I love reading movie trivia on IMDb. Some flicks have gobs of trivia but even just a few interesting facts are fun. Trivial Peruse is a feature where I share some of my favorite bits with you guys! This month, Jaws gets TPed.
“When Roy Scheider was trapped in the sinking Orca, it took 75 takes to get the shot right. Scheider did not trust the special effects team to rescue him in case of an emergency so he hid axes and hatchets around the cabin just in case.”
I kind of love the idea of Roy Scheider hiding axes and hatchets around the Orca like a maniac. I have to think that the notion that he could actually die influenced his performance a little bit. I wonder how close he came to giving something a good chop.
“Regarding the ending, author Peter Benchley thought Steven Spielberg’s idea of shooting and blowing up the compressed air tank was horrible. Spielberg even considered having Chief Brody kill the shark only to look up and observe several other fins coming towards him.”
Jaws has a pretty perfect ending, but in some twisted universe this conclusion would have been awesome. You look up and Jaws’ reinforcements are on their way? Terrifying. This idea has been done elsewhere now (see the ending of Stephen Sommers’ Deep Rising).
“On the DVD documentary, Steven Spielberg states that his original idea for introducing the shark was going to be a scene that took place at the dock at night: The harbor master would be watching TV, and through the window behind him the audience would see a row of boats rising and falling as the shark swam underneath them. Spielberg believed that the swell of the boats would help indicate the huge size of the shark; however, the logistics involved (for example, getting all the boats to go up and down at the correct intervals) proved too difficult to coordinate properly. Additionally, the constantly malfunctioning shark would not allow the scene to be filmed. Much to Spielberg’s disappointment, the scene had to be shelved.”
So how cool would this have been? I think it would have been really scary and a fun way to introduce the shark and it’s sad that it didn’t really happen. If only Bruce the shark worked worth a damn. I wonder if any footage exists anywhere?
“Several decades later, Lee Fierro, who plays Mrs. Kintner, walked into a seafood restaurant and noticed that the menu had an “Alex Kintner Sandwich”. She commented that she had played his mother so many years ago. The owner of the restaurant ran out to meet her – none other thanJeffrey Voorhees, who had played her son. They hadn’t seen each other since the original movie shoot.”
This is really cool but I kind of wonder if it actually happened. I mean, what are the odds? Also, I wonder if the sandwich is any good?
“According to The Making of Steven Spielberg’s ‘Jaws’ (1995) documentary, the shooting star that appears during the night scene where Brody loads his revolver was real, not an optical effect.”
This is just a fun little factoid. I always notice the shooting star when I watch the film and it’s actually a beautiful shot that adds a bit of whimsy to an otherwise tense scene. Apparently some people think it’s a UFO??? (http://youtu.be/yvq0JPruruM) Wait, what if Jaws was an alien? Mind: blown.
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