Spielberg Page #2

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the shark was near.

Bring it around

after him!

Spielberg:

The barrels were a godsend,

because I didn't need to show

the shark as long as those

barrels were around.

What you don't see

is generally scarier

than what you do see,

and the script was filled

with "shark."

Shark here, shark there,

shark everywhere.

The movie doesn't have

very much shark in it.

( boat engine starting )

John Williams:

If the shark had been

available visually,

it might have changed

the whole psychology

of the experience.

( music playing )

Williams:

When you hear,

"boom-boom, boom-boom,"

you've already been

conditioned to think that's

when the shark is present.

When the shark is far away,

it's very faint.

When the shark is just about

to attack, it's very close

and it's very loud.

Williams:
We can advertise

the shark's presence

or his attitude

by how we manage

these notes,

just very few notes.

Dreyfuss:

You are in a state of anxiety

without seeing a shark.

It just scares the crap

out of you.

Charlie,

take my word for it!

Don't look back!

Swim, Charlie!

Swim!

Come on, Charlie!

Dun-dun.

Dun-dun, dun-dun.

Dun-dun, dun-dun, dun-dun,

bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom.

Come on,

a little more, Charlie.

Attaboy.

Come here, Charlie.

Attaboy. Attaboy.

David Edelstein:

It is a perfect exercise

in suspense

with technique

that any other filmmaker

would kill for.

Spielberg:
I knew I was using

an electric cattle prod

on the audience

every time

there was some kind

of a pop-up surprise.

Michael Phillips:

Like Hitchcock, he knows

how to get you

on the edge of your seat.

He doesn't show you

what you want to see,

and then he delivers it

when he wants to deliver it.

- ( screams )

- J. Hoberman:
He certainly

likes torturing the audience.

Has he ever been

in analysis?

( thunder rumbling )

1, 1,000; 2, 1,000;

3, 1,000; 4, 1,000...

Spielberg:

Everything scared me

when I was a kid.

Everything.

- 1, 1,000;

2, 1,000;

3, one...

- ( thunder rumbling )

Spielberg:

I had a tree out my window

that was terrifying.

It was just terrifying.

1, 1,000; 2, 1,000...

Spielberg:

I was filled

with so much fear

that I needed

to exorcise some of that.

And what better audience

to exorcise myself

of my demons

than my three sisters.

( music playing )

He would lock us

in the closet with a skull,

which he had dripped

different colors of wax

all over.

It almost looked

like blood.

I'd blindfold them

one at a time,

bring them

into the closet.

I'd put my whole body weight

against the door.

They'd take

their blindfold off,

and I would just sit there

listening to them screaming.

I mean, telling

this story now...

I still think

it was pretty cool.

I was gonna say,

"I hate myself for that."

I don't hate

myself for that.

It was fun.

At first,

he just scared us.

But through his movies,

he gets to scare the sh*t

out of everybody now.

( screams )

- ( screaming )

- Dan Rather:

The blockbuster movie

of the summer,

of course, is "Jaws,"

a tale of a murderous

white shark on the loose.

And that movie's release

was well timed

for maximum impact

during the vacation season,

and some people

who have seen it

are now seeing phantom sharks

every time they go

near the water.

Scorsese:

I remember the night

"Jaws" opened.

I was with Steven.

He said, "Let's go

and see the lines."

And we were looking, going by

all the lines in Westwood

and places like that,

and I said, "This is it.

This is gonna be

a major change."

Janet Maslin:

I was with him in the car

and he was really,

really nervous but excited.

And the car

went around the corner,

and there was the line

went around the corner,

and then the car kept going,

and the line kept going.

And he was

absolutely beside himself.

You know, it was

this instant breakthrough.

It was like

balloons were exploding

inside of this car.

And his whole life changed

in that couple of minutes.

And he was 25 years old

or something.

Spielberg:

"Jaws" went

triple its budget

and it went about

two and a half times

its schedule.

We wound up shooting

the movie in 159 days.

The film was originally

scheduled for 55 days.

But my hubris

was I actually thought

I could shoot the film

in 55 days.

Steven shook the very bones

of Hollywood.

"Jaws" made more money

than any film had ever made

up to that time.

Spielberg:

The success of that

changed my life.

You know,

it gave me final cut.

It gave me a chance

to pick and choose

the movies I directed

from that moment on.

So "Jaws" was a free pass

into my future.

- ( music playing )

- ( applause )

I want you to meet

a filmmaker now who has taken

the movie-going public

and shaken it to

its very roots.

- Oh, boy!

- Aren't you excited?

- And everybody loves it.

- Have you seen it?

Dinah Shore:

Please welcome

Mr. Steven Spielberg.

- ( applause )

- ( music playing )

When did you first

really get interested

in movies?

When I was

a bad little kid.

- Really?

- About, yeah, 13 years old.

- That was the whole thing?

- Very early starter, yeah.

Not-- I didn't

take it seriously.

I did it--

like some people paint

and some people like to,

you know, drive little cars,

and I liked to make

little movies.

I didn't realize

there was 50 years

of filmmaking before me.

And I lived

in Phoenix, Arizona,

where you can listen

to cactus grow if you have

nothing better to do.

- Yeah.

- And I took

a movie camera

and I was learning

sort of the ABCs

as I went along,

but it was just fun,

it was something to do.

( music playing )

Spielberg:

I really wanted

my childhood to be

sort of the pie-in-the-sky,

Norman Rockwell American Dream.

My dad was this computer genius

that was on the team

that invented

the first commercial

data processing machine

at RCA back in 1950,

and so my dad

was headhunted a lot and

went from company to company.

Like Army brats,

we moved from place to place.

But most of my formative years

took place in Phoenix, Arizona.

My father was the American man

who worked very hard.

Sometimes worked six days a week

and he came home late at night.

His career demanded

a lot of time away

from the family.

And my mom

was Peter Pan.

She was a sibling,

not a parent,

because

she was a best friend,

not a primary caregiver.

And she got into trouble

like we got into trouble.

Anne:

Steve had a feeling

that family should be

like "Father Knows Best,"

but we were not

the usual family.

We just kind of were bohemians

growing up in suburbia.

I went to a pet store one day,

and there was a monkey

sitting in a cage

like this, fetal position.

And the shopkeeper said

the monkey was dying.

He had been

taken away from his mother

and he was depressed.

So, I come home,

driving my jeep

with a big cage in the back

and a monkey in the cage.

And I remember

the kids freaked out.

They were so scared.

Steve said, "You know,

in a normal household,

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