Who directed the 1975 shark thriller film Jaws?

Who directed the 1975 shark thriller film Jaws? Steven Spielberg directed it. The film adapts Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel and follows police chief Martin Brody as he joins a marine biologist and a shark hunter to pursue a great white shark.

Spielberg was only 26 when he signed on, after directing his first theatrical feature, The Sugarland Express. Jaws became an unusually difficult production: much of it was filmed at sea around Martha’s Vineyard, and the mechanical sharks frequently malfunctioned. Spielberg responded by showing the predator sparingly and implying its presence through camera movement, reaction shots, and John Williams’s instantly recognizable two-note score.

Universal released the film in June 1975 with an unusually broad theatrical rollout and extensive television advertising. That strategy helped make Jaws the prototype for the modern summer blockbuster. It became the highest-grossing film in history until Star Wars surpassed it in 1977.

The other options were major filmmakers, but none directed Jaws. Brian De Palma, Francis Ford Coppola, and George Lucas each had important careers in 1970s American cinema; Lucas later directed Star Wars, the film that overtook Jaws at the box office.