When Jaws was released, it broke very box office record going. It created a term that we hear every year ‘the summer blockbuster’ because Jaws was the first movie to achieve that status. It created the term ‘blockbuster.’ That a film could make that much money on theatrical release. It was unheard of before this release.
It was only Steven Spielberg’s third full length movie, and he was not the first choice of the producers. Other directors had been approached and had declined.
So, the twenty-seven-year-old Spielberg got the gig. The shoot was fraught with huge challenges and script changes. It was a never-ending cycle of giant obstacle after giant obstacle. To such an extent that there is no reason the final film should have worked. But it did. Today, it is considered a masterpiece.
This extensive documentary on the making of the film reveals how challenging filmmaking can be, and how important it was for the producers to trust their director.