Steven Spielberg has claimed that an audience can always tell the difference between CGI and real-life action.
The director admitted to BBC Breakfast that he would probably use computer technology if he were making his breakthrough movie Jaws today.
Spielberg said: "Today, I would probably shoot a Jaws movie with CGI, but you know something? The audience can tell the difference.
"The second you see a million soldiers charging, you know that no-one hired a million soldiers charging any place in the world, and you know that it's artificial."
He added: "I think one of the the reasons Jaws was so effective was it was authentic.
"Just those small pieces [of footage] that were used in the cutting of the film gave the shark some bite."
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Asked if he would ever return to the series, Spielberg said: "No, the only way I'm going back on the water is on a pleasure cruise! I hated being on the water, I hated shooting that movie.
"The movie really resulted in... it just really started my career, so I can't ever [deny] how important the film was to my career, but making a movie on the water is insane!"
Of the use of CGI in new movie War Horse, Spielberg said: "There are only three shots in the film that aren't real horses, and those are pretty obvious shots."
He continued of shooting in Dartmoor: "There is no place like it in the world. When I got to Dartmoor, I suddenly realised that I had a third character that I had to include in War Horse, and that was the land and the sky. so Dartmoor plays a major role.
"We had three days of amazing sunsets, and we actually took advantage of those. There is no sky replacement."
Spielberg added: "You know, audiences are so used to digital enhancements or replacements that they don't trust cinema anymore.
"They see a movie and... if something beautiful strikes them emotionally, or in a beautiful way, they say 'That was faked' or 'They did that later on the computer'.
"Not a single shot in this movie has a sky enhancement or a replaced sky or a replaced landscape. That is Devon, Dartmoor... it is pretty extraordinary country."
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Move through our gallery of images from the UK War Horse premiere below:
Kate (they/she) is a freelance writer, editor, digital editorial trainer and data technician who first joined Digital Spy as an overnight freelance sub-editor in January 2011, after studying a postgraduate diploma in journalism at Salford University while working part-time as a social researcher.
In July 2013, Kate joined the DS staff team as chief sub-editor and following six years as the site's managing editor, their role expanded to incorporate Hearst UK's entertainment portfolio (including Digital Spy and its sibling titles Best and Inside Soap) between late 2024 and early 2026.
Kate has worked as a writer and editor since 2006, with bylines syndicated across the Hearst network and at organisations including Metro. They started their career as a TV production runner for the BBC and contributed to various music websites, blogs and zines while based in Manchester.
During her time at DS, Kate has previously been a freelance sub-editor and chief sub-editor.
Kate's team at Digital Spy were proudly nominated in the Best Subbing/Production Team category at the BSME Talent Awards 2022. Over the years, she has contributed to coverage of many, many Prime Days and Black Friday/Cyber Monday, and was part of the team that launched the DS weekly TV newsletter in November 2019 – followed by the Top of the Shops e-commerce newsletter in May 2024.
Kate's screen passions include Taskmaster (their biggest career regret remains turning down the opportunity to visit the house), nature documentaries, and live sport (up there with the greatest of all soap operas although if asked to choose, it's Corrie… every time).
Her highlights while working at DS have included interviewing Stevie Nicks on the red carpet for her documentary In Your Dreams, sitting at a press roundtable with Formula 1 commentary icon Murray Walker, watching a life-sized LEGO car being driven around Silverstone, writing an album-by-album retrospective of Lady Gaga's genre-defying career for Living Legends, and raising awareness of receiving and understanding a late-in-life ADHD diagnosis through the lens of Bianca and Freddie's EastEnders storyline.
Upon remembering to log off the internet, Kate enjoys live theatre, dance and comedy, appreciating nature, baking (badly), tending a recently-rented allotment (equally badly) and pampering one very spoiled rescue cat named Jolene.
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