Take one very large shark, a boat (we’re gonna need a bigger one of those) and a movie that ran way over budget and you’ve got all the ingredients of a career-making film for one of Hollywood’s most successful directors.
Now fans of Jaws — Steven Spielberg’s terrifying thriller about a man-eating shark — can re-live the movie as it celebrates its 50th anniversary in an exhibition at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles.
“The film certainly cost me a pound of flesh, but gave me a ton of career,” Spielberg told reporters as he toured exhibits of props and memorabilia from the movie that propelled him to the top ranks of Hollywood directors.
Photo: AP
“I thought my career was virtually over halfway through production on Jaws, because everybody was saying to me: ‘You are never going to get hired again. This film is way over budget and way over schedule, and you are a real liability as a director.’”
History had different ideas. Jaws, starring Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw, established a benchmark for thrillers, winning three Oscars and spawning three sequels as it catapulted Spielberg to stardom.
With more than 200 artifacts spread across several galleries, “Jaws: The Exhibition” is the largest display dedicated to a single film at the Academy Museum. They join Bruce, a life-size model of a shark that is on permanent display at the museum, and the only one that was ever actually on set (Spielberg named the model after his lawyer.)
Photo: AFP
Production notes, stills, costume pieces and original set items from collectors — and from the director’s personal archive — were all tracked down for the exhibition.
“It really was a cinematic treasure hunt,” curator Jenny He said.
Museum staff focused on finding objects “that would put the story of Jaws together for our visitors in a tangible, physical way,” He said.
Photo: Reuters
In addition to seeing behind-the-scenes footage of the production, the public will also be able try their hand at reproducing the menacing, unmistakable “da-dum-da-dum” music that announces the arrival of the predator — music that earned composer John Williams an Oscar.
They will also be able to handle a replica of the shark used in the film. Spielberg said the exhibition was a wonderful showcase of work by collectors “who somehow knew something that I didn’t.”
“When we shot the opening scene of Chrissie Watkins being taken by the shark and we had a buoy floating in the water, how did anybody know to take the buoy and take it home and sit on it for 50 years?”
Photo: AP
The exhibition is currently open to the public.
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