DEEP SEA DISASTER

Steven Spielberg Says ‘Jaws’ Almost Killed His Career

The iconic thriller was finished more than a 100 days over schedule and wildly over budget.

Steven Spielberg’s experience making hit movie Jaws was “horrendous,” marred by the film’s scale of difficulty and unanticipated problems, and an overwhelming sense that all eyes were on him. The director detailed how his decision to shoot in open water, rather than in a studio, marked the beginning of the movie’s production issues. While filming in Martha’s Vineyard, Spielberg would lose countless hours of shots to summer boat races and currents dragging the film boats. The tedious and time consuming process was coupled with mosquitoes that “came 12 miles out just to bite you,” he said. Disaster, however, truly struck when the movie’s fake shark “Bruce” broke almost immediately. Spielberg’s backup plan was “suggesting the shark without showing the shark,” using glimpses of a fin, tail, and snout combined with the Jaws shark theme music. Despite mounting pressure from the studio and rumors of his replacement, the director stuck with the film, trusting in his plan. “I think the shark not working when we needed it to probably added $175 million to the box office, because what’s scary about the movie is the unseen, not what we see,” he said.