Monday, May 5: Jaws (1975)
directed by Steven Spielberg
starring Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, and Richard Dreyfuss
and. . . .
"Don't go in the water. . . ." watch the original movie trailer for Jaws
A few interesting facts about Jaws:
--it was directed and written by a 27-year-old named Steven Spielberg
--it's considered the original "blockbuster" film, booked into a record 500 theatres for its opening weekend. The film's impact caused its celebration on the cover of Time Magazine (June 23, 1975) and forever changed the ways films would be marketed.
--With a modest film budget of about $12 million, Jaws was the highest grossing film up to that time (unbroken until the release of George Lucas' Star Wars (1977)); it grossed $438 million in eleven weeks, and was also the first film to top the $100 million record in box-office rentals (cruising past previous pace-setters Gone With the Wind (1939) and The Sound of Music (1965))
--the filming (on Martha's Vineyard) ran into so many problems that the crew dubbed the film "Flaws"
--one of the hydraulically-operated "sharks" was named "Bruce," after Steven Spielberg's lawyer
--it won a Best Original Score Academy Award for John Williams, who went on to collaborate with Spielberg on Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Raiders of the Lost Ark
"a sensationally effective action picture--a scary thriller that works all the better because it's populated with characters that have been developed into human beings we get to know and care about."
--Roger Ebert
for Roger Ebert's complete l975 review, click here
