10 Iconic Movie Scenes You Didn't Realise Happened By Accident
2. Jaws - Robert Shaw Does His Monologue Better While Drunk
Jaws is generally considered the first summer 'blockbuster', a suspenseful, sometimes terrifying story of a giant shark terrorizing the town of Amity. In desperation, Roy Scheider's Sheriff Brody hires legendary shark hunter Quint to find and kill the maneater. The last third of the movie limits the action to Brody, Quint, and shark specialist Matt Hooper on Quint's boat, at sea in search of Jaws.
During a night of drinking and storytelling, Quint relays the wartime story of the USS Indianapolis, in which the titular ship is torpedoed at sea by the Japanese. 1100 sailors ended up in the water. Quint recounts how, over five days, the sharks came repeatedly, killing 6 men an hour until rescue, leaving only 345 alive.
It's a chilling monologue and an extraordinary piece of film-making.
Unknown to anyone, it was a very drunk Shaw who delivered. He had been drinking all day and was extremely intoxicated by the time they shot the scene. He hit his marks and remembered his dialogue with no problem, but his drunken re-telling of the tale added to it's gravity and emotion.
Spielberg re-shot the scene the next day with a sober Shaw; the consensus all around was that the previous version was far superior.