Jaws 2

Plot

Four years after the killing of the great white shark, another great white shark kills two scuba divers photographing the wreckage of the Orca. Their camera, which took pictures during the attack, is later recovered by Deputy Jeff Hendricks. The next day the shark kills a water skier and the pilot of the boat, who uses a flare gun in self-defense; however, the boat explodes, killing her and severely burning the shark's face.

An orca carcass is found on the beach. Police Chief Martin Brody believes that a shark is responsible. He then finds floating debris from the destroyed speedboat and Diane's burnt remains. Brody attempts to contact oceanographer Matt Hooper for help, but he is away on a research expedition in Antarctica. When Brody raises his concerns, Mayor Larry Vaughn urges him not to press the issue, concerned about Brody's mental state and worried about jeopardizing the island's tourism and new development plans. Concerned for his family's safety, Brody forbids his 17-year-old son Mike from going out on the water.

The following day, Brody watches the beach from an observation tower and causes a panic after mistaking a school of bluefish for a shark and shooting at it. His fears are confirmed, however, when photos from the diver's camera are processed, and one of them shows a closeup of the shark's face. When he presents the photo evidence to the Amity Town Council, developer Len Peterson dismisses his concerns, and the council votes to remove Brody as police chief.

The next morning, Mike defies his father's orders by going sailing with his friends. He reluctantly brings his 9-year-old brother Sean, who catches him trying to sneak out, to keep him from tattling on him to their parents. Marge, another teen, takes Sean with her, and they head out on six boats, going past a team of divers led by instructor Tom Andrews. Shortly after submerging, Andrews encounters the shark in a kelp forest. Panicking, he rushes to the surface, causing a bends attack and an embolism. Later, the shark hits the boat of teenage couple Eddie Marchand and Tina Wilcox, who separate themselves from the main group, and the shark kills Eddie.

Brody and his wife Ellen witness Tom's evacuation by ambulance and hear that the other divers suspect that something scared him. Hendricks, who has taken over as Brody's replacement, tells them that Mike went sailing with his friends, so Brody and Ellen commandeer the police boat, aided by Hendricks, to rescue them. They come across Tina's boat, where she tearfully confirms the shark's presence. Brody hails a passing boat to take Hendricks, Ellen, and Tina back to shore while he continues searching for the other kids. Back on the mainland, Ellen berates Peterson for having Brody fired and for ignoring the shark threat.

Production

Development and writing

Universal wanted a sequel to Jaws early into the success of the original film. Producers David Brown and Richard D. Zanuck realized that someone else would produce the film if they did not, and preferred to be in charge of the project themselves.

In October 1975, Steven Spielberg told the San Francisco Film Festival that "making a sequel to anything is just a cheap carny trick" and that he did not even respond to the producers when they asked him to direct Jaws 2. He claimed that the planned plot was to involve the sons of Quint (Robert Shaw) and Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) hunting a new shark. Brown said that Spielberg did not want to direct the sequel because he felt that he had done the "definitive shark movie". The director later added that his decision was influenced by the problems the Jaws production faced – "I would have done the sequel if I hadn't had such a horrible time at sea on the first film."

Despite Spielberg's rejection, the studio went ahead with plans to make the sequel, leading to an arduous 18-month pre-production process. Howard Sackler, who had contributed to the first film's script but chose not to be credited, was charged with writing the first draft. He originally proposed a prequel based on the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, the story relayed by Quint in the first film. Although Universal president Sidney Sheinberg thought Sackler's treatment for the film was intriguing, he rejected the idea. On Sackler's recommendation, theatre and film director John D. Hancock was chosen to helm the picture.

Hancock began filming in June 1977. However, after nearly a month of filming, Universal and MCA executives disliked the dark, subtle tone that the film was taking and wanted a more lighthearted and action-oriented story. Additionally, Hancock ran into trouble with Sheinberg, who suggested to Hancock and Tristan that his (Sheinberg's) wife, actress Lorraine Gary (Ellen Brody), "should go out on a boat and help to rescue the kids." When told of the idea, Zanuck replied, "Over my dead body." The next draft of the film's screenplay was turned in with Gary not going out to sea. Hancock says that this, and his later firing of another actress who turned out to be a Universal executive's girlfriend, contributed to his own dismissal from the film.

Hancock began to feel the pressure of directing his first epic adventure film "with only three film credits, and all small-scale dramas". The producers were unhappy with his material, and on a Saturday evening in June 1977, after a meeting with the producers and Universal executives, the director was fired. He and his wife Dorothy Tristan left for Rome and production was shut down for a few weeks. The couple had been involved in the film for eighteen months. Hancock blamed his departure on the mechanical shark, telling a newspaper that it still could not swim or bite after a year and a half: "You get a couple of shots, and [the shark] breaks." Echoing the first film's production, Carl Gottlieb was enlisted to further revise the script, adding humor and reducing some of the violence. Gottlieb wrote on location at Fort Walton Beach, Florida. It cost the producers more money to hire Gottlieb to do the rewrite than it would have if they had hired him in the first place.

Location

Martha's Vineyard was again used as the location for the town scenes and Navarre Beach, FL was included on this film. Although some residents guarded their privacy, many islanders welcomed the money that the company was bringing. Shortly after the production arrived in June 1977, local newspaper the Grapevine wrote:

The Jaws people are back among us, more efficient, more organized and more moneyed. Gone are the happy-go-lucky days of the first Jaws, where the big trucks roved about the Island from day to day, always highly visible with miles of cables snaking here and there over roads and lawns. Gone are the acrimonious wrangles and Select persons over noise and zoning regulations and this and that. What is still here is money—about $2 million of it.

Many residents enjoyed being cast as extras. Some people, however, were less pleased by the film crew's presence and refused to cooperate. Only one drugstore allowed its windows to be boarded up for the moody look that Hancock wanted. "Universal Go Home" T-shirts began appearing on the streets in mid-June 1977.

When Szwarc took over, the majority of the film was shot at Navarre Beach in Florida, because the weather was warm and the water was deep enough for the shark platform. The company was at this location from August 1 until December 22, 1977. The production "was a boost to the local economy because local boaters, extras and stand-ins or doubles were hired. Universal brought in actors, directors, producers and their wives, camera and crew people who needed housing, food and clothing for the movie. Services were needed for laundry, dry-cleaning and recreation." Navarre's Holiday Inn "Holidome" was used as the film's headquarters, with the ground floor converted into production offices, and some of the Gulf-front suites remodeled for David Brown and Roy Scheider. Universal rented 100 of the hotel's 200 rooms, spending $1 million. The Holiday Inn was destroyed in the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. Boats and parts for their maintenance were purchased from local businesses. One proprietor said that he sold "Universal approximately $400,000 worth of boats and equipment".

On one occasion, the Cable Junction Island set, which was built on a barge, broke loose from its anchorage and had to be rescued. Szwarc was contacted one night and told that his island was drifting towards Cuba. Real hammerhead sharks circled the teen actors during the filming of one shot. Because the characters they were playing were meant to be in distress, the crew (filming from a distance) did not realize that the actors were genuinely calling for help.

Casting

Roy Scheider reluctantly returned to reprise his role as Martin Brody. In 1977, he had quit the role of Michael Vronsky in The Deer Hunter two weeks before the start of filming because of "creative differences". Scheider was contracted to Universal at the time for a three-picture deal, but the studio offered to forgive his failure to fulfill his contractual obligation if he agreed to appear in Jaws 2. The actor heavily resisted the film, claiming that there was nothing new to create and that people would be watching the film to see the shark, not him. According to his biographer, Scheider was so desperate to be relieved from the role that he "pleaded insanity and went crazy in The Beverly Hills Hotel". However, he was given an attractive financial package for appearing in Jaws 2; he quadrupled his base salary from the first film, and negotiated points (a percentage of the film's net profits). The Star newspaper reported that Scheider received $500,000 for 12 weeks’ work, plus $35,000 for each additional week that the schedule ran over.

Despite his reluctance, Scheider pledged to do the best job that he could, wanting to make Brody believable. Scheider is quoted in Ray Loynd's book The Jaws 2 Log, saying, "When Conan Doyle wrote the first Sherlock Holmes and everyone screamed for more, I don’t think he felt like a professional hack. I see nothing wrong with bringing back a story that gives people a terrific time".

The atmosphere was tense on the set, and Scheider often argued with Szwarc. On one occasion, Scheider complained (in front of extras) that Szwarc was wasting time with technical issues and the extras while ignoring the principal actors. A meeting was called with the two, David Brown and Verna Fields, in which Scheider and Szwarc were encouraged to settle their differences. The discussion became heated and a physical fight broke out, which Brown and Fields broke up. The rift was also articulated in written correspondence. In a letter to Szwarc, Scheider wrote that "working with Jeannot Szwarc is knowing he will never say he is sorry or ever admitting he overlooked something. Well, enough of that shit for me!" He requested an apology from the director for not consulting him. Szwarc's reply focused upon completing the film to the "best possible" standard:

Time and pressure are part of my reality and priorities something I must deal with.

You have been consulted and your suggestions made part of my scenes many times, whenever they did not contradict the overall concept of the picture.

Music

John Williams returned to score Jaws 2 after winning an Academy Award for Best Original Score for his work on the first film. Williams says that it was assumed by everyone that "the music would come back also and be part of the cast ... it would require new music, certainly, but the signature music of Jaws should be used as well". He compares this to "the great tradition" for repeating musical themes in Hollywood serials such as Roy Rogers and The Lone Ranger. In addition to the familiar themes, Szwarc says Williams also composed a "youthful counterpoint to the shark that is always around when the kids are sailing or going out to sea. It was very inventive".

Szwarc said that the sequel's music should be "more complex because it was a more complex film". Williams says that this score is broader, allowing him to make more use of the orchestra, and use longer notes, and "fill the space" created by the director. Williams used a larger ensemble than for the first film, and "the orchestral palette may have been broader or had longer notes". Delays in shooting meant that Williams was forced to start working on the score before the film was completed. Szwarc discussed the film with the composer, showing him edited sequences and storyboards. The director praises Williams in being able to work under such difficult conditions. Critic Mike Beek suggests these time constraints enabled Williams "to create themes based on ideas and suggestions, rather than a locked down print."

Critics have praised Williams' score, comparing it favorably to the original. Williams "uses a few basic elements of the original—the obligatory shark motif, for one—and takes the music off in some new and interesting directions." The score is "more disturbing in places" than the original, and "Williams fashion [sic] some new and hugely memorable out to sea adventure music." Because Jaws 2 "isn't a film that requires subtlety ... Williams pulls out all the stops to make it as exciting and hair raising as possible." Comparing the sequel to the original, Fanfare's Arthur Lintgen writes: "Jaws 2 is a more expansive, softer edged, Romantic, even Impressionistic score emphasizing the sea as a pictorial backdrop. Both scores are masterpieces in their own separate ways."

According to the liner notes on the soundtrack album, Williams' "sense of the dramatic, coupled with his exquisite musical taste and knowledge of the orchestra definitely stamp this score as truly one of his best." It is "brilliantly performed by a mini-symphony made up of the finest instrumentalists to be found anywhere." Mike Beek makes positive comments about the film, saying that "the music certainly elevates it to a level it would otherwise never have achieved."

Release

Theatrical

Jaws 2 had sneak previews at 31 theaters across the United States on June 2, 1978, including at Loew's State II in New York City, before opening June 16.

Home media

In 1980, MCA Home Video (then known as MCA Videocassette Inc.) released Jaws 2 on VHS, Betamax and Laserdisc, following its 1980 theatrical re-release. In the 1990s, MCA-Universal Home Video reissued it on VHS and Laserdisc.

The film was released on DVD in 2001. Many reviewers praised it for the quantity of special features, with DVD Authority asserting that it had "more than a lot of titles labeled as 'special edition' discs". It includes a 45-minute "Making of Jaws 2" documentary produced by Laurent Bouzereau, who is responsible for many of the documentaries about Universal's films. Other features include an 8-minute featurette in which actor Keith Gordon reminisces about his time making the film, a 7-minute featurette about composer John Williams, and a brief featurette in which Szwarc explains the phonetic problem with the film's original French title, Les Dents de la mer 2, as it sounded like it ended with the expletive merde (mer deux). This was combated by using the suffix Part 2. The disc also contains a gallery of storyboards, a gallery of almost 100 photos featuring cast, production, and promotional photos, four trailers (the original Jaws 2 trailer, the 1979 re-release trailer, and trailers for Jaws 3 and Jaws: The Revenge), and a selection of deleted scenes. These scenes show the animosity between Brody and Ellen's boss, Len Peterson (Joseph Mascolo), Brody explaining to Ellen that he is not about to take any chances letting Mike (Mark Gruner) go sailing, saying that the "smell of death" is the same in Amity as it is in New York, and the town's selectmen voting to fire Brody with Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) being the only person to vote to save him. These scenes were cut because they were deemed to be slowing the film's pace. Also included is footage of the shark attacking the coast guard pilot underwater after his helicopter had capsized. This scene was cut because of the struggle with the ratings board to acquire a PG certificate.

The Region 1 DVD release also included several text-based features, such as Production Notes, Cast and Crew details, and an educational "Shark Facts" feature, but these were not included in all regions.

Although the audio was presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, a reviewer for Film Freak Central comments that "Williams' score often sounds deceptively stereophonic". The BBC, though, suggest that the mix "really demands the added bass that a 5.1 effort could have lent it".

Reception

Box office

Jaws 2 was the most expensive film that Universal had produced up until that point, costing the studio $30 million.

It opened to a gross of $9,866,023 in 640 theaters across the United States and Canada, ranking first and giving it the highest grossing opening weekend of all time up to that point as well as the single-day record of $3.5 million despite opening on the same day as Grease, which grossed $9 million the same weekend, which was greater than any film released prior to that weekend. It was the first time that there had been two day-and-date releases grossing such high amounts. The opening weekend led it to set a record weekly total of $16,654,000. It went on to earn $77,737,272 domestically during its initial release, making it the #6 highest-grossing film in 1978. It eventually surpassed $100 million with reissues, ultimately earning $102,922,376 domestically, and $208,900,376 worldwide.

Merchandising

Jaws 2 inspired much more merchandising and sponsors than the first film. Products included sets of trading cards from Topps and Baker's bread, paper cups from Coca-Cola, beach towels, a souvenir program, shark tooth necklaces, coloring and activity books, and a model kit of Brody's truck. A novelization was written by Hank Searls based on an earlier draft of the screenplay by Sackler and Tristan; this, as Sight & Sound would say, bears "virtually no resemblance to the [screenplay] ultimately used." The first chapter of the novelization was printed in advance of the film's release in 15 U.S. newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, the New York Post, Chicago Tribune and The Washington Post, and a condensed version of the novelization was published in Reader's Digest. Marvel Comics published a comic book adaptation of the film by writer Rick Marschall and artists Gene Colan and Tom Palmer in Marvel Super Special #6 (also based on the earlier script). Following the success of Carl Gottlieb's making-of book about the first film, Ray Loynd wrote The Jaws 2 Log, giving an account of the film's production.

Critical response

Throughout the years, the film has received mixed reviews, though it is widely regarded as the best of the three Jaws sequels. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 56% based on 43 reviews. The site's critics' consensus reads: "Jaws 2 never approaches the lingering thrills of its classic predecessor, but it's reasonably entertaining for a sequel that has no reason to exist." With a weighted average, Metacritic gave the film a score of 51 out of 100 based on 12 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Critic John Kenneth Muir comments that opinions towards Jaws 2 depend upon which side of the series it is being compared. Against Spielberg's original, "it is an inferior sequel to a classic", but comparison with the subsequent films Jaws 3-D and Jaws: The Revenge shows Szwarc's film to be "a decent sequel, and one produced before the franchise hit troubled waters." Jaws 2, he says, is "at the deep end of the pool, better than its two shallow follow ups, and there is enough of Jaws' lingering greatness floating about to make it an entertaining and exciting two hours." Variety labelled it an "excellent sequel". DVD Authority says "After this one, the other Jaws movies seemed to just not be as good." One review says: "it's obviously not a patch on Spielberg's classic, but it's about as good as could be hoped for, with some excellent sequences, almost worthy of the original, several genuine shocks, a different enough story and some pretty decent characters." The performances of Scheider, Gary and Hamilton have been particularly praised.

Among contemporary reviews, Roger Ebert described the film as "pure trash". Gene Siskel gave it two-and-a-half stars out of four in his print review, writing that the film "is worth watching only when its leading player is on camera" and that when the teenage characters were not being attacked, Jaws 2 offers teenage action even less inspired than Beach Blanket Bingo". Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "Some of the action sequences have been well staged, but they've been dropped into the film so indiscriminately that Jaws 2 never builds to a particular climax. It simply drones on and on, like a television movie. Someone also made a mistake in showing us so much of the mechanical shark so early in the film." Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times stated, "Maybe because familiarity breeds indifference the more you see of the shark this time the more it seems to have wandered away from the Universal Studios Tour, manmade and mechanical." Tom Pulleine of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, "Less a sequel than a remake, Jaws 2 is a tiresomely foregone conclusion to anyone who has seen Spielberg's film ... Even worse, since the events of the first film are acknowledged in this one, the refusal of the mayor and council to act on Brody's warning a second time round makes them appear idiotic to a degree that effectively sabotages any halfway serious dramatic interest."