For over 50 years, a great white has been terrorizing moviegoers.
Bruce, the mechanical shark from Jaws, was designed and built by Woodland Hills resident Joe Alves, who spoke recently at the Academy Museum as they hosted their Jaws anniversary exhibit.
Alves explained that he was initially asked by producer David Brown to “just create some illustrations to sell the idea of a shark movie to a studio.”
It was 1973. Spielberg wasn’t on board yet, the book hadn’t come out, and the movie was just an idea.
Production designer Alves showed Spielberg (whom he’d worked with on Sugarland Express) the drawings, and the idea got larger and larger – to actually create a full-size shark and film the movie in the actual ocean. Not a back lot tank.
Alves was also asked to scout a location, and asked author Peter Benchley where he thought of when writing the book. Benchley had set it in Nantucket, but the ocean was too rough there, so Alves recommended Martha’s Vineyard, where the movie ultimately was filmed.
Alves and a team were given just five months to build not just one, but three sharks in a studio in Sunland. “We worked seven days a week,” he said, “and then the shark didn’t work.”
It worked fine in testing, but when they put it in the water it froze – the saltwater invaded the electronics.
“In my book (Joe Alves: Designing Jaws) there are shots where you could see the opening side of the shark and all the various rams and all the mechanics and how difficult it was to make the thing because it wiggles, it swings, it comes up and bites… it was like nothing that’s ever been done in the real ocean.”
They kept working out the kinks while Spielberg shot around it, but finally they got Bruce in the water.
The crew was exhausted but the mechanical shark worked. When they filmed it the first time going by the boat Alves laughed that he said, “Hell yeah.”
“In some other shark movies, they just overuse it. And I think Steven was very smart in being very selective. The first shot where the shark works, it just swims gently, and you say, ‘Oh my God, it’s almost as big as the boat.’ So you want those shots but you don’t want to keep repeating them.”
Jaws was “just a little movie that became a summer blockbuster,” said Alves.
He went on to work with Spielberg on his next masterpiece, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and worked on two more Jaws films.
The Jaws exhibit at the Academy Museum at 6067 Wilshire Blvd. runs through July 26. Visit academymuseum.org.
Joe Alves: Designing Jaws is available on Amazon.
Photo: Reddit
