The Real History of Jaws (1975): Spielberg, Sharks & Martha’s Vineyard

<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:01:10</time>
<p>You're gonna need a bigger boat.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:01:19</time>
<p>Today we're venturing into the ocean depths of cinematic history to explore the impact and legacy of a film that changed the way we see the water. Steven Spielberg's jaws. Released in 1975, Jaws wasn't just a movie.

It was a cultural phenomenon that sparked a new era in filmmaking and forever altered the summer blockbuster landscape.

But how did a film about a great white shark manage to grip audiences so tightly and leave a permanent mark on both the film industry and popular culture?

In this episode, we'll unravel the fascinating history behind the making of Jaws, from its origins as a best selling novel by Peter Benchley to the nail biting challenges faced during its production. We'll also explore some of the true life historical events that they reference right here in this movie.

So grab your life jackets and join us as we dive into the thrilling history of Jaws, a film that took a bite out of cinematic history. Welcome to Talk with History. I am your host, Scott, here with my wife and historian Jen.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:02:28</time>
<p>Hello.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:02:29</time>
<p>Today's podcast is part of a series we call Watch with History.

The Watch With History series will focus on your favorite historical films, where Jen and I will review the Hollywood historic classics we all know and love, while also discussing the history behind these films with some interesting facts. We hope you enjoy this Watch with History. Three, two, one.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:02:50</time>
<p>Here we go.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:02:55</time>
<p>All right, Jen, so you love this movie.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:02:59</time>
<p>It scares me to death and I love it.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:03:01</time>
<p>It scares you to death, right?

I don't know if it's on the same level as, like, John Wayne movies and stuff, but it's up there for you because you're, I mean, you're a history buff, right? You're a history buff, movie buff, and you like this one for numerous reasons.

Talk to us briefly about kind of where this movie kind of came from, a little bit of the history behind it. And then there are some historical events they talk about throughout Jaws that some of the characters kind of draw their inspiration from.

So let's, let's talk a little bit about that and then we'll just kind of get right into it.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:03:37</time>
<p>So Jaws is so interesting, this movie. It's like a perfect, perfect storm. Things came together so well.

So Peter Begley wrote this book and didn't even name it, didn't even name it until it went into printing.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:03:50</time>
<p>I didn't know that.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:03:51</time>
<p>It was like 30 minutes before printing. They're like, we need a good name. We need a quick name. We need a. A name that just, it just sticks with you. And they just Like Jaws. And so that's.

And, and when you think about. I don't even picture anything else when I think of Jaws now besides this movie. Yeah, right. And so it was so masterful. Just that one word.

So Peter Betchley grew up on Long island. And on Long island there was this notorious fisherman named Frank Mundus.

And Frank Mundus, in 1964, he had caught a great white shark off of Montauk, New York. And it was £4,500. And it was just like this huge shark that's massive and. Yeah, right. And Mundus, he had like this Persona about him.

He would wear this shirt that said monster fishing. He would take people out shark fishing. He's kind of loosely. Who Quint is kind of based.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:04:51</time>
<p>So kind of just like this salty sailor.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:04:54</time>
<p>Yes.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:04:54</time>
<p>You know, just like kind of gritty personality.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:04:57</time>
<p>Just a gritty personality. He caught this shark by harpoon.

So when we talked a little bit, if you listen to our, our episode about whaling and harpooning, what that is, that's how he caught the shark. Now in 1980, after Jaws comes out, he is going to. He has the. The title of catching the biggest shark with just a line in reel.

And that was off of Block island, which will be another video and.

And podcast, which is a little island off of Rhode island, but in that three island range of its Block Island, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, which are all off the coast of Long island, which is where the book takes place, off of Long Island. And this is where this, this shark was caught.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:05:40</time>
<p>Okay.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:05:41</time>
<p>And that was 3, 500 pounds. And again, line and reel. So he catches 4,500 pounds with the harpoon. 3,500 rod and reel. He has this whole Persona. He wears the earring.

He's very like grandiose about what he talks about. And so Quince is kind of based off him. Peter Betchley was very inspired by him when he writes Jaws. And so.

But if you think about Jaws, I always laugh. Like, the biggest shark he caught is 4, 500. How big is jaw supposed to be? If you watch the movie, he's supposed to be three tons.

What's six, six thousand, six thousand pounds? Like, it's just right. So he writes it in 1974, a great white shark off of a small town in Long Island.

So it's not supposed to really be an island like in the movie.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:06:31</time>
<p>It's not supposed to be Martha's Vineyard.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:06:34</time>
<p>And then, you know, he frequently. He'd been fascinated with sharks. He'd been to Nantucket many times. But he writes this basically based on Frank Mundus. And the book is a huge success.

I have not read it. I tried to read the first page. It does open up with the skinny dipper scene.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:06:54</time>
<p>Okay.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:06:54</time>
<p>But it talks to you from the shark's point of view. And it freaked me out so much that I shut the book and threw it. And I've never read it after that. So, yeah, it's. He's very well written.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:07:05</time>
<p>I didn't realize that that's how the book was written.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:07:08</time>
<p>And so almost when Steven Spielberg pivots.

And you'll talk more about this when things start to go wrong and he films it from the shark's point of view, that's in more in line with what the book.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:07:19</time>
<p>Oh, how.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:07:20</time>
<p>How interesting Peter be. When he writes Jaws, he doesn't mention the really two big historic things that are mentioned in Jaws.

He doesn't write about the USS Indianapolis, and he doesn't write about the shark attacks off of the New Jersey shore. They're both mentioned in the movie, though. Now, Quint in the book is a Marine. So I did some research. Were there Marines on the USS Indianapolis?

And when we talk about the history of the Indianapolis, I will let you know if that fits. But they pick Martha's Vineyard for the filming because Spielberg could kind of just be all encompassed there. They can kind of get everything done.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:08:04</time>
<p>And it probably fit pretty well for what he's going with in the movie. He's looking to do this crazy event, right? Which is what Spielberg loves to do. Like this almost extra slash paranormal event, right?

This massive shark. Or if it's E.T. this alien. Right. If it's in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, it's literally aliens, right? Like, he loves these, these.

These larger than life unrealistic events that he pulls into reality.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:08:30</time>
<p>And I like that he kind of likes to leave you isolated with them. Yeah, right. And that's kind of what happens with three. These three men.

I think if it was on the mainland of, you know, it would be more people involved, but they try to kind of isolate you. So it really is Martha's Vineyard, then these three men, one who's afraid of water, fighting this shark.

So it really does isolate you with this man versus man story, man versus beast story. And so he does that very. He's the storytelling.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:09:01</time>
<p>So. So a couple of interesting facts about Steven Spielberg.

And I think this was before he directed Jaws, because after he directed Jaws, and we all know if you're watching this, you know, movie was a massive Success, and he was catapulted to stardom. But he actually directed the pilot episode of the TV show Columbo.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:09:22</time>
<p>Columbo.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:09:23</time>
<p>He was 20 years old and he. So he actually directed the pilot episode to the. To the famous detective show Columbo. I just thought that was so interesting that he's like.

Like the very first one. And then also, Spielberg always wanted to direct a James Bond movie.

And so as a young filmmaker in the 1970s, he wanted to direct, make this a James Bond movie. But he had unsuccessfully pitched ideas to the studio that owned, you know, those, those rights.

But in Jaws, he kind of adds this nod to James Bond when he. When Richard Dreyfuss's character cuts the shark open and he pulls out the Louisiana license plate, which you have bought a copy of.

It's sitting in our. In our studio in our study area. The three familiar digits at the beginning of that license plate is 007. Is 0,07.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:10:15</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:10:16</time>
<p>So that was because he had always wanted to direct a James Bond movie.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:10:19</time>
<p>Yeah. And we talk a lot about this if you don't. Comes from movie history.

His great grandfather was a prop master for Paramount Studios, and he worked every episode of bonanza. He did 10 Commandments, Rear Window, Some Like It Hot.

And so the prop, I will follow a prop master who talked about that prop that Steven Spielberg wanted, this license plate that said 007 Louisiana. And so I bought the prop because it's supposed to say Sportsman's Paradise. That's what the real license plate says there, says Sports Men's Paradise.

And that's what props do, just make themselves just a little bit different. And it's super neat, and you can buy that and have it. Martha's Vineyard.

What's interesting about Martha's Vineyard, it's kind of shaped like a shark fin. It was discovered in 1602.

Of course, there were indigenous people there, but the English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold discovered it and named it for his daughter Martha, who's named after his mother in law who funded his expedition. So is it his mother in law or his daughter? No one's sure. But the truth is Martha never visited Martha's Vineyard.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:11:30</time>
<p>Oh, really?</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:11:31</time>
<p>So he named it for them and they never came there. Also, he saw a lot of wild grapes growing, which is where it gets the vineyard name.

But there is no actual vineyard in Martha's Vineyard, so it's named for a person who never visited. And there's no real vineyard in Martha's Vineyard. So it's kind of funny when you talk about that. Very, very touristy.

So even when Spielberg's filming this at the time today year round populations about 20,000 when I was there and daily it peaks to 200,000 people.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:12:04</time>
<p>That's wild.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:12:05</time>
<p>And it's interesting because this rise of people coming to visit came because of missionaries. And they used to come out there around 1835.

They would do these kind of tense and prophesy, you know, not prophesies but you know, have these campground meetings, these Methodist meetings. And so it became like a yearly retreat where these Methodists would come to Martha's Vineyard and camp out.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:12:32</time>
<p>They kind of started the trend, started.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:12:33</time>
<p>The trend where people come for the summer. So that's where Martha's Vineyard got its tourist destination reputation.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:12:40</time>
<p>Now going back to the, to the movie you had mentioned the kind of two real events right now, one of them you said was the some Jersey Shore shark attacks. Was that like in the early 1900s? Was that just kind of local legend?</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:12:56</time>
<p>So there were these. It's amazing.

If you watch Shark Week you're always going to hear about these shark attacks because they just were so one off and they never really happen again. It happened in 1916, okay, so that, that early July 1st through the 12th, five attacks over two weeks resulting in four deaths off the Jersey shore.

And it's interesting that it starts south on the Jersey shore and works its way up. Now when we talk about Long Island, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, it's not far. Great whites migrate all of this.

And if you follow great whites now you see North Carolina, they're off the coast. Like this is, this is where great whites really do migrate off the co. The Atlantic coast here.

So July 1, it attacks a person, 23 year old swimming, it just, it really just takes a chunk out of them and they bleed out.

Then up the July 6, just further up the shore again, someone else is swimming, bit the abdomen, severe, severed their legs and someone just thought it was like a red canoe had flipped over. And then on July 12, I mean this is the craziest one is it swims up a waterway and attacks an 11 year old boy and kills him.

And then someone tries to rescue him, jumps in the water and he's also killed a 24 year old, tries to kill him.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:14:22</time>
<p>So that, so that's like right in line with what how the book and then what the movie portrays, right when the shark swims up the little waterway, right and swims by the boy and the boy's traumatized and all that stuff.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:14:34</time>
<p>And it kind of also goes in Line with this whole rogue. Right. This is what they're saying is that this. This great white is rogue and hunting on its own.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:14:44</time>
<p>Yeah. He's essentially, like, found his feeding ground and he's not going to leave.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:14:47</time>
<p>They never caught that great white shark. There is still controversy. Shark Week will always talk about this. Was it the same shark? Was it a bull shark? Was it a great white shark?

It's listed in the national registry of shark attacks as a great white attack. And all four of them are four victims. There was a fifth boy who was attacked. He survived.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:15:12</time>
<p>Wow.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:15:12</time>
<p>So. But, yeah, and it never happened again.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:15:15</time>
<p>Yeah. So. So that's. And I don't think they talk directly about the Jersey shore in the movie, so.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:15:20</time>
<p>No, in the movie they do.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:15:21</time>
<p>They do.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:15:21</time>
<p>Remember, the mayor will ask Hopper, who's the zoologist who studies sharks.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:15:26</time>
<p>Oh, yeah.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:15:27</time>
<p>Has this ever happened before? And he will say in the 1900s off of Jersey Shore. He makes a quick comment about it.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:15:35</time>
<p>Richard Dreyfus's character.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:15:36</time>
<p>Richard Dreyfuss's character. It's not in the book. It's just mentioned quickly in the movie. But that's what he's talking about.

Now, the USS Indianapolis, that I think, like the great monologue that Quinton gives to the three men as they're, like, waiting for the shark to come when.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:15:54</time>
<p>They'Re drinking on the boat at night.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:15:55</time>
<p>They're bored. Right. Sailor life.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:15:57</time>
<p>Getting on each other's nerves.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:15:58</time>
<p>Getting on each other's nerves. I appreciate these three men who represent this class differences here.

There's definitely, you know, different backgrounds, but these men all want the same thing and all hunting the same thing. And they can all appreciate where one's lacking, where the other one has a different expertise.

And so Quint is talking about surviving the USS Indianapolis. And so the USS Indianapolis was a. Was a cruiser during World War II that played a critical role in delivering the atomic bomb on July 30, 1945.

She had delivered the components to Tinian island for the first bomb for. For Little Boy. And. And it was later sunk by a Japanese submarine.

It resulted in the greatest single loss of life at sea in the history of the U.S. navy.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:16:51</time>
<p>Now, is it. Is it true that essentially, and I think Quint mentions this, is that, like, their mission was so secret that nobody knew that they were doing this?

Nobody knew where they were. They were kind of like almost radio. Semi. Radio silent.

So when they got hit by this Japanese submarine and the ship started sinking, nobody knew to go look for them?</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:17:10</time>
<p>Yes, I think it's a Little bit. I looked more into it.

It was a little bit no one knew to go look for them, but they didn't know that they were supposed to be ported six days later and a couple of days later and that person also missed it. But you can think it's the end of World War II and ships are coming and going so fast that they didn't. Didn't put two and two together. But yeah.

So early, early in the morning. Like I'm talking 12:15am On July 30, they were torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and the ship sank in 12 minutes.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:17:43</time>
<p>Wow.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:17:43</time>
<p>And 1200 crewmen were on board. 300 went down with the ship, but the remaining 900 went into the water.

And they're going to face, like you said, days of exposure, dehydration, salt water poisoning. But when Quint talks about is the shark attack. Yeah, Right.

And so they're stranded out there with all of these sharks that basically just feed off of them for four days and men will swim away. And they don't really know how many people were actually killed by the sharks or how many just succumb to the elements.

But they say a few dozen to 150. But they were out there for four days. Four days, no water. Four days in the sun.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:18:26</time>
<p>And that is such a classic scene in the movie Jaws, because his delivery of that story is just amazing. And I. But you know, I'll let you guys kind of behind the scenes of Walk with history here. I watched Jaws for the first time just a couple weeks ago.

So I was sitting there riveted by this. Right. And I think the boys had watched it with you like probably six months ago because you wanted to show them.

Be like, now the beginning's so scary. And they weren't phased at all.

But, but his delivery of that story and, and them sitting there in this tiny little cabin, you know, and him reciting the story and then not too long after it, I think that's when the shark first starts. Yeah, you know, they, they spot the shark again. It's just amazing.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:19:06</time>
<p>It's amazing. And it's Robert Shaw.

Robert Shaw is a great actor at the time, but he's delivering this monologue about the, the shark attack on the Indianapolis and only 300 men will survive. So when you talk about 900 went into the water, only one third survived.

He talks about a friend that he kind of tries to shake awake and he bobs up and down because he's been butt bitten in half. Those were tiger sharks that attacked them. And I Want to let people know, four days later it was a PV1 Ventura plane.

A young pilot flew by and saw them in the water and they went out and rescued them. Now, I talked to you before about Marines, right? How many Marines were on board? And could Quint have been a Marine on the USS Indianapolis?

There were 39 Marines on the USS Indianapolis.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:19:58</time>
<p>Wow.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:19:59</time>
<p>Nine survived.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:20:00</time>
<p>Oh, so he could have been one of those.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:20:01</time>
<p>So Quint could have been one of those.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:20:02</time>
<p>Oh, what a cool, like little tie. Now did they write that in the book or is that specifically for the movie?</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:20:08</time>
<p>That's specifically for the movie. I think the screenwriters wanted to tie in a real life shark story. I will say what Jaws did for a lot of people was we.

First of all, it scared you out of the ocean, right? Most people are scared to death of going to the ocean. Most people didn't know a lot about sharks before Jaws. Tiger shark, great white shark.

What like.

And so Hopper's character of knowing all these different sharks, I might have one of my favorite lines from the movie, and you can get this in, is when the fisherman catch the tiger shark. And Harper's like, that's not the shark. And he goes. Or he goes, what kind of shark is this? Look at this man eater.

And he goes, he's measuring his mouth. He goes, it's a tiger shark. And the guy goes, what? I love that part because they don't. It's not like we know sharks today. Today.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:20:57</time>
<p>Yeah, there was no Shark Week.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:20:58</time>
<p>This is Shark Week. We know different types of sharks. We're fascinated with it, right. Tiger sharks are darker on their back. You know, they're.

They're camouflaged by the sand, right? And they really. They are tropical sharks, right? Hawaii. The girl who had her arm bit off, the surfer, that was a tiger shark.

Great whites are cold water sharks, right? Arctic shark, they just want to stay in the cold water. They're white, they're gray. So they're in a different kind of environment than a tiger shark.

So that's just kind of interesting. But when we talk about the filming of Jaws, the opening, it's become a synonymous Spielberg opening, it has. Where it grabs you right away, it.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:21:54</time>
<p>Grabs you right away.

And one of the things, and we'll kind of mention a couple examples that I think are pretty well known as far as like the mechanical shark having all sorts of issues. And so that's how he kind of pivoted to this. You can't see the shark, which is actually scarier.

So one of the things that I looked up About Steven Spielberg is he loves to do this kind of much more practical in camera, no digital trickery, especially back then, because you couldn't kind of filming.

And so one of the most iconic scenes from Steven Spielberg's, arguably his, one of his biggest movies ever is ET and so that scene where you, you know, and it's, it's now what Amblin is the production company where they're riding their bikes through the sky in front of the moon. That is all practically shot. And I'll explain how I, I looked this up.

I said of all the iconic moments and shots that Spielberg has given us, the moment that ET And Elliott fly past the moon was. Everything was shot in camera. So it took the effects team, Industrial Light and Magic weeks of scouting to identify the right place for filming.

They use maps and astrological charts to find the perfect time that a full moon would sit low among the trees in that spot. So now Elliot and ET Were scale models, but the rest is all, is all shot in camera. So they actually found like they, they didn't have to do that.

Right. But they, he wanted this one particular shot.

He found a spot somewhere in the United States where the full moon would sit low with her horizon with the trees. And then they basically just did the scale model. So I just thought it was, that was so interesting because that is so of his era.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:23:32</time>
<p>It is. And when you think of the opening of Jaws. So Susan Beckline. Beck. Laleen Beckleyn.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:23:38</time>
<p>Yeah, it's. Her name is kind of difficult to pronounce.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:23:40</time>
<p>Yeah, I think it's Susan Beckley. She was a swimmer and she sent Spielberg a nude photo of her and said I am. You don't have to get a stunt model.

You can do close ups of me because I model swimsuits and I'll be nude in this, in this scene for you. And that's what the scene called for nudity.

Now you can't see anything, but you get that upside down shot of her in the water and you see her silhouette of her naked. Like that's a real shot. Right. So she's willing to do that. And of course the opening poster of Jaws is the.

It's this opening of a skinny dipper being attacked. Now when they filmed this, she wore cut off jean shorts with 10 pound weights in each side pocket.

And each weight were attached to ropes with 10 men on each rope.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:24:31</time>
<p>So that's. They were pulling her across and they were pulling her.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:24:33</time>
<p>So that's where you get that motion that looks like a six ton great white with her in its mouth, but flinging her around is those men. And so that her reaction. Right. And then Spielberg said, Spielberg's the one who actually pulls her underwater. Right.

So he wanted that authentic, like she just goes underwater. Like he did. He did that. But then he. For voiceovers for this, he poured water down her throat and made her kind of like gargle.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:25:01</time>
<p>Yeah, I. I read that too. Is they didn't like her screaming as it was filmed. So they had her go back in the studio and screaming.

And then they were, they were kind of, you know, making it better.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:25:11</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:25:11</time>
<p>So with movie magic now, another interesting Spielberg fact, because, you know, he's like one of the greatest directors of all time. But Spielberg has actually made the highest grossing movie ever three times. So he keeps breaking his own record. So the first one was Jaws.

Made more than 470 million in 1975, which is bananas. Then in 1982, E.T. the Extraterrestrial Classic movie, toppled Star wars from the number one spot when it grossed 792 million.

And then ET was overtaken by Jurassic park, which took in 914 million worldwide in 1993.

So I just thought that was such a fun fact that essentially he's made the highest grossing movie ever three times in his career because he just keeps beating himself.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:25:59</time>
<p>Well, it's so interesting because we talk about this like he didn't think he was going to work again. So when he films in Martha's Vineyard and I tell people this, he uses a lot of the local people and it's a touristy area.

He would set up a shot and then a sailboat would come into the. To the frame and he'd have to wait for the sailboat to go across the frame because this is before they could cut things out.

And as soon as that sailboat would get out of the frame, another boat would come into the frame and he'd be like, you got to be kidding me. I'm trying to get the light.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:26:32</time>
<p>Because. Because they were actually out there on the boat filming in the water.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:26:35</time>
<p>Yeah, right off the sh. Of Martha's Vineyard. You can actually line up the shots. And so the budget was 4 million. He ended up spending 9 million. I think doubled the budget.

He was like, I'm never going to work again. It was supposed to be a 60 day shoot. It was 159 day shoot. And this is like his first. He's trying to make his first movie. Really.

And he's just thinking, this is it. My career is over.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:26:58</time>
<p>Yeah. And you know what? I read too Was after the movie was basically done. He want.

He was, I guess he was watching some of the audience reactions of like the early screening of the film and he wanted to add in one more kind of like scary scene. And so that scene where Richard Dreyfus character dives under the water and goes. Goes to look for the boat hopper. Yeah.

And like the dead body pops out the head. So he asked the studio if he could go back and film that. And they said no, you're way over budget. So he just paid money out of his own pocket.

And they filmed it in like a friend's pool.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:27:32</time>
<p>Yeah. In Encino. They put milk in the water to make it cloudy. And he used a prop head and just kind of made the head roll around.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:27:40</time>
<p>I just think that's, I think that's so interesting of like how these legendary movies. You know me, I love watching like band documentaries. Cause I love learning how bands kind of come together and make their music.

Same thing for something like this that's as legendary as Jaws and all these little finishing touches. Cause I remember that scene and that, I mean that scene got me, you know.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:27:59</time>
<p>Well, it's attention to detail.

When you think about when they find the girl's torso and you see her hand sticking out of the sand with the crabs and she's wearing a ring and that's how to make it seem like it's a girl's hand. Because at first Spobergs. How are they going to know it's her hand? We'll put a ring on it. She's not wearing a ring in that opening scene.

If you pay attention. That was kind of. And now you can go to Martha's Vineyard to the jewelry store that made the ring for the fake hand for the girl on the beach.

So he's paying attention to how the audience is going to have buy in to the story. And so I, I really love. That's the men and the storytelling.

When I, I pay attention to when Richard Dreyfus's character, Hopper, he's supposed to be a well off person. He's funded his own excursions.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:28:57</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:28:58</time>
<p>And he shows up to the sheriff's house. They the very first time kind of invites himself to dinner. Chef Brody with two bottles of wine. Right. A red and a white.

I didn't know what you were eating. What working class person does that? You think Quint's gonna show up with two bottles of wine?

So Spoilk's showing you early on this class difference between these men and how they kind of have to come together over all their differences to hunt the shark, which I really appreciate. He also used a lot of locals in the filming. And the person who plays the oldest son, we've met his brother.

And when he goes into shock and he's in the hospital and they ask, she asks him, what kind of ice cream do you want? And he says, coffee. That is a very Martha's Vineyard, New England thing.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:29:50</time>
<p>Yeah, I didn't know that until you figured that. That out.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:29:53</time>
<p>And that's really what he said. He was told to kind of ad lib that line. And so he said coffee ice cream. That was his favorite ice cream. That's a real thing for Martha's Vineyard.

So I, I always think that that's kind of neat. We're going to need a bigger boat. Y totally ad libbed, famously adlib, the three men, the, you know, Shaw, Brody and Hopper. Quint.

Brody and Hopper, they were so sick and tired of spending time together on these clothes, quarters that they were just exhausted.

And so you're going to need a bigger boat was more like what he was feeling internally about being stuck on this boat and this filming with you three guys. And it's just driving me crazy. So I always thought that was neat too. When you think of Quint and he crushes the can.

It's Narragansett beer that he's crushing. That's very. A New England brand. And they have come out with these same printed cans for the 50th anniversary of JAWS. Quint means five.

And quint is the fifth victim of the shark. And if you, if you don't count the dog, there is a. It alludes to a dog being killed.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:31:02</time>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:31:02</time>
<p>So he's the fifth victim. You're gonna have the girl, you have the little boy on the. The raft. You're gonna get the man in the boat with the head.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:31:10</time>
<p>Yep.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:31:11</time>
<p>Right. You're gonna get the man in the boat with his son gets knocked off and then Quint. Quint in the book is killed, much like Ahab is killed.

He shoots the barrel and the, the line wraps around his leg and pulls him into the water and he grinds. Ahab will harpoon.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:31:31</time>
<p>He's not like, basically eaten like, like it is in the movie. It's.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:31:34</time>
<p>It's.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:31:34</time>
<p>So he basically pulls him under.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:31:36</time>
<p>Yes. It's supposed to be an ode to Moby Dick.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:31:38</time>
<p>Gotcha.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:31:39</time>
<p>When. When Betchley wrote that. It's an ode to Moby Dick.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:31:41</time>
<p>That's cool.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:31:41</time>
<p>And if you've watched the movie, Peter Betchley's in the movie. Peter Betchley plays one of the first reporters to report about the shark.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:31:49</time>
<p>I love. I love when movies do that. They let the author kind of have a little cameo.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:31:53</time>
<p>Yep. And I love that part, too. It's just I. I love the shooting of Jaws. I just love the making of it. And like Scott. Scott had alluded this.

They had made the shark Bruce, named after Spielberg's accountant Bruce in fresh water. When they got it to Martha's Vineyard and put it in salt water, all of the gears kept seizing up.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:32:16</time>
<p>Yep.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:32:16</time>
<p>And again, Spielberg is like, I'm never going to work again. So that's when he pivots and starts to shoot the shark from. Shoot the point of view from the shark, which I think worked 100 times.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:32:28</time>
<p>That was. That was. I think that was like a. And even if it was unintentional, it was a masterful touch.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:32:34</time>
<p>Yeah. And so then the barrels are also used in the same kind of mindset.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:32:40</time>
<p>Well, and you love that line with the barrels. You and your brother always quote it back to back and forth to each other via text.

Like after they've shot him with, like, the third barrel that's following around. He's like something.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:32:53</time>
<p>You can't go down with three. Not with three.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:32:54</time>
<p>Yeah. He can't dive with three because it's supposed to wear him out. And then he dives with the three, and they're like, like, oh, this is.

This is different.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:33:01</time>
<p>Yeah. So, because again, the shark kept seizing. How are we going to show shark momentum? How are we going to show shark movement?

How are we going to show shark presence?

So those barrels create that idea of the shark once the barrel comes up, you know, the shark is close by, so he's creating this awareness of this animal without being able to film it. Even now, when I watch, does look hokey, but it's still scary. Right. I still think it's a believable shark.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:33:32</time>
<p>And 50 years later, it's still an amazing movie. Right. It still looks like a million bucks.

And again, it was kind of a genre defining, you know, and we're not going to go into, like, how it changed, you know, summer blockbusters and it kind of being the first big one because it was such a massive hit.

There's plenty of other podcasts that do movie stuff, but it's fun that it had these ties to history, the Indianapolis and the Jersey shark attacks, and then obviously just some of the behind the scenes of movies like this that are so kind of pivotal to pop culture and really too, like, you know, as someone who grew up In California, you know, body surfing, boogie boarding, surfing, doing all that stuff. If I ever saw a fin out of the corner of my eye, instinctually, I knew it was most likely a Dolphin because it's 99% of the time, that's what it is.

But it would still strike the fear of God in me and I'd start swimming away because you just don't, you don't want to risk it.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:34:26</time>
<p>Honestly, it's. I think it scared the world. It scared the world out of the water. We'll end on. Spielberg thought this movie was going to end his career.

He had been hard on the crew. He'd been hard on people. It had gone 160 days. People were sick and tired of filming.

He did not show up for the last day of filming because he thought people were going to throw him into the water. And this, this movie has also made a fear of sharks in Spielberg. So he doesn't go into the ocean because of this movie.

And he didn't want to be thrown into the ocean. So he's like, I'm not going to show up for the last day of filming because the movie did so well and just blew the summer blocksbuster.

It made his career. He doesn't show up for any last day of filming, for any of the movies he makes now because of the tradition of what it did with Joss.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:35:16</time>
<p>So cool.

From the film's groundbreaking impact on cinema to Spielberg's remarkable career and personal insights, it's clear that Jaws is more than just a movie. It's a cultural milestone.

Steven Spielberg's dedication to storytelling has not only entertained millions, but also inspired countless filmmakers and enthusiasts worldwide. Who else can say they created a movie legend with just two notes? Dunnit. Dunnit.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:35:49</time>
<p>You're gonna need a bigger boat.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:35:51</time>
<p>Don't forget to follow us here on YouTube or in your favorite podcast player and we'll talk to you next time.</p>
<cite>Jenn</cite>
<time>00:35:55</time>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<cite>Scott</cite>
<time>00:35:56</time>
<p>This has been Walk With History production. Talk with History is created and hosted by me, Scott Benny. Episode researched by Jennifer Benny.

Check out the show notes for links and references mentioned in this episode. Talk with History is supported by our [email protected] our eternal thanks go out to those providing funding to help keep us going.

Thank you to Doug McLiberty, Larry Myers, Patrick Benny, Gale Cooper, Christy Coates, and Calvin Gifford. Make sure you hit that follow button in that podcast player and we'll talk to you next time.</p>