For those curious as to what kind of material this book has, Vanity Fair unveiled quite a lengthy excerpt, which features an extensive interview with Spielberg about the making of “Jaws.” As Bouzereau recounted to the magazine, “What he describes in the book, having a bit of a nervous breakdown over it, was so powerful to me, because that really shows the struggle and the toll that this took on him.” And there are several interesting tidbits that Spielberg addresses, including his desire to keep a lot of red out of the set design:
“Yes, for Jaws, I didn’t want red to be dominant on any of the sets. I told Joe [Alves, art director and production designer], ‘Please . . . when you’re designing the picture and finding your colors, don’t use too much red, allowing for the blood.'”
Because Bouzereau is a Spielberg scholar, he also picked up a thread that runs through Spielberg’s early career that reveals a theme that some may not have realized, even after all these years. It’s something that ties this first decade of films together in a nice way. The author explained:
“When I was writing the book, I needed to find, what is the real theme of those first 10 years? The thing that I discovered is that all those films are a variation on ‘home.’ In ‘Duel,’ you have a man who is being pursued by this killer truck. He may never go home. ‘The Sugarland Express’ is about this couple trying to get home and be reunited with their kid so that they can have a home. ‘Jaws’ is about a man who leaves New York to form a new home in Amity Island, and what do they sing when they’re on the boat chasing the shark? ‘Show me the way to go home…’
Then you go to ‘Close Encounters,’ about a man who leaves home. ‘1941’ is about the attack on the homeland. ‘Raiders’ is about a man with virtually no home. And we end with, ‘E.T. phone home.’ And so I explained it to him exactly like I’m saying it to you, and he’s like, ‘I guess I’ve never been far away from home.'”
“Spielberg: The First Ten Years,” which features a foreword by composer John Williams and an introduction by George Lucas, will be released on October 24, 2023, and you can pre-order it right now.
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