The Lesson from Jaws

The Lesson from Jaws 

On June 20 1975 Jaws was released in theaters. The iconic movie broke ground in a lot of ways. Most notably, it was the first summer blockbuster. After 1975, summers in America would never be the same. 

And it almost never happened. 

Jaws was a difficult movie to film, mostly thanks to the shark animatronic. 

Some people know that Speilberg named the shark ‘Bruce’ after his lawyer – but that’s not what he called it on set. There it was known as “the great white turd”. 

It didn’t work. 

And when it did work it looked terrible. 

It was a blessing in disguise.  

Sitting in the editing bay with so little usable footage, Speilberg had to rely on mystery, ambiguity, and John Wiliams’s stunning soundtrack. Viewers were left to imagine the shark and in their imagination is where the danger lies. 

Obstacles arise. Problems grow. Things are not the way we imagine. 

That’s okay. It’s just another problem we can solve.