Summary
It’s 50 years since the original Jaws film was released in cinemas across America. The movie premiered on 20 June 1975.
Directed by a young Steven Spielberg, who was relatively unknown at the time, it was considered Hollywood’s pioneering summer blockbuster.
The thriller broke records by becoming the first movie to gross over $100 million at the US box office and made millions of people afraid to go into the water.
Carl Gottlieb, who co-wrote the screenplay, looks back at guiding the chaotic production into cinematic history. Produced and presented by Megan Jones.
With movie excerpts from the 1975 film which was a Universal Picture, a Zanuck/Brown production and directed by Steven Spielberg.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
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(Photo: A scene from the movie. Credit: Screen Archives/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before this BBC podcast kicks off, I'd like to tell you about some others you might enjoy. |
| 0:05.0 | My name's Will Wilkin and I Commission Music Podcast for the BBC. |
| 0:08.7 | It's a really cool job, but every day we get to tell the incredible stories behind songs, moments and movements. |
| 0:14.8 | Stories of struggle and success, rises and falls, the funny, the ridiculous. |
| 0:19.1 | And the BBC's position, at the heart of British music |
| 0:21.7 | means we can tell those stories like no one else. |
| 0:24.4 | We were, are and always will be right there at the centre of the narrative. |
| 0:28.5 | So whether you want an insightful take on music right now |
| 0:31.3 | or a nostalgic deep dive into some of the most famous and infamous moments in music, |
| 0:36.1 | check out the music podcasts on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:43.2 | You're listening to the BBC World Service and now it's time to go beneath the surface |
| 0:48.6 | for witness history with me, Megan Jones. We're the podcast that brings history to life one key moment at a time |
| 0:56.2 | through powerful archives and first-hand witness accounts. New nine-minute episodes drop every |
| 1:02.8 | weekday, so make sure you subscribe, share and turn on your notification so you never miss an |
| 1:08.3 | episode. Today, I'm taking you back to the 1970s, when a film was released which redefined the |
| 1:17.1 | rules of Hollywood and millions of people were told they'd never go in the water again. |
| 1:24.9 | This is the story behind Jaws told by one of the writers, Carl Gottlieb, who helped turn a chaotic production into cinematic history. |
| 1:33.9 | For the next 40 years, anytime I meet someone and I tell them I worked on Jaws, they say, oh, you, I didn't go in the water for a year. |
| 1:42.6 | I didn't swim for a month. I don't go in the swimming |
| 1:44.6 | pool. I still don't swim. I mean, I get all those reactions. That's the first thing out of everybody's |
| 1:49.3 | mouth. It's the 20th of June, 1975. It's warm outside. But instead of beaches packed with |
| 1:56.3 | swimmers, over 400 movie theatres across America are filled with people, |
... |
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