When he made his 1975 blockbuster “Jaws,” Steven Spielberg was simply 26 — a wunderkind director taking up a killer-shark thriller that just about sank his budding profession earlier than launching him into Hollywood historical past. On Wednesday, stepping onto the stage on the Academy Museum of Movement Footage to assist launch a brand new exhibition marking the movie’s fiftieth anniversary, the now-78-year-old filmmaker stated he felt simply as unprepared now as he did then.
“I decided to risk it again and not come prepared with any remarks today,” he instructed the group. “I’m empty-handed, except with a collection of memories stimulated just in the last hour and a half by walking through the exhibition they’ve so ingeniously assembled.”
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What struck Spielberg most as he strolled via the galleries had been the relics that by some means survived, just like the buoy that bobs within the water after the movie’s unforgettable opening assault when a younger girl is dragged below throughout a midnight swim by the unseen shark. “Why would anybody think to take the buoy, keep it for 50 years and then loan it to the Academy?” Spielberg stated, sounding genuinely surprised. “How did they know? I didn’t know.”
Opening Sunday and operating via July 2026, “Jaws: The Exhibition” is the Academy Museum’s largest present dedicated to a single movie, spanning 11,000 sq. ft of the Marilyn and Jeffrey Katzenberg Gallery with greater than 200 artifacts, interactive shows and immersive environments. Highlights embrace the unique “Amity Island Welcomes You” signal (altered, per the plot, by vandals who add a shark fin), a re-creation of the Orca’s cabin, Joe Alves’ storyboard sketches of the shark assaults and early idea artwork and scripts annotated with Spielberg’s notes. Moreover, obsessives can view Quint’s harpoon gun and unique design specs for the mechanical sharks constructed to terrorize Martha’s Winery in 1974.
The unique “Amity Island Welcomes You” signal is among the centerpieces of the Academy Museum’s new exhibit.
(Etienne Laurent / For The Instances)
The exhibition shouldn’t be solely about peering at relics behind glass, however one which invitations guests to step into the filmmaking course of. Interactive stations allow them to re-create the dolly zoom when Roy Scheider’s Chief Brody realizes the shark has attacked close to the seashore, faucet out the two-note theme from John Williams’ Oscar-winning rating or function a scale reproduction of the mechanical shark utilizing hand levers.
The selection of “Jaws” was not stunning for an exhibit of this scope. Spielberg has lengthy been one of many museum’s most seen champions, donating $10 million towards its development in 2013. The film itself outlined the trendy summer season blockbuster, spending 14 consecutive weeks on the prime of the U.S. field workplace and changing into a world phenomenon that modified how Hollywood launched its greatest movies. For the reason that museum opened 4 years in the past, its largest object has been Bruce, the 25-foot mannequin shark nicknamed after Spielberg’s lawyer, which hangs on the fourth flooring and shortly turned an unofficial mascot.
“From the day the museum opened, Bruce was there,” says Amy Homma, the museum’s director and president. “So to me, it only made sense for us to dive deeper, pun intended — to tell more stories about the making of the film. This film is beloved. It continues to find audiences across generations. And for us to devote 11,000 square feet, our biggest exhibition space, there are so many stories to tell.”
The exhibit features a smaller reproduction of the mechanical shark that guests can transfer with levers.
(Etienne Laurent / For The Instances)
Placing the present collectively was a three-year epic. Curators had entry to Spielberg’s archive at Amblin, which included sketches, notes and props, however in addition they needed to scour personal collections, public sale information and storage rooms for items few thought would resurface. One of many hardest gadgets to trace down was the Oscar awarded to editor Verna Fields, whose taut slicing constructed the movie’s suspense. It was ultimately positioned via an eBay transaction.
“So much of the work of our curatorial team is treasure hunting, especially when we’re talking about films that were made in the 1970s,” Homma says. “It wasn’t common practice for studios or archives to hold onto objects. A lot of costumes and props would get reused, recycled, taken apart.”
Costumes worn by the actors in “Jaws” are displayed within the exhibit.
(Etienne Laurent / For The Instances)
An annotated script from the “Jaws” manufacturing.
(Etienne Laurent / For The Instances)
Greater than any movie earlier than it, “Jaws” demonstrated how successful film might ripple far past the display screen, spawning merchandise and tie-ins that helped outline the trendy blockbuster mannequin. The exhibition’s last gallery drives that time residence with a flood of artifacts charting the shark’s attain throughout many years. Posters from all over the world testify to the movie’s international impression, whereas shows overflow with 1975 souvenirs: Jaws T-shirts, shark-tooth necklaces, a classic pinball machine, a gumball dispenser, inflatable sharks, youngsters’ board video games and seashore towels.
For the Academy Museum, the “Jaws” exhibit expands on earlier, smaller exhibits in regards to the making of “The Wizard of Oz” and “The Godfather.” It’s not nearly honoring a basic however about getting folks via the doorways. The film itself nonetheless pulls crowds, with a fiftieth anniversary re-release ending second on the field workplace final month forward of two new titles, Darren Aronofsky’s crime thriller “Caught Stealing” and the darkish comedy “The Roses.”
A classic “Jaws” pinball machine is certainly one of quite a few gadgets testifying to the film’s merchandising energy.
(Etienne Laurent / For The Instances)
“We’re always thinking of the balance,” Homma says. “What will attract cinephiles and die-hard film fans, and what will attract tourists who may not know a lot about film history. It’s never an ‘either/or’ — it always has to be an ‘and.’”
The museum is already trying forward on that entrance, with plans for a full Spielberg retrospective in 2028. It will likely be essentially the most expansive survey of his profession thus far, constructing on the momentum of “Jaws” whereas widening the lens to incorporate his 5 many years of filmmaking.
For Spielberg, the “Jaws” exhibition introduced again the ordeal of constructing a film he as soon as thought would finish his profession. The obstacles piled up: a mechanical shark that not often labored, climate that refused to cooperate and a manufacturing that stretched 100 days over schedule, with crew members getting seasick and pleading for a agency finish date he couldn’t present.
“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,’” he stated from the rostrum. “‘This film is way over budget and way over schedule, and you are a real liability as a director.’ So I really thought that I’d better give this my all, because I’m not working in the industry again after they see the movie.”
What bought them via, he stated, was easy camaraderie. “It brought all of us closer together,” Spielberg continued. “I’ve never been closer to a crew or a cast.”
And in the long run, the wrestle paid off. “The film certainly cost me a pound of flesh,” Spielberg stated, “but it gave me a ton of career.”
