on June 20th in 1975, one of the most iconic films of all time was released. Even if you weren't alive (and I presume most of you weren't,) you are familiar with this very iconic and unusual horror / thriller film.
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As you might be able to imagine, technology in 1975 wasn't exactly cutting-edge, especially when it came to special effects such as creating a massive shark that doesn't exist and most likely wouldn't read the script if it did. Therefore, with a paltry budget of $12 million dollars Spielberg had to make it work. (the film ended up costing much more than this because of massive delays as filming took 3x as long as planned) Some (me) would argue that he was triumphantly successful in accomplishing this.
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The opening scene is one of the most famous in all cinema and it haunts you, it sticks with you, it makes you afraid to get into even a swimming pool at night. The film achieved its horror, even though we don't often even see the shark in the film, so effectively that people were afraid to go into the ocean in the late 70's for quite some time.
Due in part to this film, I was afraid of deep ocean water for most of my life until I became a dive professional and I found out that a vast majority of ocean life has exactly zero interest in intentionally harming you and you should consider yourself lucky if you ever see a shark because there are so few of them.
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CGI, for the most part, didn't exist in '75 and any attempts made at including it actually kind of cheapened the look of the film. Therefore, most of the time our pal "Jaws" isn't even shown on screen, and when he is, he is a machine made to look like a giant shark. The very first time they put the machine in the ocean, it sank straight to the bottom, and spent most of its time in the water, broken. At a cost of $250,000 each, this was a very frustrating situation but the failure of the machines is what ultimately lead to most of the footage to being from Jaw's first person perspective rather than seeing the whole shark. Many people will state that this "accident' is the reason why the film ended up being so creepy, so scary, so good.
Jaws was actually nicknamed "Flaws" by the crew because everything went wrong but this is not surprising since filming underwater wasn't exactly something that was done all that often and the giant machines being broken more often than not is probably the greatest reason why this movie was so great. If it weren't for that, the footage would probably seem hokey and fake. Some times things break for a reason!
I didn't know they had a problem with the shark machine and makes perfect sense as it was not seen a lot coming to think of it now. The fin was iconic though. I have been lucky enough to see a few in the water off Cape Town. I thought you would of seen quite a lot with all the diving you have done.
the fin was a separate machine that wasn't originally intended to be used as much as it was. It was a far more simplistic thing because the submarine attached to it didn't need to look like a shark at all, it just had to be a dark color so it wasn't visible from the surface. Yeah, the behind-the-scenes stuff is REALLY interesting for this movie.
This post is not a good idea at all!!
Many people will have nightmares and many people will not go swimming for months!! Me included!!
i think you don't live near the ocean so you'll be fine. :P
I wasn't quite alive yet, but the only other movie I can think of from this time period that had fantastic underwater scenes was probably "The Deep". It was a pretty decent movie with suspense of a totally different kind. I still stop and watch Jaws every time I see it on the TV. There are so many great lines and interesting behind the scenes stories with the cast, etc.
I remember that shark...😲
Yes, you are right. It will take years, decades will pass, the director Steven Spielberg will go down in history of cinema forever, as the only director in the world who has managed to make a great shark film. This is true.
Actually, the movie is very beautiful and it's a great story to make the heart of the movie..greet post
Horror films that give us an idea so that the nomads participate in everyday life. films that can give a frightening effect to the first time watching. the visualization of the shark makes us afraid when swimming in the sea.
A spectacle that might give a big driver in the next world of cinema. From the shark, in the following decade, there were many films in the genre haunted through wild animals that we know well.
warm regard from Indonesia thank you @gooddream.