Benchley had little to do with the movie becoming what it was. A book “nobody” ever read.
Spielberg had little to do with the phenomena. Virtually unknown behind the scenes guy, we cared about him no more than the kid that made the sandwiches for the lunch on set.
The acting had little to do with anything although Shaw and that one beach mom in the dark bikini were pretty good. Most of it not particularly good really but they were doing the best they could with that terrible writing trying to hang some flesh on a story skeleton of little more than this person gets eaten then the next.
John Williams was entirely responsible for plopping us in the water and making us know that the cold water was the last thing we would feel before those teeth hit us.
“Spielberg had little to do with the phenomena.”
Spielberg had a lot to do with the suspense. Watch his TV movie, Duel.
I read the book. We had moved from Vancouver, Washington to 20 acres on the sude of Mt. Adams so there was no TV at our house in the Summer of 1975