Steven Spielberg inaugurated on Wednesday in Los Angeles the greatest exhibition held so far about ‘Jaws’ (Shark’), the success of 1975 that changed the course of cinema and which the director attributes the beginning of his successful career.
“The film undoubtedly cost me a pound of meat, but it gave me a ton of race. His success gave me the opportunity to make any movie I would like later,” Spielberg said from the stage of the Hollywood Academy Museum, will be available in which the exhibition titled ‘Jaws: The Exhibition’ will be available from September 14 to July 26, 2026.
The director was only 26 years old when he undertook one of the most ambitious projects in Hollywood’s history; A film that, due to the technical difficulties and the constant arrears, seemed to fail.
“I thought my career had ended in the middle of the production of ‘Jaws’ because they all told me:’ They will never hire you again. This film is out of budget and very late. You are a true load as director,” he recalled.
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He even said that on several occasions he was offered the opportunity to withdraw with elegance from the project to facilitate his cancellation, but neither he nor anyone from the team wanted to resign.
‘Jaws’, which tells the story of a coastal people threatened by a great white shark, became the first great blockbuster success of summer, starting a tradition that persists until today: that of Hollywood studies premiering its most important titles during this season.
Before giving a few words, Spielberg toured the exhibition rooms that brings together more than 200 articles, documents and photographs related to the film, and was amazed that some objects had survived the passage of time thanks to collectors who, in their opinion, knew something that the no, about the possible success of the film.
“When we filmed the initial scene of Chrissie Watkins being attacked by the shark and we had a buoy floating in the water. How did someone save that buoy, take it home, keep it for 50 years and then lend it to the academy?” The filmmaker questioned.
La Boya, Boat objects The Orca in which the characters Matt Hopper, Quint and Martin Brody, who will face this dark animal navigate; One of the dorsal fins of a shark made of fiberglass and wood, as well as part of the original wardrobe, make up this sample.
“This exhibition is simply amazing,” Spielberg said. “Each room shows up to the slightest detail of how this film was made and shows that this film industry is a collaborative art form,” he said.
The lost Óscar, one of the exhibition jewels
Following the structure of the film, ‘Jaws: The Exhibition’ seeks to immerse the set of recordings to the public.
Attendees can also contemplate one of the “fun” cinema of film with shark teeth that were used during the recordings, the lenses of the Panavision camera with which the film was filmed, as well as illustrations and fragments of the script with Spielberg annotations.
In addition, the interactive exhibition invites the public to recreate the iconic ‘Dolly Zoom’ effect that Spielberg used on the tape inspired by Hitchcock, to play on a keyboard the unmistakable main theme of two notes composed of the winner of the Oscar John Williams, or manipulate a scale replica of the fearsome shark that the director baptized as Bruce, in honor of his lawyer.
For the police station, Jenny He, one of the most valuable and unexpected objects of the exhibition is the Oscar of editor Verna Fields, who died in 1982, a statuette that was lost for years and that, according to Efe, was sold on EBAY in 2005.
I highlighted that in addition to the technical and narrative impact, the film owes much of its success to the authenticity that Spielberg printed when filming in real locations, such as beaches and open oceans.
“These stories keep us talking about this movie even 50 years later, and make us reflect on the tenacity of filmmakers to carry out this project,” said the commissioner.
During the event it was also announced that the Hollywood Academy Museum prepares for 2028 a retrospective exhibition dedicated to the entire Spielberg career.
With EFE information
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