Steven Spielberg is a name synonymous with great filmmaking. The legendary director has several critically acclaimed and commercially successful films to his credit. One of them is the 1975 thriller ‘Jaws,’ a movie that left an entire generation terrified of sharks.
The film not only introduced the concept of the summer blockbuster but also catapulted Spielberg’s career to new heights. However, despite its massive success, the director has long regretted one particular impact the film had on audiences. Surprisingly, it has everything to do with sharks. Here’s why Spielberg wishes ‘Jaws‘ hadn’t influenced public perception in quite the way it did.
Steven Speilberg On The Bad Influence Of ‘Jaws’
Speilberg changed the course of Hollywood with ‘Jaws.’ However, the OG summer blockbuster’s impact wasn’t entirely positive.
In a 2022 interview with the BBC’s Desert Island Discs, Spielberg revealed that the fear of sharks the film created, and its consequences, is something he still regrets. “That’s one of the things I still fear,” he said.
Spielberg explained that sharks are “somehow mad at me for the feeding frenzy of crazy sport fishermen that happened after 1975, which I truly, and to this day, regret.” He added that he deeply regrets the decimation of shark populations that followed the release of both the book and the film.
Related: 10 Little-Known Facts About ‘Jaws’
He isn’t alone in feeling that way. Peter Benchley, who wrote the 1974 novel that inspired ‘Jaws,’ also later expressed regret over the public’s reaction to sharks and the decline in their population that followed the story’s release.
How A Broken Shark Made ‘Jaws’ Even Scarier
‘Jaws‘ is remembered for its iconic score and for rarely showing the shark on screen. Interestingly, that wasn’t entirely by design. Spielberg revealed that the film’s mechanical shark frequently malfunctioned during production, forcing him to rethink how he would create suspense.
“I had to be resourceful in figuring out how to create suspense and terror without seeing the shark itself,” he said. Spielberg added that Alfred Hitchcock was “a tremendous guide for me in the way he was able to scare you without really seeing anything.”
In hindsight, the director believes the technical problems actually improved the film. According to Spielberg, showing less of the shark made audiences imagine something far more terrifying. As he put it, “‘Jaws’ is a scarier movie without seeing so much of the shark.”
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