SYNOPSIS
From the best-selling novel by Peter Benchley, Steven Spielberg directed this thrill ride of terror.
During the height of beach season, the Massachusetts resort town of Amity Island is terrorized one summer by surprise attacks from a great white shark. Three unlikely partners team up to hunt down the rogue and destroy it: the new chief of police from New York (Roy Scheider), a young university-educated oceanographer (Richard Dreyfuss), and a crusty old-time fisherman (Robert Shaw).
The story Quint tells about the USS Indianapolis was actually written by Robert Shaw. Shaw didn’t like the way the screen writers scripted the speech, so he did it himself. The story is based on a true incident, although Shaw got the date wrong that the ship sank – it was on July 29th, 1945, but Shaw wrote June 29th, 1945.
JAWS almost didn’t get made – it was so far over-budget and behind schedule the plug was almost pulled. Luckily they were able to get the extra time and funding to finish.