Looking at the image above, in all likelihood the iconic tune of ‘Shark‘ by Steven Spielberg (which you can review on Filmin) starts playing in your head. Two minimalist, terrifying notes that dance to represent the beast’s stalking over the nocturnal bather, and that are the perfect reflection of the obsessive mind of the shark that Spielberg has introduced us to thanks to his terrifying subjective shots: just think about one thing. , and it only has one goal.
John Williams, author of the soundtrack, is responsible for some of the most famous scores of all time: Together with Spielberg he also signed the saga ‘Indiana Jones’, ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, among others. He is also responsible for compositions as recognizable as those of ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Star Wars’ or ‘Superman’ (here we also have a weakness for the very adorable one of ‘Home Alone’).
But ‘Jaws’ is a relative rarity, from when it was not yet so well known. Far from the spectacular fanfares that would make him famous, here he demonstrated his excellent ability to create atmospheres of tension, something that he would repeat in part in ‘Jurassic Park’, where he would combine them with his other specialty: the sense of wonder when discovering new worlds. ‘Jaws’ remains, for that reason, a strange work in his career, when he had not yet developed a recognizable stamp. And Spielberg himself was surprised when he heard such a schematic composition.
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“I thought it was a joke when Johnny played it for me on the piano at his house,” Spielberg told Stephen Colbert in 2023. “He called me and said: ‘I already have the ‘Jaws’ theme song. Come and hear it on the piano!’. I ran to his house and Johnny sat at the piano. He was very excited about the performance, he picked up a couple of fingers, not all ten, just a couple because he didn’t need all ten to play it, and he goes: ‘Duh-duh… duh-duh, I started laughing!'” John Williams confirmed the director’s reaction: “He told me: ‘It can’t be serious.’ I told him that we would try jealousy and bass in the orchestra.”
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The curious thing is that the soundtrack served to make up for a problem in filming: in those iconic opening sequences, the mechanical shark was being repaired, so the music helped the viewer imagine the monster without seeing it. This is how Spielberg tells it: “The shark didn’t arrive on time because they were constantly repairing it, and Johnny saved the movie because he became the shark, the music replaced the absent shark. That made it much more terrifying and gave it more suspense than if we would have had the shark working perfectly.”
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The news
When Spielberg heard one of the best soundtracks in history, he didn’t get it: “I thought it was a joke”
was originally published in
WorldOfSoftware
by John Tones.
