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Jaws
Directed by	Jaws: Steven Spielberg Jaws 2: Jeannot Szwarc Jaws 3-D: Joe Alves Jaws: The Revenge Joseph Sargent
Produced by	Jaws & Jaws 2: David Brown & Richard D. Zanuck Jaws 3-D: Rupert Hitzig Jaws: The Revenge: Joseph Sargent
Music by	Jaws & Jaws 2: John Williams Jaws 3-D: Alan Parker (composer) Jaws: The Revenge: Michael Small
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	Original series: 1975 - 1987
Country	United States
Language	English
Gross revenue	$798 million

Jaws is a series of four films that focus upon great white sharks that attack a particular area. The popularity of the franchise has spawned a lot of merchandise, including soundtrack albums and computer games. Amusement park attractions based on the films are located at the Universal Studios Theme Parks in Hollywood, Florida, and Japan.

The original film was based upon a best-selling novel by Peter Benchley, which was inspired by the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916. It was then adapted for motion pictures by Universal Studios, directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown. The film was regarded as a watershed film in motion picture history; it became the father of the summer blockbuster movies and one of the first "high concept" films.^[1][2] Due to the film's success in advance screenings, studio executives decided to distribute it in a much wider release than ever before. The Omen followed suit in the summer of 1976, and then Star Wars one year later in 1977, cementing the practice for movie studios to distribute their big-release action and adventure pictures (commonly referred to as tentpole pictures) during the summer. The film was followed by three sequels, none with the participation of Spielberg or Benchley. Jaws 2 (1978), Jaws 3-D (1983) and Jaws: The Revenge (1987). A video game entitled Jaws Unleashed was later made in 2006.

Contents 1 Development and production 2 Films 2.1 Jaws 2.2 Jaws 2 2.3 Jaws 3-D 2.4 Jaws: The Revenge 3 Cast and characters 4 Reception 4.1 Box office 4.2 Critical reception 5 Legacy 6 Merchandise 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Development and production

Jaws bears similarities to several literary and artistic works, most notably Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. The character of Quint strongly resembles Captain Ahab, the obsessed captain of the Pequod who devotes his life to hunting a sperm whale. Quint's monologue reveals his similar vendetta against sharks, and even his boat, the Orca, is named after the only natural enemy of sharks. In the novel and original screenplay, Quint dies after being dragged under the ocean by a harpoon tied to his leg, similar to Ahab's death in Melville's novel.^[3] A direct reference to these similarities may be found in the original screenplay, which introduced Quint by showing him watching the film version of Moby-Dick.^[4] His laughter throughout makes people get up and leave the theater (Wesley Strick's screenplay for Cape Fear features a similar scene). However, the scene from Moby-Dick could not be licensed from Gregory Peck, the owner of the rights.^[5] Some have also noticed the influences of two 1950s horror films, The Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Monster That Challenged the World.^[6]

Like the first film, the production of Jaws 2 was troubled. The original director, John D. Hancock, proved to be unsuitable for an action film and was replaced by Szwarc.^[7] Scheider, who only reprised his role to end a contractual issue with Universal, was also unhappy during production and had several heated exchanges with Szwarc.^[8] Although there would be two further films in the series, Jaws 2 is generally regarded as the best of the sequels.^[9]

Jaws 3-D is notable for making use of 3-D film during the revived interest in the technology in the 1980s, amongst other horror films such as Friday the 13th Part III and Amityville 3-D. Cinema audiences could wear disposable cardboard polarized glasses to create the illusion that elements penetrate the screen.^[10] Several shots and sequences were designed to utilise the effect, such as the shark's destruction. Since the 3-D is ineffective in home viewing, the alternative title Jaws III is used for television broadcasts, VHS and DVD.^[11]

[edit] Films

[edit] Jaws

The original Jaws, directed by Steven Spielberg is based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. It tells the story of Police Chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, Martin Brody (Roy Scheider), in his quest to protect beachgoers from a great white shark by closing the beach. This is overruled by the town council that wants the beach to remain open in order to sustain the local tourist economy. After several attacks, the police chief enlists the help of a marine biologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and a professional shark hunter Quint (Robert Shaw). The three voyage out onto the ocean in Quint's boat Orca. The shark kills the fisherman, but Brody manages to destroy the shark by shooting at the highly pressurized air tank that he has wedged in its mouth. The movie also features Murray Hamilton as the Mayor of Amity Island, and Lorraine Gary as Brody's wife, Ellen.

[edit] Jaws 2

The first sequel, Jaws 2, depicts the same town four years after the events of the original film, when another great white shark arrives on the shores of fictional seaside resort of Amity Island. Directed by Jeannot Szwarc and starring Roy Scheider as Police Chief Martin Brody, who, after a series of deaths and disappearances, Brody suspects that the culprit is another shark. However, he has trouble convincing the town's selectmen. He has to act alone to save the group of teenagers, including his two sons, who encounter the shark whilst out sailing.

[edit] Jaws 3-D

Jaws 3-D is directed by Joe Alves and stars Dennis Quaid. The plot moves away from Amity Island to SeaWorld in Florida, a water theme-park with underwater tunnels and lagoons. As the park prepares to open, it is infiltrated by a baby great white shark which attacks and kills water-skiers and park employees. Once the baby shark is captured, it becomes apparent that a much larger shark is present. The characters of Martin's sons from the first two films are developed in this film: Michael Brody (Dennis Quaid) is the chief engineer, and his younger brother Sean (John Putch) arrives at the resort to visit. The events of the earlier films are implied through Sean's dislike of the water because of "something that happened when he was a kid". The events and character development from Jaws 3-D is independent from the rest of the series. No mention is made in the fourth film of Michael's girlfriend, Katherine Morgan (Bess Armstrong), or his career change from engineer at SeaWorld to a marine biologist. Even one of the Universal Studios press releases for Jaws: The Revenge omits Jaws 3-D by referring to Jaws: The Revenge as the "third film of the remarkable Jaws trilogy."^[12]

[edit] Jaws: The Revenge

The story line returns to Amity Island in the final film, Jaws: The Revenge. Martin Brody had died of a heart attack, although his widow, Ellen Brody (Lorraine Gary), claims that he died through fear of the shark. Her youngest son Sean (Mitchell Anderson), now working as a police deputy in Amity, is dispatched to clear a log from a buoy. As he does so, he is attacked and killed by a shark. Ellen becomes convinced that a shark is deliberately victimizing her family. Michael (Lance Guest) convinces her to spend some time with his family in The Bahamas. However, as his job involves a lot of time on and in the sea, Ellen fears that he will be the shark's next victim. When her granddaughter, Thea (Judith Barsi), narrowly avoids being attacked by a shark, Ellen takes a boat in order to kill her family's alleged stalker. Hoagie (Michael Caine), Michael and his friend Jake (Mario Van Peebles) find Ellen, who kills the shark by impaling it on the broken bowsprit.

[edit] Cast and characters

[edit] Reception

[edit] Box office

Jaws: The Revenge received a poor critical reception, and earned the lowest amount of money from the franchise. It is considered one of the worst movies ever made. Even though it received extremely negative reviews, the film was able to cover costs (estimated US$23 million) with a worldwide box-office take of $51,881,013. The film, though, continues the series' diminishing returns. It only grossed $7,154,890 in its opening weekend, when it opened to 1,606 screens. This was around $5 million less than its predecessor. It has also achieved the lowest total lifetime gross of the series.

Film	U.S. release date	Box office revenue			Reference
		Domestic	Foreign	Worldwide
Jaws	June 20, 1975	$260,000,000	$210,653,000	$470,653,000	[13]
Jaws 2 (m)	June 16, 1978	$81,766,007	$106,118,000	$187,884,000	[14]
Jaws 3-D	July 22, 1983	$45,517,055	$42,470,000	$87,987,055	[15]
Jaws: The Revenge	July 17, 1987	$20,763,013	$31,118,000	$51,881,013	[16]
Jaws film series		$408,056,075	$390,359,000	$798,415,075

[edit] Critical reception

Jaws is regarded as a watershed film in motion picture history, the father of the summer blockbuster movie and one of the first "high concept" films.^[17][18] Due to the film's success in advance screenings, studio executives decided to distribute it in a much wider release than ever before. The Omen followed suit in the summer of 1976 and then Star Wars one year later in 1977, cementing the notion for movie studios to distribute their big-release action and adventure pictures (commonly referred to as tentpole pictures) during the summer. Jaws is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. Jaws was number 48 on American Film Institute's 100 Years... 100 Movies, a list of the greatest American films of all time, dropping down to number 56 on the 10 Year Anniversary list. It was ranked second on a similar list for thrillers, 100 Years... 100 Thrills. The film was followed by three sequels, none with the participation of Spielberg or Benchley: Jaws 2 (1978), Jaws 3-D (1983) and Jaws: The Revenge (1987). A video game titled Jaws Unleashed was produced in 2006.

Despite the production problems, Jaws 2 remained on Variety's list of top ten box office hits of all time until the mid-1990s, and became, for a while, the highest-grossing sequel in history. The film's tagline, "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...," became one of the most famous in movie history and has been parodied and homaged several times.^[19]

[edit] Legacy

Jaws was a key film in establishing the benefits of a wide national release backed by heavy media advertising, rather than a progressive release that let a film slowly enter new markets and build support over a period of time.^[20] Rather than let the film gain notice by word-of-mouth, Hollywood launched a successful television marketing campaign for the film, which added another $700,000 to the cost. The wide national release pattern would become standard practice for high-profile movies in the late 1970s and afterward.

The film conjured up so many scares that beach attendance was down in the summer of 1975 due to its profound impact.^{[citation needed]} Though a horror classic (its opening sequence was voted the scariest scene ever by a Bravo Halloween TV special),^[21] the film is widely recognized as being responsible for fearsome and inaccurate stereotypes about sharks and their behavior. Benchley has said that he would never have written the original novel had he known what sharks are really like in the wild.^[22] He later wrote Shark Trouble, a non-fiction book about shark behavior and Shark Life, another non-fiction book describing his dives with sharks. Conservation groups have bemoaned the fact that the film has made it considerably harder to convince the public that sharks should be protected.^[23][24] Jaws set the template for many future horror films, so much so that the script for Ridley Scott's 1979 science fiction film Alien was pitched to studio executives with one tag line: "Jaws in space."^[25]. A line from Jaws also inspired the name of Bryan Singer's production company Bad Hat Harry productions, as it is his favorite film.^[26] The film has been adapted into two video games, a theme park ride at Universal Studios Florida, and two musicals: "JAWS The Musical!", which premiered in the summer of 2004 at the Minnesota Fringe Festival; and "Giant Killer Shark: The Musical," which premiered in the summer of 2006 at the Toronto Fringe Festival.

Jaws 3-D is notable for making use of 3-D film during a period of revived interest in such technology during the 1980s. Other horror films such as Friday the 13th Part III and Amityville 3-D also took advantage of this 3-D approach. Cinema audiences could wear disposable cardboard polarized glasses to create the illusion that elements penetrate the screen. Several shots and sequences were designed to utilize the effect, such as the shark's destruction. Since the 3-D is ineffective in home viewing, the alternative title Jaws 3 is used for television broadcasts, VHS and DVD.

[edit] Merchandise

There have been two major video game releases based upon the franschise. The first, titled Jaws, was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1987, the year that the final film in the series was released.^[27][28] Jaws Unleashed, developed by Appaloosa Interactive, was released in 2006 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC platforms.^[29]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website

v • d • e Jaws Films Jaws (1975) • Jaws 2 (1978) • Jaws 3-D (1983) • Jaws: The Revenge (1987) Video games Jaws • Universal Studios Theme Parks Adventure • Jaws Unleashed Related articles Jaws (novel) • Jaws (soundtrack) • The Shark Is Still Working • Jaws (ride)