50 years ago last month, the world of film was changed forever when Steven Spielberg released Jaws. The movie was not only the biggest movie of 1975, but it was the first summer blockbuster, and had the distinction of being the box office king for a few years until Star Wars came along. If you’re a fan of the movie, you know all about its plot and why so much of it works. For example, we’ve all heard the story about how Bruce the mechanical shark broke down so often that Spielberg was forced to hide the shark and lean on John Williams‘ iconic score. Not showing the monster only made Jaws that much more terrifying, but there are so many more stories that happened behind the scenes of a movie so fraught with issues that Spielberg thought he was going to be fired. In fact, the director hated the experience so much that he refused to do a sequel.
