Steven Spielberg took the stage at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles on Wednesday to introduce “Jaws: The Exhibition”: the largest exhibit to ever dive deep on the blockbuster film.
After an introduction from museum president Amy Homma and a live performance of John Williams’ iconic theme by the Hollywood Scoring Orchestra, Spielberg stepped up to the podium, amusingly admitting, “Because I didn’t come prepared in 1974 to make ‘Jaws’ — or not prepared well enough — I decided to risk it again and not come prepared with any remarks today to talk to you about, so I’m empty-handed except with a collection of memories stimulated just in the last hour and a half by walking through the exhibition that they have so ingeniously assembled.”
He continued with admiration for the new exhibit, which features over 200 artifacts from the film — some of which have never been on public display before.
“I mean, why would anybody, when we shot the opening scene of Chrissy Watkins being taken by the shark and we had a buoy floating in the water, know to take the buoy it home and sit on it for 50 years and then loan it to the Academy?” Spielberg laughed, “How did they know? I didn’t know. 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.’”
The director then waxed nostalgic over the film’s cumbersome production, which took place on Martha’s Vineyard when Spielberg was a 26-year-old filmmaker with just two features under his belt. Shooting on the Atlantic, Spielberg remembers, “I thought that was going to go swimmingly, and I had really no idea that the second you tempt Mother Nature and tempt fate, everything starts to conspire against you.”
The film, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, opened on June 20, 1975, but its story began long before it hit the silver screen. As the exhibit chronicles, Universal Studios producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown had optioned the rights for Peter Benchley’s novel of the same name before the book was published. In tandem, they hired Spielberg and production commenced in Massachusetts with a script from Benchley and Carl Gottlieb, and stars Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss.
The Amity Island sign at the “Jaws” Academy Museum exhibit
Emily Shur / ©Academy Museum Fo
According to Spielberg, “The film was 100 days over schedule. We shot 158 days, but nobody wanted to quit.” Despite seasickness from the crew, constant rewrites with Gottlieb the night before pivotal scenes, and a finicky animatronic shark— affectionately dubbed Bruce after Spielberg’s lawyer—that initially failed to work in the New England saltwater, “Jaws” wrapped and after an unprecedented marketing campaign, it became the summer’s defining movie. It won three Academy Awards, earned a best picture nomination, skyrocketed Spielberg’s career and launched the Hollywood blockbuster cycle that persists to this day. Just last weekend, the film’s 50 anniversary rerelease was the second highest grossing film at the box office, making $8.1 million.
Spielberg expressed profound gratitude for the outcome of the film and everyone who he collaborated with on it. “The camaraderie that happens when you’re just trying to survive something, it brought all of us closer together. I’ve never been closer to a crew or a cast until many years later, but this was the ultimate example that when you work as a team, you can actually get the ball across the finish line,” the director concluded, “I’m very proud of the movie. The film certainly cost me a pound of flesh, but gave me a ton of career.”
“Jaws: The Exhibition” is located in the museum’s Marilyn and Jeffrey Katzenberg Gallery. The Gallery has previously included exhibits focusing on filmmakers such as John Waters and Hayao Miyazaki, but “Jaws” marks the first time that it hosts an exhibit centered around a single film.
The exhibition explores “Jaws’” creation and legacy through six distinct sections, paying homage to the script’s masterful three-act structure. Academy Museum senior curator Jenny He explained that the six sections “take you through from act one to the final act of the film. It’s really interesting to to take a film that has been so well known and give our museum visitors a new way to experience it. Instead of just telling you the stories behind ‘Jaws,’ we’re inviting you to experience it in an exhibition format.”
Props from the Orca boat at the “Jaws” exhibit
In addition to the over 200 artifacts featured in the exhibit — which span from the infamous shark fin to the severed head found at the bottom of the sea — the display also showcases interactive experiences and artifacts from the “Jaws” legacy. A camera set-up allows visitors to recreate their own dolly zoom in the vein of the film’s most iconic shot; a section on John Williams’ score lets guest play the notorious two notes that echo throughout the film; and a miniature version of Bruce lets visitors control the shark through animatronic levers. The exhibit also features the famous “Amity Island Welcomes You” sign from the film and a recreation of the Orca vessel, which the heroes take on the open sea to hunt the titular shark in the film’s climax.
“Jaws” has long been a part of the Academy Museum, literally, as one of the sole remaining Bruces hangs permanently from the building’s ceiling. “I don’t think anybody would question why ‘Jaws’ as a film belongs in the Academy Museum as a subject of a major exhibition,” says He, “It is the Academy Museum’s mission to celebrate significant movies and movie makers, so it seems very fitting that we would start with ‘Jaws.’”
Costumes from “Jaws” at the Academy Museum
Andrew McGowan
“Jaws: The Exhibition” opens to the public on Sunday and will remain through July 26. While introducing Spielberg, Homma also noted that the museum is planning a retrospective on the director, which will go on display in 2028.
The “Jaws” exhibit was curated by He along with assistant curator Emily Rauber Rodriguez and curatorial assistant Alexandra James Salich. The exhibition advisory group includes ocean conservationist and marine policy advocate Wendy Benchley, Associate Professor in the Division of Cinema and Media Studies at USC J.D. Connor, sound mixer Peter J Devlin and editor Terilyn A. Shropshire.
