Legendary composer John Williams and filmmaker Steven Spielberg once collaborated to create a masterpiece, Jaws. The 1975 thriller was a big blockbuster hit of its time, and its credit goes to Williams. His contribution added a creative edge to the film that significantly enhanced its impact.
Since the premise of the film is of a suspenseful nature, the inclusion of accurate background sound was necessary. When Spielberg showed Williams an early cut of the film, he realized that the film requires a good film score to engage the audience, or else viewers might confuse it to be a comedy film, just like he initially did.
John Williams confused Steven Spielberg’s thriller movie with a comedy film
Steven Spielberg‘s contribution to the film industry is indeed commendable. Throughout his directorial journey, the filmmaker has worked across a wide range of genres and has made some iconic films. One of them is the 1995 thriller film Jaws. The film is undoubtedly a masterpiece, and the background score in the film plays a significant part in making it a success.
The man behind the iconic theme in Jaws is John Williams. The composer has written many themes in the history of cinema, and he has made a major contribution to making Spielberg’s movie a blockbuster hit.
Spielberg revealed in his memoir Spielberg: The First Ten Years that he was quite content with his work until he got Wiliams’s opinion on it. The director claimed,
“It was a bit of an experimental score, but I thought it was very disturbing, and I thought the shark should be disturbing. But when John saw the movie with that score in, he called me laughing.”
When Williams saw the first cut of the film, he initially thought it was a comedy due to the lack of tension. That is when Williams decided to give the film his touch so that it gets its final layer of suspense.
How did John Williams’ contribution save Steven Spielberg’s film?
The famous “Dun dun, dun dun, dun, dun, dun…’” theme increases the heartbeat of the viewers because that’s when exactly they know that the shark is approaching. That’s the magic of Williams’ score that can make the audience travel from one realm to the next. And it was very evident in the film Jaws. However, initially, when Spielberg heard this tune, he wasn’t convinced, but later, when he heard it again, he was more than impressed. The director said,
“Six weeks later, he played for me on the piano the main Jaws theme – I expected to hear something weird and melodic, tonal but eerie – perhaps something to suggest the shark underwater. And what he played me instead with two fingers on the lower keys was ‘Dun dun, dun dun, dun, dun, dun…I thought he was putting me on. It seemed too simple. He said, ‘That’s the theme for Jaws!’ I asked him to play it again, and it suddenly seemed right. Sometimes the best ideas are the simple ones, and John had found the signature for the whole movie.”
If Spielberg’s movie is the main body, Willaims score gave it a soul. The score created by him undoubtedly evokes tension, fear, and excitement among the viewers, making it a massive hit both critically and commercially.
Source: The Digital Fix
