Carl Gottlieb

This book should really be titled "The Carl Gottlieb Log" as it mostly is about the author, and not the movie. Apparently, he was the most important part of the success of that movie, and his gossipy book paints everyone else as hot-headed drunkards who were not able to be as perfect as he. This narcissistic tome includes endless accounts of a scene that the author was in, but cut from the final picture. Included in the photo section of the book are SIX photos from this not-in-the-movie scene, FOUR of them are the author falling out of a boat. Some very important pictures that brought me great insight into the film.

If you love "JAWS" don't, I repeat, don't read this.… (mer)

First published in 1975 and updated periodically, this is the "Expanded Edition" from 2012. It's a behind-the-scenes making of what would be the first ever Summer blockbuster movie. Gottlieb was one of the screenwriters of "Jaws" and he played the part of the newspaper editor, Meadows, the guy in the loud jackets who gets all the men to pose with the dead shark on the pier (he had more scenes originally but actually cut most of them himself to tighten the story).
Working from his notes that he kept during pre-production and filming, he explains how the cast was found and how the location, a sleepy vacation town called Martha's Vineyard, was selected and all the problems they had with local government and sometimes, the locals. He discusses the now well-known problems with the mechanical shark and how young director Steven Spielberg had to shoot around it, and he discusses one of the most debated bits of movie dialogue ever, Quint's "Indianapolis speech", which Gottlieb credits to actor Robert Shaw, who took all the various versions by different writers and re-wrote it to be what was filmed.
For a "Jaws" fan like me, there was still some new information, such as I knew the dead shark on the pier was real, but didn't know that it, and several others, were killed for the scene.
The updates over the years are mostly in the Notes, with Gottlieb adding in new or contradictory information from others on the set, and "where are they now" updates on cast and crew.… (mer)