Just when I thought it was safe to go back into the waters of blogging…I decided to take a refreshing splash and jumped right in! The world of sequels is blessedly never-ending and now with summer coming oppressively at us, the luscious land of blockbusters beckons from the deep! So since this entry can’t stay down with three barrels on it (Not with three!), it’s time to get the scuba tank on, throw a shark cage right over the side, and see what the murky depths contain for us.
And I’m just glad that Steven Spielberg, fresh from the success of Close Encounters of the Third Kind decided to get back to Amity Island and give us this amazing sequel to Jaws! Just knowing that his hand is on the wheel, I know that we will assuredly safely navigate in these otherwise treacherous waters.
Yes, with Steven Spielberg back, we will…oh wait. Hold everything. What do you mean that Spielberg didn’t direct this?! Are you serious? C’mon, really? Let me go check, don’t anybody move. I’ll be right back.
Okay, I’m back from an impromptu fact-finding journey on the worldwideinterwebnets and there’s some other name credited with directing Jaws 2. How did I miss this? Wait, now there were two other names of directors who were involved?! Now, I’m confused. Are we sure that either of these names isn’t just Spielberg using a whimsical, movie-reference pseudonym of some kind? Please? Damn. We’re gonna need a bigger boat to solve this riddle of a conundrum in a mystery surrounded by enigmas.
The Sequel: Jaws 2 (1978)
Original Movie: Jaws (1975)
Key Cast/Production Staff Returning from 1st Installment:
| Roy Scheider | Police Chief Martin Brody |
| Laraine Gary | Ellen Brody |
| Murray Hamilton | Mayor Larry Vaughn |
| Jeffrey Kramer | Deputy Jeff Hendricks |
| John Williams | Composer |
| Richard D. Zanuck | Producer |
| David Brown | Producer |
| Howard Sackler | Co-Screenwriter |
| Carl Gottlieb | Co-Screenwriter |
| Joe Alves | Production Designer |
To Start With:
“Sharks don’t take things personally, Mr. Brody.”
All right, all right, I know, I know that Steven Spielberg didn’t direct Jaws 2. Gosh, how everyone wanted him to come back though. Jaws was a stratospheric hit in 1975 and beyond, so why not bring back the guy that had a direct impact on making it as such? But Spielberg didn’t want to return to the hell that was the making of Jaws, so after having an encounter of the kind just after the second one, he decided on the hell of 1941 instead. In the retrospect of my infallible and humble opinion, Spielberg should have thought it was safe to come back into the waters of Amity Island instead of planning out the subpar Animal House Goes to War that was 1941.
Speaking of Animal House, remember back in the first season of Saturday Night Live, when they did a Jaws II sketch? Chevy Chase was the memorable Landshark that attacked apartment dwellers before Chase left the show to be in his first movie with Goldie Hawn. John Belushi played the Matt Hooper character with Dan Aykroyd covering the Chief Brody role. The sketch works because not only was the idea of the Landshark ridiculous, but the overall idea of a sequel to Jaws seemed ridiculous also.
Think about it. Where can you go with the story after Brody told that sonavabitch shark to smile in the first movie? I suppose you could have a sequel that covers a normal summer tourist season in Amity, with the day-to-day incidents for the local police, chamber of commerce meetings, and the erection of the controversially graphic “Great White Eating Quint” tribute monument in the town square.
Then again, you know what would be crazier than that? Getting another 25-foot-long, 3-ton great white shark to come around to the same town. That would be absurd, right? But not as absurd as the amount of cash Jaws made, so naturally, another huuuuuuge shark was needed to start treating Amity Island residents like a never-ending buffet.
In the end, it was easier to get a brand-new shark in Jaws 2 than it was to get Roy Scheider to happily return as Police Chief Martin Brody. Scheider just didn’t want to do it, but eventually, he was compelled by a calling to his art, namely he was contractually obligated, so Scheider was back. That being said, Richard Dreyfuss would have gladly returned if Spielberg came back, which he didn’t, so he didn’t.
Even though Robert Shaw’s Quint was a bit chewed up in Jaws, there were unverified plans where Shaw could have come back as Quint’s long lost twin brother Squint. (This unfortunately never came to fruition since I completely made up that admittedly tremendous story idea just now.) Besides, Shaw was indisposed since he was busy enjoying seeing Jacqueline Bisset wearing a wonderful wet T-shirt in The Deep. Come to think of it, that’s the exact reason why I was indisposed from being in Jaws 2 as well.
to work on The Deep. A mystery indeed.
To act as captain of the ship of Jaws 2, producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown found their director, John D. Hancock. After Hancock signed his name on his contract in a font so large that even Sid Sheinberg, the then president of Universal, could see it with his legendary bad eyesight, Hancock got right to work. Then because Hollywood is Hollywood and the producers ultimately didn’t like what Hancock was turning in, he was fired despite the fact that filming had already started. Jeannot Szwarc, best known for directing TV shows and for constantly correcting people when they would inevitably mispronounce his name, was quickly brought on as director to try and right the ailing ship.
Despite a mechanical shark that was about as easy to film as a real shark in a harness, Scheider wanting to kill Szwarc, and the incredible odds that would be more incredible except we’re only talking about making a movie, Jaws 2 was completed and released. (In case you were interested, yes, Clint Eastwood acting alongside a chimp for the first time beat a $30 million mechanical shark at the box office.)
But instead of going every which way but loose any which way you can, let’s focus on how Jaws 2 did overall. How does it hold up? Well, shockingly, it hit more right notes than wrong ones, which is impressive since there are no musical numbers in the entire film. But let’s dive into the world of aquatic metaphors to flail around as I try to elucidate this movie.
Anything Done Better than the Original?
“But I’m telling you, and I’m telling everybody at this table that that’s a shark! And I know what a shark looks like because I’ve seen one up close. And you’d better do something about this one, because I don’t intend to go through that hell again!”
Despite Scheider wanting to rather have a root canal done by Ray Charles with an ice auger than to star in Jaws 2, he does do a great job as Chief Brody. Scheider carries Jaws 2 on his back, and none of his behind-the-scenes resentment or frustration shows when he’s onscreen.
Even without being able to bounce of off Dreyfuss or Shaw, Scheider handles his own quite admirably. Brody gets rightfully paranoid, he gets beaten down by those that just don’t believe him that there’s another shark, he’s proven right in the end and saves the day. In fact, I could say that I prefer Brody as a character in Jaws 2 compared to the original film. That might seem like heresy, but I’m okay preaching it loudly.
To that end, since Lorraine Gary’s Ellen Brody has a larger part in the proceedings, her and Scheider can showcase more of their great chemistry. I fully believe their relationship and they both work incredibly well together. So regardless of the background bullshine that was happening at the time, Scheider and Gary are a treat throughout.
Apparently, the original script didn’t have Jeffrey Kramer as Deputy Hendricks in it. When Szwarc came onboard, he asked for Kramer’s return and we are thankful for it. Kramer certainly has been given more to do in Jaws 2, which is nice. Brody and Hendricks also interact well as characters, so welcome back aboard, Jeffrey Kramer! Can’t wait to see you next time when you’re checking out Ben Tramer’s charred teeth in Halloween II!
Anything as Good as the Original?
“All right, you big bastard! Come on! I’ve got something for ya’ now! That’s it! Attaboy, come on! Right over here! Open wide! OPEN WIDE! SAY AAH!”
Always good to see Murray Hamilton back as Mayor Larry Vaughn. Together with Scheider, Gary, and Kramer, it is as if the Amity Island locals banded together and formed a nice troupe. (In fact, the sitcom potential just screams with this line-up, doesn’t it?)
Murray Hamilton is rather good in a deleted scene where the town votes on whether to keep Chief Brody on the job or not after a panic Brody mistakenly caused at the beach earlier. Mayor Vaughn is the only one to vote for keeping Brody. In fact, I would ruthlessly edit out some of the teen boating stuff to make room for that scene because it is another scene with Hamilton. That’s right, Larry, you stuck up for Brody, so I’m sticking up for your scene!
sought out a different path…
Before there was a sequel to Star Wars, or a sequel to Indiana Jones, or a sequel to Harry Potter, or a sequel to Jurassic Park, there was a sequel to Jaws and John Williams returned to compose the music for it! It is a lovely score indeed. Always wonderful to have Mr. Williams. His involvement only solidifies the continuity with the first film as he enhances on themes he wrote for Jaws previously. Plus, the score is quite good as well. And this is the same year that Williams composed Superman?! The man is a legend.
The ending of Jaws is iconic to be sure. Quint gets devoured, Hooper goes MIA for a bit, and Brody, on the sinking boat, shoots a conveniently placed air tank which makes the shark explode like it had a mouthful of gasoline-soaked Nazis and Jim Brown had just finished his Dirty Dozen live grenade run. However, the finale for Jaws 2, with Scheider presenting himself as bait to get the shark to chomp into a massive electrical line, is nothing short of genius!
I wholeheartedly enjoy this ending. I can watch Scheider furiously smacking his paddle against the power cable to get the shark’s attention only to have that 25-foot shark torpedo launch itself at him all the livelong day. I might just watch it again right now. Think I will.
Anything Not-So-Good as the Original?
Ellen Brody: “Listen, do me a favor. Act as if you’ve been here the whole time.”
Martin Brody: “How do I do that?”
Ellen Brody: “Just look bored.”
One of the assets in Jaws was the interplay of Brody, Quint, and Hooper as they dealt with each other while dealing with the shark. Of course, that dynamic changed for the sequel since only Scheider came back. So, to fill out the screen time in Jaws 2, we get saddled with watching various underdeveloped teen characters and their “what if American Graffiti had sailboats instead of cars” cruising scenes.
Previous scripts for Jaws 2 apparently had even more of these characters and thankfully, they were cut out of the final version. But we’re still left paying attention to the unremarkable Junior Varsity cast for far too often during the runtime here.
To be fair, these kids aren’t as irritating or as stupid as the typical mid-Friday the 13th-saga kind of cast. Also, Keith Gordon is always nice to see. He would later be in Brian DePalma’s Dressed To Kill and John Carpenter’s Christine. I’m sure there were other projects he did that didn’t involve someone’s name before the title, but aside from being in Back to School in 1986 with Rodney Dangerfield and Robert Downey Jr., they elude me for the moment.
The shark never worked 100% on Jaws and, like its predecessor, Jaws 2 was no exception. Since the shark didn’t work all the time for Jaws, it was just shown less. This time Jaws 2 was the exception because we see way too much shark. I know that the excuse the production made was that since the audience already knows that there’s a shark in Jaws 2, there’s no need for secrecy or suspense so just show more of it.
By the way, this reasoning doesn’t track at all. In Jaws, everyone already knew that it was a shark attacking folks in that film. It was no great secret; it was right on the poster. There was even a shark on the cover of Peter Benchley’s original Jaws novel, so the shark attacks should come as no great surprise to the audience. I’d be more shocked if it turned out that Jaws was just about the shark only eating non-human, oceany things while the residents of Amity Island celebrate the 4th of July celebration without a hitch and with all their limbs.
But since a sequel must up the ante, a lot more shark is seen throughout Jaws 2. And sadly, the more you see the fake shark, the more it looks exactly like a fake shark. There are still some moments of subtlety here and there, but Jaws 2 also has a shark taking out a helicopter, so the balance is a mite off. Don’t get me wrong; the shark still munches down on several teens, which is fine by me, but it ultimately would have been scarier with seeing less.
Oh, and by the way, did you notice that there’s no Richard Dreyfuss in Jaws 2? You did? Okay, since you’re already aware, I won’t bring it up then as a detriment compared to the original film. (Even though it is. It totally is. Totes is. Totes.)
revealing a large hydraulic apparatus inside. Why do you ask?”
Anything Far Worse than the Original?
Brody: “I think we’ve got another shark problem.”
Mayor Vaughn: “Are you serious?”
Brody: “You bet I’m serious.”
All right, I completely realize that if you don’t have a shark, you don’t have a movie. (Well, you don’t have a Jaws movie, which makes for a completely different film altogether. The producers could have taken that route and in all likelihood, it would have been a ballsy and thoroughly interesting failure that I would watch right now. I mean, a Jaws movie without any sharks? Even cue up John Williams’ score for dramatic moments. I wouldn’t mind a bit!)
I’m all for suspension of disbelief, heck, that’s what movies are. In movies, I am supposed to believe that a man could fly or that Oompa Loompas not only exist but also can sing in metered rhyming phrases or that Denise Richards is an actual nuclear physicist.
But I’m supposed to believe that another shark with the exact same dimensions of the prior one comes back to the exact same area to the exact same town, so the exact same people are forced to deal with this exact same scenario again? Only through the sheer fact that Roy Scheider is a grounding force in Jaws 2 makes me believe the film.
But that brings about my biggest gripe with Jaws 2. After all the events of Jaws, shouldn’t Chief Brody be held in higher regard and given the benefit of the doubt on these matters? This might seem a mite idealistic on my part, but dammit, Brody in Jaws earned his spurs in Amity Island for the rest of his breathing days. He’s a local legend who should never have to buy lunch for himself there ever again.
To that end, if Brody suspects there’s further shark activity, wouldn’t you listen? Perhaps give just a sliver of credence to Brody’s stance on this? Is all that new money coming into the island from a developer that wasn’t even around for the first movie that much of distrust-creator when it comes to this situation and Brody? Wow, that’s sad.
Brody is only trying to do his job and do what’s best for public safety. He’s conscientious and has got the experience. Yet no one really believes him. There’s even a marine biologist giving Brody crap after he brought up the possibility that a great white shark is the cause of enormous chunks missing from a killer whale that washed ashore. I mean, shouldn’t that marine biologist have heard about the shark attacks that happened 3 years prior at Amity? Perhaps she should consult with the Oceanographic Institute where Matt Hooper came from and corroborate these findings?
However, our intrepid marine biologist, Dr. Dopemina Dopedopeson-Doodiehead, will do whatever she can to avoid jumping to the obvious conclusion that there’s a big damn shark responsible for this! (Of all the people that didn’t get eaten in Jaws 2, she was a missed marine culinary opportunity for the shark indeed.)
Follow-up installments?
“Oh, please make it go away. Make it go away. Make it go away.”
Of course, after Jaws, there was a literal flood of aquatic horrors pictured on the screen. The success of Jaws 2 guaranteed that there’d be a lot more, a trend that never really went away after that. Remember: buyer beware when you go off brand in this genre, but if you set your expectations low, like really, really low, then chances are you’ll be vindicated and enjoy some of these films despite your taste. (That being said, Joe Dante’s Piranha is delightful; check it out!) If only Jaws 2 was the end of the Jaws franchise, however. If only…
For some unholy reason, the early 1980s saw a brief resurgence in 3D films. This fad lasted for about 15 minutes, but in that brief sliver of time, some 3D films snuck out past the guard at the gate and got out into the world. Coincidentally, since there was interest in a third Jaws film and since 3D was right then and there, why not marry the two concepts and make it Jaws 3-D? This must be a winner, right?
Hm. Not really. Despite the best efforts of Production Designer Joe Alves finally being promoted to director for a Jaws film, we ended up with 1983’s Jaws 3 or Jaws 3-D or Jaws Goes to SeaWorld. Hey, don’t get me wrong, I normally have no issues with Lou Gossett Jr. or Dennis Quaid and I completely understand a paycheck is a paycheck, but golly, Jaws 3-D is a slog.
And it is disappointing because underwater 3D, when done right, just pops off the screen. Creature from the Black Lagoon looks fantastic in 3D, and that was made thirty years before Jaws 3-D, so the technology could only have gotten better, right? Right?!
Hm. Not really. The largest fault with Jaws 3-D is that if you’re going to make a 3D film, you are obligated to constantly show off the technology, the gimmick, the sales point for the film. However, Jaws 3-D doesn’t really do that well. Yes, having an arm floating in the water or seeing the shark slowly approaching the screen were good ideas, but they were executed so limply, they just don’t work for me.
It gets even worse when watching the movie without the gimmick of 3D. If you do that, Jaws 3-D begins to feel like a made-for TV Jaws movie. (Bottom line: if you truly want to see 3D executed well in a film, ignore Jaws 3-D and watch Friday the 13th Part III in the format. And it isn’t just the magnificent kills, either. The screen is constantly popping with not only 3D this and 3D that but also eyeballs too! Oh, heavens, it is magnificent gory sight in comparison!)
And of course, since I had to go and mention an entry that looks like a made-for-TV Jaws movie, let’s begrudgingly acknowledge that there was a fourth and final one of these things and get it over with. Yes folks, 1987’s Jaws: The Revenge does exist. I wish I could say that at least it is a “so bad, its good” level of film, but it isn’t, so I won’t.
After being spared the third dimensional horrors of the previous movie, Lorraine Gary triumphantly returns as Ellen Brody. Along for the voyage is Lance “Hey, at least I’m The Last Starfighter” Guest as her older son and Michael “Hey, at least the house this movie paid for was fantastic” Caine as her love interest.
Yes folks, Jaws: The Revenge is the one that has yet another shark coming back to Amity, killing the youngest Brody son, and following Lorraine Gary from Martha’s Vineyard all the way down to the Bahamas to attack her and her other son. This is possible because the script says that a 25-foot great white shark can track and hunt down the Brody family from one end of the Atlantic to the other end of the Atlantic. Yeahhh…
I would have an easier time believing that the shark hired a private detective to trail Ellen Brody and it would be much more plausible. Perhaps the shark could then get a trench coat and a fake mustache, ingratiate itself with the locals, and then slowly begin to earn trust. Maybe the shark could go undercover as a caretaker at the Brody residence, slowly worming its way into their everyday lives, sowing seeds of distrust among the family, until it all threatens to fall apart due to this incredibly clever shark’s Machiavellian scheming. But sadly, no. This doesn’t happen. We were robbed of seeing a shark in a fake mustache. Argh. This time it is personal and frankly, I wish Jaws: The Revenge kept it that way so I wouldn’t have to see it.
Every second I’m floating here earns me even more closet space!“
And Finally:
“You don’t have to worry about being sued or being ruined if this turns out to be what I think it is, because there won’t be anybody here!”
I would be several miles past remiss, if I didn’t take a moment to herald the wonderful voice of Percy Rodriguez. His name might not pop off the screen at you right away, but for those of us of a certain age, he was one of the defining voices for movie trailers for years. While also a marvelous actor, Rodriguez narrated all four of the Jaws film trailers. He lent a continuity and gravitas that even the films themselves couldn’t muster at times. Bless you, Percy Rodriguez, you were one of the greats.
Jaws 2 is a solid entry and gets more things right than wrong. It is also a perfectly acceptable bookend with the first film. Roy Scheider is great, and he is carrying Jaws 2 on his back. Jeannot Szwarc’s direction is fine, and John Williams produced another great score. It turns out that it was relatively safe to get back into the water, so take a dip into Jaws 2. (Just be sure to get the hell out of the water before your fingers prune because of Jaws 3.)
Before I forget, let’s face the facts: at the heart of it, Jaws 2 is a slasher movie. Hear me out. A group of teenagers are getting picked off one-by-one by an unseen force in an extremely violent manner. Hmm…sounds like these same teens could have unpacked a bedroll at Camp Crystal Lake or could have been on the football team at Haddonfield High, and they would have ended up in the same way that they do in Jaws 2, with the result that would have resulted in resulting in the same results. Just imagine Jason Voorhees and Jaws both in 3D! A new aquatic dimension in terror…I can just hear Percy Rodriguez’s voice for the most amazing trailer ever!
A Full Rich Blather 