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Speaker 1: From The Australian. This is the weekend edition of the Front.

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Speaker 1: I'm Claire Harvey. Jaws, the movie that's haunted anyone that's

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Speaker 1: ever set foot in the ocean, turns fifty this year.

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Speaker 1: It's easy to look back and think of Jaws as

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Speaker 1: a guaranteed hit with its mix of sun, suspense and

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Speaker 1: that trademark two note double bass motif. But the opportunities

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Speaker 1: for Jaws to face plant were endless in nineteen seventy five.

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Speaker 1: Steven Spielberg was young, like twenty six and without a

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Speaker 1: proven record as a director. The main character wasn't an

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Speaker 1: a lister of the day like Jack Nicholson or Clint Eastwood.

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Speaker 1: It was a shark. It was based on a book

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Speaker 1: released only a year before the movie was made. It

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Speaker 1: was the first movie where filming on open water was

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Speaker 1: even attempted, but producers went all in on Jaws, throwing

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Speaker 1: a huge marketing budget behind the film along with a

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Speaker 1: wide cinema release. The resulting success created the modern blockbuster template.

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Speaker 1: Joining me to poke under the hood of this fifty

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Speaker 1: year old mechanical shark is The Australian's film critic Stephen Romay. Stephen,

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Speaker 1: you've been back to the cinema to catch up with

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Speaker 1: this movie again in preparation for it being in cinemas

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Speaker 1: this weekend. Were you terrified?

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Speaker 2: I was less terrified this time than when I first

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Speaker 2: saw it when I was about ten years old. But

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Speaker 2: fifty years on it is a great film, and even

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Speaker 2: at my current age, there were a few moments where

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Speaker 2: I jumped from my seat in terror.

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Speaker 1: That's quite od. I think I saw it when I

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Speaker 1: was about three, and it scared me out of the

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Speaker 1: water for a lot of time.

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Speaker 2: It's scared a lot of people out of the water,

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Speaker 2: and it also led to a bit of a crackdown

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Speaker 2: on sharks. Sharks did not get a good deal out

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Speaker 2: of this film, and as it happens, the author of

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Speaker 2: the book on which it's based, Peter Benchley, and his

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Speaker 2: wife Wendy, devoted themselves afterwards to shark protection. So when

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Speaker 2: I saw it as a ten year old, yes, it's

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Speaker 2: a similar feeling. We would go to the beach and

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Speaker 2: you'd be more nervous about going into the water.

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Speaker 1: I still sometimes have those double basses playing in my

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Speaker 1: head when i'm that ominous double note. Let's talk first

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Speaker 1: about the sound of Jaws. That signature theme of the

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Speaker 1: shark that introduces the shark before you even see it.

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Speaker 1: That's a big part of why Jaws is scary, isn't it?

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Speaker 3: It is?

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Speaker 2: And it's also a really good explanation of what a

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Speaker 2: good film maker Steven Spielberg, the director is because the

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Speaker 2: sharks were robotic sharks and they simply didn't work. They

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Speaker 2: were like driving terrible used cars around the street. They

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Speaker 2: broke down all the time. In fact that the crew

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Speaker 2: had a nickname for the film Flaws. So Spielberg had

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Speaker 2: to work around that. And the way he did it

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Speaker 2: was to make the possibility of the shark the threat

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Speaker 2: the scary part. And so the sound became important in

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Speaker 2: that the well known music as you say, which sort

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Speaker 2: of leads up to a possible shark attack, but also

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Speaker 2: the use of silence.

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Speaker 3: So the underwater photography is excellent.

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Speaker 2: You're looking at what we look like from a shark's

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Speaker 2: point of view, So you're looking at legs, particularly children's legs,

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Speaker 2: treading water, and you just think how vulnerable are those legs.

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Speaker 2: And Spielberg mainly uses silence, and the silence is what's

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Speaker 2: scary because the silence could be broke, can very soon

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Speaker 2: by three hundred white teeth gnashing away.

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Speaker 3: It's children's flesh.

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Speaker 1: Yes, there's something timeless about this film. It doesn't feel

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Speaker 1: like a fifty year old film. I don't feel like

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Speaker 1: it's trapped in the nineteen seventies. But I also think

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Speaker 1: it could have been a nineteen forties film. There are

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Speaker 1: hints of films like The African Queen to me in it.

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Speaker 1: Maybe it's the very sort of bogut like nature of

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Speaker 1: Roy Scheider. You know, he's got the strong jaw and

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Speaker 1: the kind of mysterious style. But I think one of

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Speaker 1: the differences is the sound. You know, one of the

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Speaker 1: things that spiel were brought at the age of just

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Speaker 1: twenty six was this sophisticated use of the soundtrack with.

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Speaker 3: The African Queen. Of course, the predator were leeches.

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Speaker 2: Now for leeches, you did not need a bigger boat.

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Speaker 3: You've got to need a bigger pot.

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Speaker 2: There are some kind of forties fifties touches to the film,

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Speaker 2: particularly between the three main characters beyond the shark, Roy

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Speaker 2: Scheider as the police chief, Richard Dreyfus as the marine biologist.

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Speaker 3: And Robert Shaw as Quint, the captain of the boat.

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Speaker 2: They go out looking for the shark on And this

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Speaker 2: is Spielberg at twenty six, well before Close Encounters, Raiders

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Speaker 2: of Lost Dark Et, Jurassic Park, name them all. He

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Speaker 2: wasn't a particularly well known filmmaker at this time, and

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Speaker 2: once again, what he does so well is prepare you

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Speaker 2: for the possibility of something life threatening without needing to

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Speaker 2: show it. And his previous film Duel in nineteen seventy

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Speaker 2: one about a traveling salesman driving through the desert of

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Speaker 2: California overtaking a semi trailer and the semi trailer got

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Speaker 2: annoyed with him. Now in that film, once again you

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Speaker 2: don't see whoever is driving a semi trailer. Maybe perhaps

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Speaker 2: right at the end you do. But it's the threat

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Speaker 2: without having to see the clear psychopath that makes the

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Speaker 2: film so kind of edge of seat tense.

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Speaker 3: And it's the same in Jaws.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk about that we're going to need a bigger

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Speaker 1: boat scene. It's actually a comic moment, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: It is, And in fact Jaws does have comedy in it,

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Speaker 2: particularly between the three men on the boat. That's an

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Speaker 2: interesting scene because when they first shot at it, it

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Speaker 2: wasn't like that. He sees the shark, and he says,

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Speaker 2: you're going to need a bigger boat straight away.

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Speaker 3: Now.

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Speaker 2: When they test screen that before it was released, the

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Speaker 2: audience was so shocked at seeing the shark pop up

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Speaker 2: they didn't hear roy Scheid as lyme, so they went

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Speaker 2: back and reshot it. That's why he walks back into

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Speaker 2: the wheelhouse of the boat and says the line. So

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Speaker 2: that is once again a good bit of filmmaking, responding

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Speaker 2: to an audience seeing the original scene and not hearing

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Speaker 2: the line because they are all going like that.

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Speaker 1: That's an interesting point about Spielberg's commercial sensibilities, isn't it.

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Speaker 1: In Jaws, Even though he was twenty six and quite raw.

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Speaker 1: It's interesting that he was sophisticated enough to listen to

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Speaker 1: what the audience was telling him in a test screening

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Speaker 1: and then change his movie.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's right, and all people involved in the arts

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Speaker 2: should be responsive to the people they're creating that art

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Speaker 2: for the film. By the way, when they started making

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Speaker 2: it wasn't expected to be a blockbuster at all, and

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Speaker 2: the budget to make it was about three to four

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Speaker 2: million dollars US. It ended up costing about nine million US,

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Speaker 2: so well over budget. It went for far longer than

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Speaker 2: the scheduled shoot because the robot sharks didn't work, but

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Speaker 2: Spielberg stuck at it and at the latest numbers I've

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Speaker 2: looked at, its box office returns are close to five

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Speaker 2: hundred million, so not a bad nine million dollars spent.

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Speaker 1: What are some of your other favorite scenes.

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Speaker 2: One of the most interesting scene is the shark cage dive,

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Speaker 2: when Richard Drivers's character the marine biologist goes down in

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Speaker 2: a shark cage. Now this has a really interesting Australian angle.

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Speaker 2: There are some real sharks in Jaws and they are

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Speaker 2: in the shark cage scene, and they were filmed by

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Speaker 2: the Australian documentary makers Ron and Valerie Taylor, and they

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Speaker 2: used a smaller shark cage and a very short actor

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Speaker 2: to make the sharks look bigger. But what happened in

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Speaker 2: the filming of it is the shark did bust open

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Speaker 2: the cage. In real life, the actor got away and

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Speaker 2: they all was well. When they saw that footage, they said,

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Speaker 2: this is so good, we have to keep this in.

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Speaker 2: It wasn't originally the plan, and so they kept in

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Speaker 2: the shark cage being busted open by the Shark. We

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Speaker 2: won't reveal exactly what happens to Richard Drivers's character in

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Speaker 2: case you haven't seen this film before, but there's a

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Speaker 2: great line in it when one of the producers of

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Speaker 2: the film said in an interview, he said.

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Speaker 3: That shark from Australia rewrote the script. And it's true.

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Speaker 2: They did rewrite the film because of what a real

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Speaker 2: shark in South Australia did in that one scene featuring

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Speaker 2: a real shark.

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Speaker 1: You know, I hadn't seen Jaws between the age of

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Speaker 1: three and forty nine. I think I'm forty nine, and

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Speaker 1: I had thought that I would find the shark ridiculous

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Speaker 1: and stupid now and that it wouldn't be scary anymore.

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Speaker 1: But I put it on the other night with my

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Speaker 1: husband and he was so horrified that we had to

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Speaker 1: stop watching it after seven minutes. Had to wait for

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Speaker 1: him to go to bed so I could watch it

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Speaker 1: by myself. And I think that's because the victims are

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Speaker 1: first of all, a beautiful young girl, second child. That's

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Speaker 1: another sign of Spielberg's sophistication at the age of twenty six,

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Speaker 1: isn't it. He made the victims even though you only

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Speaker 1: see them alive for a short period of time. He

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Speaker 1: kind of made them lovable. You didn't want them to die.

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Speaker 2: That's right, And you were hardened to the film, you

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Speaker 2: see by seeing it at three years old, which you

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Speaker 2: might have to ask your parents about. The second victim

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Speaker 2: wasn't the boy. I have to put this in. It

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Speaker 2: was a labrador. Oh, that's right, it was, yes, And

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Speaker 2: I felt for that labrador.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, the stick.

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Speaker 2: The stick floats back to shore once again. That's how

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Speaker 2: Spielberg made the film. You didn't have to see the

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Speaker 2: labrador being chomped on by the great white. You just

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Speaker 2: saw a stick floating in the water without a dog

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Speaker 2: chasing it.

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Speaker 1: He probably couldn't afford a rubber labrador.

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Speaker 3: It probably could not. But you're right.

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Speaker 2: The victims are not bad people. The third one is

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Speaker 2: a child, and the scene where the mother of that

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Speaker 2: child confronts the police chief in the street is one

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Speaker 2: of the best scenes in the film. You knew it.

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Speaker 3: You knew there was a shark out there, you knew

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Speaker 3: it was dangerous.

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Speaker 1: Brodie, the police chief is the hero. Who's the villain.

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Speaker 2: When I watched it this week, I have to say

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Speaker 2: I started rooting for the shark. I kind of wanted

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Speaker 2: the shark to eat them all. I felt sorry for

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Speaker 2: the shark. It was just going along doing its shark stuff,

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Speaker 2: shark sharking, you know, firing all these harpoons into it, etc.

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Speaker 3: Etc.

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Speaker 2: I certainly wanted to eat Quint. The Robert Shaw character

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Speaker 2: the skipper of the boat for one reason alone, which

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Speaker 2: is to stop him singing these stupid sea shanties all

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Speaker 2: the way through about Spanish eyed women.

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Speaker 3: So who is the villain?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's an interesting question because the film kind of

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Speaker 2: unfolds in two halves. The first half is the resort

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Speaker 2: town of Amity, which is fictional but it's on Long Island,

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Speaker 2: and the mayor, I suppose there's a villain because he

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Speaker 2: doesn't want to shut the beach. He says, we need

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Speaker 2: the summer dollars, to which the marine blogist replies, you

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Speaker 2: may be ringing a dinner bell for the shark. So

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Speaker 2: he's the villain at the start. And then the second

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Speaker 2: half of the film, where they go out hunting for

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Speaker 2: the shark. You can make your own mind up as

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Speaker 2: to who's the villain. I'm going to say it's Quint.

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Speaker 1: Well, Quinn becomes absolutely obsessed with the shark and it

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Speaker 1: kind of becomes about Quint's personal battle with this particular animal.

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Speaker 3: Doesn't it.

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Speaker 2: It does, And I mean one of the influences, of course,

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Speaker 2: was maybe Dick Herman Melville's novel in which Captain Ahab

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Speaker 2: is obsessed with finding the whale. Quint and a Have

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Speaker 2: are very similar characters, and that was a deliberate kind

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Speaker 2: of nod to that great novel.

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Speaker 1: More of my chat with Stephen Rome after the break.

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Speaker 1: There's a debate out there in sort of cinema world

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Speaker 1: about whether or not this is a horror film. I

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Speaker 1: don't get that. Why would it not be.

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Speaker 3: It's horrifying, really, I don't think it matters.

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Speaker 2: I think it's sort of people getting a bit too

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Speaker 2: hung up on the genre. If you're horrified by it,

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Speaker 2: then you can call it a horror film. I would

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Speaker 2: call it a thriller, but for cares, it is a

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Speaker 2: horrifying film that you can call it whatever you like,

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Speaker 2: except perhaps a romantic comedy.

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Speaker 1: Finally, how big was Jaws at the time? How big

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Speaker 1: was its impact? And what do you think has been

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Speaker 1: its legacy?

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Speaker 2: It was a one of a kind film. Films about

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Speaker 2: sharks eating people weren't particularly common, and when it came out,

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Speaker 2: it went off. It's set over the summer in the US,

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Speaker 2: just before the July fourth holiday, and they released it

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Speaker 2: at that time in the US, so it came out

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Speaker 2: when everyone was thinking of going to the beach, and

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Speaker 2: it did extraordinarily well at the box office. In fact,

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Speaker 2: it soon became the biggest hit at the box office

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Speaker 2: in film history until two years later, Spielberg's friend George

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Speaker 2: Lucas made a certain film called Star Wars and that

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Speaker 2: became number one.

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Speaker 1: Stephen, the safe place to be this weekend will be

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Speaker 1: not at the beach, but in the cinema watching Jaws.

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Speaker 3: Yes, indeed, thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us. Stephen Romee is the Australian's film

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Speaker 1: critic and a regular contributor to Review, available every Saturday

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Speaker 1: in The Australian and anytime at the Australian dot Com

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Speaker 1: dot you. This episode of The Front was hosted by

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Speaker 1: me Claire Harvey and produced by Jasper League, who edited

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Speaker 1: the episode and also wrote our theme. Thanks for joining

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Speaker 1: us on the Front this week. Our team also includes

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Speaker 1: Kristen amiot Leat, Sammerglue, Tiffany Demack, Josh Burton and Stephanie coons,