I’m the voice of the Jaws ride [at Universal Studios]. They paid me a million dollars. And I took it and I did it. I’m such a wh*re.’”
Hitchcock added that he couldn’t get himself to sit down with Spielberg after this and that he couldn’t even touch his hand. For whatever it’s worth, though, we are pretty sure the Schindler’s List director would have loved an opportunity to meet the man who made Jaws possible.
You can stream Jaws on truTV.
