Steven Spielberg (111 page)

Jaws
reviews (1975) include
Murf.
(A. D. Murphy),
DV,
June 12; Frank Rich, “Easy Living,”
New
Times,
June 27; Molly Haskell, “The Claptrap of Pearly Whites in the Briny Deep,”
The
Village
Voice,
June 23; and William S. Pechter, “Man Bites Shark (& Other Curiosities),”
Commentary,
November. Universal’s quote ad appeared in
Variety
on
September 24, 1975. Pauline Kael’s comments are from “Notes on Evolving Heroes, Morals, Audiences,”
The
New
Yorker,
November 8, 1976. Jane E. Caputi’s essay
“Jaws
as Patriarchal Myth” is from
Journal
of
Popular
Film,
Vol. VI, No. 4, 1978.

Articles on
“Jawsmania
”
(1975) include: “Summer of the Shark”; John Charnay and Doug Mirell, “Ripping Response to
Jaws,
”
HR,
June 26; Peter Goldman,
“Jawsmania:
The Great Escape,”
Newsweek,
July 28; Robert E. Dallos, “Sharks: Jaws of Fear Open on All Shores,”
LAT,
July 12; and John Getze,
“Jaws
Swims to Top in Ocean of Publicity,”
LAT,
September 28. Fidel Castro’s interpretation of the film and Spielberg’s response were reported by Tuchman. Ellis and McCosker commented on the film’s impact in
Great
White
Shark;
Cleveland Amory reported on the protest against Universal souvenirs in “Sharks Have Feelings Too,”
TV
Guide,
November 27, 1976. Spielberg’s proposal for chocolate sharks was recalled by Joan Darling.

The date on which
Jaws
turned a profit was reported to the author by Gilmore. Its box-office record was reported in “U Claims Rental Record as
Jaws
Passes
Godfather,
”
DV,
September 10, 1975; see also
“Star
Wars
Zaps
Jaws
in Grosses,”
LAT,
December 2, 1977, and Spielberg’s advertisement congratulating George Lucas in
HR,
December 2, 1977. Alfred Hitchock’s reaction to the success of
Jaws
was reported by the author in “Hitchcock: a Defense and an Update,”
Film
Comment,
May–June 1979. Spielberg discussed the film’s release strategy in “Ripping Response to
Jaws.”
Peter Biskind discussed the “blockbuster syndrome” in his essay “Blockbuster: The Last Crusade,” in Mark Crispin Miller, ed.,
Seeing
Through
Movies,
Pantheon, 1990.

Information on Spielberg’s profit percentages on
Jaws
is from the author’s interviews with Zanuck and Michael Phillips; Getze’s article; and Klemesrud’s interview with Spielberg. His contract renegotiation was reported in “Spielberg, Universal in Four-Film Deal,”
HR,
July 11, 1975; “Spielberg, Universal Sign Four-Picture Agreement,”
LAT,
July 14, 1975; and Deborah Caulfield,
“E.T.
Gossip: The One That Got Away?”
LAT,
July 18, 1982. Sheinberg’s prediction that Spielberg would win an Oscar is from Haber; Spielberg’s reaction to the nominations is recorded in
TVTV Looks
at
the
Oscars
(TVTV/KCET, Los Angeles, 1976).

Sources on
Jaws
2
include the author’s interviews with the film’s director, Jeannot Szwarc, and Alves, its production designer and associate producer; Ray Loynd,
The
“
Jaws
2
”
Log,
Dell, 1978; “Spielberg Spanks Sequels as ‘Cheap, Carnival Trick’”; and Joseph McBride, “Director Avers
Jaws
2
Not a ‘Rip-Off Sequel,’”
DV,
May 13, 1977 (interview with John Hancock, who later was fired from the film).

See notes for previous chapter for material on the genesis of
Close
Encounters
of
the
Third
Kind.
The author interviewed the following people who worked on the film: Michael Phillips, John Veitch, Vilmos Zsigmond, Joseph Alves Jr., Douglas Trumbull, Allen Daviau, and David Giler (as well as discussing the film with François Truffaut during production); and others including Robert S. Birchard (who worked on the 1980
Special
Edition
)
,
Robert Stack, and Bob Gale. The production of
Close
Encounters
was chronicled in Balaban, with an introduction by Spielberg,
“Close
Encounters
of
the
Third
Kind”
Diary;
Forrest J. Ackerman,
“Close
Encounters
of
the
Third
Kind”:
Official
Authorized
Edition
(magazine), Warren Publishing Co., 1977; Durwood, ed.,
“Close
Encounters
of
the
Third
Kind”:
A
Document
of
the
Film;
Julia Phillips,
You’ll
Never
Eat
Lunch
in
This
Town
Again;
and
Making
“Close
Encounters,
”
a 1990 documentary produced by Isaac Mizrahi and Morgan Holly, included in the Criterion Collection laserdisc edition (which contains both the original 1977 release version of
Close
Encounters
and scenes added for the 1980
Special
Edition).

Dell published a novelization, credited to Spielberg, in 1977, and a “Fotonovel” adaptation of the film in 1978. Screenplay extracts are included in
Making
“Close
En
counters”;
the shooting script, credited to Spielberg, is dated May 12, 1976. Sources on the other writers who contributed to the screenplay include the author’s interviews with Michael Phillips and Giler; Schrader’s comments in Crawley and in Jackson,
Schrader
on
Schrader
&
Other
Writings;
You’ll
Never
Eat
Lunch
in
This
Town
Again;
Will Tusher, “Phillips’
Close
Encounters
Cost on $11 Mil Space Trip,”
HR,
April 22, 1976; Shay, “Steven Spielberg on
Close
Encounters”;
Lane Maloney, “Michael Phillips on Lucky Streak with Tyro Directors,”
DV,
October 2, 1981; and the Jagger–Warhol interview with Spielberg. Julia Phillips’ 1991 comment on Spielberg’s relationship with writers is from Sally Ogle Davis, “Attack of the Killer Tomato,”
Los
Angeles,
March.

Included in the January 1978 special issue of
American
Cinematographer,
“The Making of
Close
Encounters
of
the
Third
Kind,
”
are: Spielberg, “The Unsung Heroes or Credit Where Credit Is Due”; Herb A. Lightman, “My Close Encounter with
CE3K”;
Lightman, “Spielberg Speaks About
Close
Encounters”;
Alves, “Designing a World for UFO’s, Extraterrestrials and Mere Mortals”; Trumbull, “Creating the Photographic Special Effects for
Close
Encounters
of
the
Third
Kind”;
Frank Warner, “The Sounds of Silence and Things That Go ‘Flash’ in the Night”; Zsigmond, “Lights! Camera! Action! for
CE3K”;
and “From the Producers’ Point of View.”
Cinefantastique,
Fall 1978, contains Don Shay’s “Steven Spielberg on
Close
Encounters,
”
“Close
Encounters
Extraterrestrials,” and
“Close
Encounters
at Future General.”
Filmmakers
Newsletter,
December 1977, includes Chuck Austin, “Director Steve Spielberg”; Judith McNally, “Making
Close
Encounters”;
and Steve Mitchell, “Special Effects: Douglas Trumbull.”

Writings by Dr. J. Allen Hynek include
The
UFO
Experience:
A
Scientific
Inquiry,
Regnery, 1972; foreword to Jacques and Janine Vallee,
The
UFO
Enigma:
Challenge
to
Science,
Regnery, 1966; “Are Flying Saucers Real?”
The
Saturday
Evening
Post,
December 17, 1966, reprinted in Jay David, ed.,
The
Flying
Saucer
Reader,
Signet, 1967; and “Twenty-one Years of UFO Reports,” in Carl Sagan and Thornton Page, eds.,
UFO’s
—
A
Scientific
Debate,
Norton, 1974. Hynek was quoted on
Close
Encounters
in Cook and profiled by Peter Gwynne in “The Galileo of UFOlogy,”
Newsweek,
November 21, 1977.

Other books on ufology include C. G. Jung, trans, by R.F.C. Hull,
Flying
Saucers:
A
Modern
Myth
of
Things
Seen
in
the
Skies,
Princeton University Press, 1978 (originally published in 1959); Curtis Peebles,
Watch
the
Skies!:
A
Chronicle
of
the
Flying
Saucer
Myth,
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994; C. D. B. Bryan,
Close
Encounters
of
the
Fourth
Kind:
Alien
Abduction,
UFOs,
and
the
Conference
at
M.I.T.,
Knopf, 1995; Phil Cousineau,
UFOs:
A
Manual
for
the
Millennium,
HarperCollins West, 1995 (which quotes Ronald Reagan’s alleged comment to Spielberg). The allegation that
Close
Encounters
and
E.
T.
were part of a military plot to indoctrinate the public is made in Brad Steiger and Sherry Hansen Steiger,
The
Rainbow
Conspiracy,
Pinnacle Books, 1994. Sources on Spielberg’s involvement with META include “Taking a Long Look for a Real E.T.,”
LAHE,
September 30, 1985; his appearance with his son Max on the TV special
Nova:
“Is Anybody Out There?” (WGBH, Boston, 1986); and Thomas R. McDonough,
The
Search
for
Extraterrestrial
Intelligence:
Listening
for
Life
in
the
Cosmos,
John Wiley & Sons, 1987; see also Walter Sullivan,
We
Are
Not
Alone:
The
Continuing
Search
for
Extraterres
trial
Intelligence
(revised edition), Plume, 1994. Ray Bradbury wrote about
Close
En
counters
in his introduction to Durwood’s book (first published in
LAT,
November 20, 1977, as “Opening the Beautiful Door of True Immortality”) and in “The Turkey That Attacked New York”;
The
Martian
Chronicles
was published by Doubleday, 1950.

Additional articles on
Close
Encounters
(1977) include Frank Rich, “The Aliens Are Coming!”
Time,
November 7; Jack Kroll, “The UFO’s Are Coming!”
Newsweek,
November 21; Gregg Kilday, “Special Encounter on Effects,”
LAT,
December 5. Melinda Dillon’s comments on the filming are from “A Wedding for Dillon,”
Horizon,
January 1978. Richard Dreyfuss’s comments are from Durwood,
“Close
Encounters
of
the
Third
Kind”:
A
Document
of
the
Film,
and from Steve Grant, “Blithe Spirit,”
Time
Out,
January 10–
17, 1990. The influence of
The
Searchers
on
Close
Encounters
was discussed in Stuart Byron,
“The
Searchers:
Cult Movie of the New Hollywood,”
New
York,
March 5, 1979.

Information on the budget and production cost of
Close
Encounters
is from the author’s interviews with Michael Phillips, Veitch, and Trumbull; and other sources including
You’ll
Never
Eat
Lunch
in
This
Town
Again;
Will Tusher,
“Encounter
Budget to Top $7 Million,”
HR,
November 14, 1975; Tusher, “Phillips’
Close
Encounters
Cost on $11 Mil Space Trip”; “How Close the Encounter to a Profit,”
Variety,
November 9, 1977; and “From the Producers’ Point of View.” Spielberg’s earnings on
Close
Encounters
were estimated by Lane. Sources on Columbia’s finances include the author’s interview with A. D. Murphy; McClintick,
Indecent
Exposure;
and Bernard F. Dick, “From the Brothers Cohn to Sony Corp.,” in Dick, ed.,
Columbia
Pictures:
Portrait
of
a
Studio,
University Press of Kentucky, 1992. Spielberg’s comment on David Begelman is from Brown, “Final Exposure.” Information on the 1975 start date is from Phillips; “Shelter Deadlines Possible Reasons for Odd Pic Starts,”
DV,
December 31, 1975; and Shay,
“Close
Encounters
at Future General.” The title
Close
Encounter
of
the
Third
Kind
is mentioned in an August 15, 1975, Columbia press release and trade press articles including “Col. Lineup Nears Peak,”
HR,
March 29, 1974, and “Spielberg’s New
Close
Encoun
ter
First
Since
faws,”
HR,
August 12, 1975.

The
Star
Wars
screening was described to the author by Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck; see also Pollock,
Skywalking:
The
Life
and
Films
of
George
Lucas.
Information on Spielberg’s Hawaiian vacation with Lucas and their decision to make
Raiders
of
the
Lost
Ark
is from Pollock; Taylor,
The
Making
of
“Raiders
of
the
Lost
Ark”;
and Champlin,
George
Lucas:
The
Creative
Impulse.