”Duuun dun duuun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun BOM BOM dun dun dun dun dun dun doo dedoo doo dedoo dede doo dede doo dededoo.” Has there ever been theme music used in a film more effectively than for the 1975 blockbuster movie Jaws? A movie so powerful that there are legions of people that have refused to go into the water EVER AGAIN after seeing that movie. I’m not a water person. Growing up in the landlocked Midwest I prefer to be able to see the bottom of whatever body of water I happen to be in whether it be the lakebed, seabed, ocean floor, or bathtub floor. Let's just say the chances of me ever being eaten by a shark is almost statistically impossible. I like it that way. The town of Amity is a summer town, most of the residents have to make enough money off the tourist trade in those few short months of “fun in the sun” to survive the winters. In particular the 4th of July weekend is critical, a time when the town goes from 1000 people to 10,000 people practically overnight. But unfortunately something deadly, something very hungry is...well... Matt Verges's version of the Jaws Poster art.”At first, the woman thought she had snagged her leg on a rock or a piece of floating wood. There was no initial pain, only one violent tug on her right leg. She reached down to touch her foot, treading water with her left leg to keep her head up, feeling in the blackness with her left hand. She could not find her foot. She reached higher on her leg, and then she was overcome by a rush of nausea and dizziness. Her groping fingers had found a nub of bone and tattered flesh. She knew that the warm, pulsing flow over her fingers in the chill water was her own blood.Pain and panic struck together. The woman threw her head back and screamed a guttural cry of terror.”Peter Benchley goes on to describe in graphic detail what the fish does on the next pass. It actually made my blood run cold and has forever confirmed me in the validity of my own personal water rules. I was surprised to discover that Peter Benchley has a literary heritage. He is the grandson of Algonquin Round Table founder Robert Benchley. They were a group of New York City writers that I’ve already marked down for further research. (l-r) Art Samuels, Charles MacArthur, Harpo Marx, Dorothy Parker and Alexander Woollcott”He developed the idea of a man-eating shark terrorizing a community after reading of a fisherman catching a 4,550 pound great white shark off the coast of Long Island in 1964. He also drew some material from the tragic Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916.” The book stayed on the bestseller list for 44 weeks and inspired the highest grossing film of all time up to that point. Peter Benchley and OMG it..its...him.Politics are at issue and the struggle between Sheriff Martin Brody and the town counsel becomes a tricky balance between commerce and public safety. If the beaches close the town dies. If the beaches are open and someone else dies...well...that is a chance they feel they have to take. In the book Benchley has several subplots that further explain the special interests that are controlling the decisions made by the town counsel. These subplots were not needed in the movie version. Brody’s wife Ellen also has a bigger role in the book. She is dissatisfied with her life. She married beneath her social set when she decided to tie herself to a police officer. She is from the country club, tennis, sailing, and spending money on frivolous bobbles class, but she misses more than the money and the clubs. She misses her people. When Matt Hooper comes to town, tall, handsome, dressed in an Izod shirt, and fashionable bell bottoms (they went a slightly different direction in the movie.) she instantly feels comfortable with him. ”The past--like a bird long locked in a cage and suddenly released--was flying at her, swirling around her head, showering her with longing.”It turns out Ellen even dated Matt’s much older brother David and the memories of that time of her life flood her with thoughts she’s never had before. Her infatuation with Matt creates tension between her husband and the ichthyologist. Brody suspects the worst, and with the shark in the water and the piranhas on the town counsel he doesn’t need another distraction. Czech Jaws PosterIn desperation they finally turn to a local fisherman and shark hunter Quint. His rates are exorbitant and in the beginning he is doing it for the money, but as the fish continues to exhibit higher intelligence and even out foxes him a couple of times he becomes obsessive. Killing the Great White becomes his quest. Herman Melville please take a bow, Captain Ahab has just been reincarnated in a pop culture horror book. The shark comes within a hair’s breadth of winning. It was interesting reading the book and seeing the movie in such a close time frame. Benchley wrote the screenplay, and frankly did an excellent job cutting and slicing his book into a great movie. Many believe that the film is better than the book. With the great music by John Williams and the solid acting from Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider, and Robert Shaw I will have to agree. It was a book that turned out to be the perfect concept for the making of an iconic film. I was also pleasantly surprised by how well the movie holds up. We still jumped when we were supposed to, and turned away when the suspense became too much. Ever since I took a book and film class in college I have loved, when possible, to read the book and then watch the movie. I feel it completes the cycle of an idea. Usually the book wins, but in this case Steven Spielberg took a wonderful idea and made it better. As I mentioned the book has subplots not covered in the movie and knowing those subplots, I believe, actually enhanced my enjoyment of the film. This is the third in what I hope will be a string of reviews exploring 1970s horror fiction (The Shining was published in 1980 but was written and influenced by the ‘70s.). The very books my parents would not let me read, but now are helpless to stop me. *Insert Evil Laugh* The Exorcist Review The Shining ReviewIf you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.comI also have a Facebook blogger page at: https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
Opinions toward this book are very widely divided. There are many people who adore this book, and everything it has to offer.But there are also many people who tend to muster nothing but sheer disregard, sometimes even hatred, for it.I can only guess that its many haters are those who loved the movie - which by all rights is an absolute classic - and were thus disappointed with the noticeable minimization of action in the novel. The movie is indeed a magnificent one - sadly underrated by most people my age - and I would certainly claim it as my all-time favourite film (and arguably the best thing ever delivered by Steven Spielberg). But lets ask ourselves this question: What if there was a novel written before the ridiculously overrated 'Avatar' film came out? Would all of those kids that so loved the 3D visuals, and epic fantasy battles, be just as appreciative towards a book? I don't think so. Peter Benchley's 'Jaws' is quite different to the extravagant action/adventure romp that Spielberg made. For one, it is much more realistic - much darker, although not as violent - and its focus is primarily based on the interactions between its human characters, ... As opposed to their grisly interactions with the shark.I have heard people criticize the book as trashy soap-opera pulp-fiction, but I entirely disagree. I think that if one picks up a book, they should not be expecting the same visual excitement that its movie would offer, but instead be expecting a deeper look which takes them behind the scenes of the film, allowing them a much more informed understanding as to the motifs of the characters. It explains why the mayor is so damned stubborn towards closing the beaches and shutting off business for a short while. It expands on the relatively flat image of Brody's New Yorkian wife - and even more, the reader can almost understand why she does what she does (I WON'T SPOIL ANYTHING), whilst we are still always rooting for her frustrated, disrespected husband. In regards to the writing, and storytelling in general, I think it's excellent. Benchley understands the importance of blending violence and terror with human drama, and even comedy. Considering this was also his first book - which he supposedly wrote for a dollar or something - I think it is a commendable effort.So with or without the movie, I will always love this book. It's terrifically executed, maintains a consistently ominous mood throughout, builds suspense flawlessly - especially in the second half - and is generally a terrific book. Don't read it whilst expecting the same enjoyment of the movie, but instead, appreciate it as an intelligent thriller which details one remarkable tale of man's conflict against nature. THOUGHTS AFTER SECOND READING * I didn't like it as much the second time. While I still think the book was brilliantly written, was very entertaining and exciting, and sometimes a little scary, I can now understand why so many people hated it. Disliking it for being too different to the movie is an unfair criticism, and it pisses me off when people say that. But I did find the middle-section of this book a little bit long and irrelevant. It's like Benchley forgot that he was writing a thriller about a shark and started writing some sleazy male's equivalent of chic-lit instead. Maybe his wife read through it, and put him back on track, because the final act (though not at captivating as the first) does more or less abandon all the needlessly detailed sidestory between Hooper and Ellen. * There were two nitpicky things I should mention. Firstly, it seemed stupid, and badly thought out, that police officer, Lenny Hendricks, has not been swimming in years ... only to change his mind on the day that a mauled shark victim washes up onto the fucking beach. That doesn't make any damned sense to me. Secondly, it was pretty lame how Quint kept referring to himself in the third person. Plus he was just such an asshole in the book, where as in the film he's ten times more likeable. * While I still liked the Ellen/Hooper sidestroy (especially in the way that Benchley makes her rationalize her decision) I have still gone rough and sided with the haters here, in believing that the book could have done without it. I did, however, enjoy the mafia sidestory, and while I guess that would have darkened the tone of the movie a little too much, I would have liked to have seen at least a hint of the mafia threatening Brody and his family in the Spielberg adaptation.
What do You think about Jaws (2005)?
Most of the time you hear people complaining how the book was better than a film adaptation. Jaws is not one of those books. Stephen Spielberg's film adaptation of Jaws is one of the classic thrillers, tightly paced, incredibly tense, and ultimately focused on the character drama of three unlikely men teamed together to kill a man-eating shark. The book, on the other hand, lacks most of these. Sure, the character drama of three men and a shark is there, and it does make a solid attempt at being a great man vs. nature book, but in the end it is mired down by a lot of unnecessary subplots and bits of character drama that come out of nowhere to distract from the main story. Jaws is, and should be, a story about three men from differing background hunting down a shark. We don't want to hear about how the mayor is in debt to the mob, or a baffling side-plot of the police chief's wife indulging in a rape-fantasy with the visiting icthyologist (if there were ever a list of words I never thought I'd have to use in the same sentence, "rape-fantasy" and "icthyologist" would have to be up there). There were a lot of good ideas in this book, but few executed as well as they could have been.
—Matt Carter
Jaws is the tale of a marriage on the edge of failure. Chief Brody, head of the Amity police, is married to Ellen. They've three kids. He's a native of the area; one of the poor boys who spent his days on the beaches while the rich folks came down to vacation from the big cities. She's from one of those big cities, from one of those rich families, and since she married Chief Brody she's been an outsider amongst the natives and outsider amongst the tourists. She belongs nowhere and feels herself wasting away in the tiny beach town, and she pines for what once was. (view spoiler)[She ends up sleeping with Matt Hooper, ichthyologist and younger brother of a boy she once loved, much to the Chief's chagrin (hide spoiler)]
—Brad
Jaws was one of the first Horror movies I remember watching when I was younger, and it's still the reason I don't like to swim in open bodies of water ;op. Needless to say the movie made an impact.I had stumbled across the book in a used book section and was drawn to it. I'm so glad I purchased it. This book was different enough from the movie to keep me interested and fast paced enough so I did not put it down. What I loved most about this book was right in the beginning they start off with the sharks perspective of what's happening, how he senses changes in the water and is driven by instinct to swim towards it. Right from page one the action starts and continues the whole way through. I also found the towns people interesting and how they rely on the money from the summer tourists to survive all year. The book went into much more depth on this then the movie, and you really felt the weight of the decisions that the people where making. If you enjoy the movie, I definitely recommend the book.
—Slayermel
