Let's talk about Jaws at 50

Nathan Abrams examines the Jewish sensibility that shaped Spielberg's 1975 blockbuster and transformed cinema

- Nathan Abrams

IT'S hard to believe Steven Spielberg was just 27 when he directed Jaws. Before that he'd mostly worked in television, helming episodes of detective show Columbo and the acclaimed TV movie Duel. He'd made just one theatrical feature, The Sugarland Express.

Then came Jaws, a technically ambitious shoot set on open water with a mechanical shark that barely worked. But the result was a record-breaking blockbuster that redefined what Hollywood could be.

Adapted from Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel, the film almost didn’t happen. When Spielberg first read it, he said he found himself rooting for the shark because the human characters were so unlikeable.

What followed was a series of creative rewrites and recastings that gave Jaws its distinctive personality and enduring power.

Spielberg brought in Howard Sackler, a writer and scuba diver, to work on the script. Sackler left early without a screen credit. The director then turned to actor Carl Gottlieb, originally hired to play a toadying local newspaper editor, to redraft the script. Screenwriter and director John Milius, a Second World War expert, also contributed.

John Williams added what became an iconic musical score. Its simple two-note motif created suspense and became one of the most recognisable cinematic themes of all time.

As a researcher of Jewishness in popular culture, I argue that many of these creatives brought a Jewish sensibility that lurked beneath the surface of the film.

Spielberg took Benchley’s bitter, cynical and pessimistic novel and gave it a more hopeful vibe. He even humanised the shark, giving it the name Bruce after his lawyer, Bruce Ramer, a powerful and influential Los Angeles attorney specialising in entertainment law, also Jewish.