The 1975 film, Jaws, was based on the book of the same name written by, Peter Benchley. Benchley was brought in to co-write the script for Jaws and was lucky enough to have a few other of his novels made into movies as well. Directed by
Steven Spielberg, this film scared many viewers to the point of never wanting to go in the water again.
It’s widely known that Spielberg was having trouble getting the mechanical shark, Bruce, to work properly. He had wanted too show much more of the shark, but due to all the technical difficulties, he had to limit the shots on the shark. Who knows what the final version of the film would have looked like of how the tone would have felt, but limiting the time the camera spent on Bruce, really helped maintain the suspense and scare factor.
The all around production value found within Jaws is what has helped make it such a huge success. The cinematography is picture perfect and has the classic Spielberg techniques. The acting was well done and the score played a giant part in the films marketing campaign as well as setting the audience up for what was to come.
At the time, Jaws had become the highest grossing film to date. With a budget of just $9 million, the shark tale reeled in over $470 million at the box office and has continued to sell copies on DVD and Blu-Ray yet today.