Yet another JAWS doc on the Bio channel Wed. night at 9pm.
Received good reviews...I know I've heard the "shark is not working!" anecdote from Richard Dreyfuss about a million times on one documentary after another, but somehow I never tire of hearing it! lol.
New JAWS Documentary on Bio Channel 6/16 - 9pm
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AndyDursin
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Eric Paddon
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Monterey Jack
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AndyDursin
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I agree MJ.
I do feel a little bad for these guys who made the SHARK IS STILL WORKING independent documentary -- they've been trying to sell this for years, to no avail. (Variety said some of their material has been incorporated into this Bio special).
On the other hand...there have been so many...the laserdisc doc was marvelous obviously (a little dry, but clearly the most definitive), but there were excellent ones on E! and Bravo as well. I doubt there's anything in that unsold doc that hasn't been stated elsewhere, so as much as they've been trying to have Universal or someone buy it, there's just no incentive when the film's background has been told so exhaustively before.
Either way, I'm looking forward to watching this tomorrow night. Bio did a superb job with their CADDYSHACK doc from last year...and at least this one will be in High-Def!
I do feel a little bad for these guys who made the SHARK IS STILL WORKING independent documentary -- they've been trying to sell this for years, to no avail. (Variety said some of their material has been incorporated into this Bio special).
On the other hand...there have been so many...the laserdisc doc was marvelous obviously (a little dry, but clearly the most definitive), but there were excellent ones on E! and Bravo as well. I doubt there's anything in that unsold doc that hasn't been stated elsewhere, so as much as they've been trying to have Universal or someone buy it, there's just no incentive when the film's background has been told so exhaustively before.
Either way, I'm looking forward to watching this tomorrow night. Bio did a superb job with their CADDYSHACK doc from last year...and at least this one will be in High-Def!
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AndyDursin
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I found this documentary to be excellent.
Even though it rehashed, obviously, many stories you've previously heard, I felt it touched upon other aspects that even the Bouzereau doc neglected or didn't make much of a deal out of. The fact the script was hurriedly put into production because of the writer's strike is accentuated more here, I loved the part about Dreyfuss having "as much sex as he could", and the archival photos looked gorgeous in HD. And there were PLENTY of them, in addition to new interviews -- in fact I think the only interviews that were "repurposed" from that SHARK IS STILL WORKING doc were Roy Scheider's, and they were designated as such on screen. (That review in Variety was incorrect, it made it seem like most of them were derived from that).
As much as the Bouzereau doc is comprehensive, it's also very dry and I think this one is a terrific compliment to it -- even better than the E! and Bravo Making Ofs from years back.
Even though it rehashed, obviously, many stories you've previously heard, I felt it touched upon other aspects that even the Bouzereau doc neglected or didn't make much of a deal out of. The fact the script was hurriedly put into production because of the writer's strike is accentuated more here, I loved the part about Dreyfuss having "as much sex as he could", and the archival photos looked gorgeous in HD. And there were PLENTY of them, in addition to new interviews -- in fact I think the only interviews that were "repurposed" from that SHARK IS STILL WORKING doc were Roy Scheider's, and they were designated as such on screen. (That review in Variety was incorrect, it made it seem like most of them were derived from that).
As much as the Bouzereau doc is comprehensive, it's also very dry and I think this one is a terrific compliment to it -- even better than the E! and Bravo Making Ofs from years back.
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DavidBanner
I'll have to look this up.
I enjoyed the documentary on the laserdisc (and was happy they put the whole thing on the 2-disc DVD in 2005), and I also liked the E! "True Hollywood Stories" piece, as that one got into some more ticklish material.
I noted that Dreyfuss was a bit more open about the problems he had with Robert Shaw on the set in the E! piece.
And I have Carl Gottlieb's "The Jaws Log" which is a great piece of work from the time the movie was being made. The version I have in hand is a 30th Anniversary edition with a whole section of footnotes that update a lot of material.
The stories are a lot of fun - I've always enjoyed Spielberg's discussion of the preview screenings and how he got greedy for more scares, and the various recollections of the massive food fight that happened in the middle of a dinner the Martha's Vineyard community put on for the cast and crew.
Gottlieb's book has a few things in it that don't get touched on elsewhere - including Roy Scheider losing it on the boat in a big way. He also conclusively states who actually authored the Indianapolis speech. He makes clear that John Milius only got a single line of dialogue into the movie: "I'll find him for five, but I'll catch him and kill him for ten." He also discusses the back and forth between Spielberg and Benchley during the shoot which got pretty ugly at times. (Spielberg making dismissive comments about the book and its subplots, Benchley referring to Spielberg as the most talented 2nd Unit Director in history...)
I enjoyed the documentary on the laserdisc (and was happy they put the whole thing on the 2-disc DVD in 2005), and I also liked the E! "True Hollywood Stories" piece, as that one got into some more ticklish material.
I noted that Dreyfuss was a bit more open about the problems he had with Robert Shaw on the set in the E! piece.
And I have Carl Gottlieb's "The Jaws Log" which is a great piece of work from the time the movie was being made. The version I have in hand is a 30th Anniversary edition with a whole section of footnotes that update a lot of material.
The stories are a lot of fun - I've always enjoyed Spielberg's discussion of the preview screenings and how he got greedy for more scares, and the various recollections of the massive food fight that happened in the middle of a dinner the Martha's Vineyard community put on for the cast and crew.
Gottlieb's book has a few things in it that don't get touched on elsewhere - including Roy Scheider losing it on the boat in a big way. He also conclusively states who actually authored the Indianapolis speech. He makes clear that John Milius only got a single line of dialogue into the movie: "I'll find him for five, but I'll catch him and kill him for ten." He also discusses the back and forth between Spielberg and Benchley during the shoot which got pretty ugly at times. (Spielberg making dismissive comments about the book and its subplots, Benchley referring to Spielberg as the most talented 2nd Unit Director in history...)
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AndyDursin
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I think you'd like it David, definitely...the archival photos (and there are a ton of them) look real nice in HD, the interviews were all newly done and while there's not a ton on there you haven't heard already, it's quite well-executed. Probably better than the E! special on balance. I also love the JAWS LOG and have both editions of the book too (I also have the JAWS 2 LOG, which details how many problems that movie ran into).
Sadly I looked up on the Bio Channel schedule to see when it would run again because my parents missed it, and it's not listed...which I don't understand since it just aired!! If I see a re-run coming I will note it here.
Sadly I looked up on the Bio Channel schedule to see when it would run again because my parents missed it, and it's not listed...which I don't understand since it just aired!! If I see a re-run coming I will note it here.
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DavidBanner
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AndyDursin
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Yeah that book is fairly revealing, much more so than the DVD doc, going into detail about the first aborted shoot and John (Lee?) Hancock's firing, plus how cold it was in Florida when they did film the movie, how miserable Scheider was, etc. Written in the same "diary" style as Gottlieb's as well.
There are not many copies available either...I ended up finding one on Ebay many years ago for about $30.
Might seem steep, but not compared to Amazon Marketplace!
There are not many copies available either...I ended up finding one on Ebay many years ago for about $30.
Might seem steep, but not compared to Amazon Marketplace!
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DavidBanner
I looked on Wikipedia and found a pretty brutal recounting of things on the set of Jaws 2. The Wikipedia article seems pretty sympathetic to John Hancock.
My understanding from people involved at the time of the shoot is that they HAD to drop Hancock, and they had to get a better director in there before the situation became any worse.
I've worked with Jeannot, so I can see how the situation between him and Scheider could have gone ballistic. Hard for me to imagine him getting into a physical confrontation with anyone (he's 5'3" or thereabouts), but I suppose tempers could have really flared.
The multiple hundred dollar quotes on Amazon for the book are ridiculous.
My understanding from people involved at the time of the shoot is that they HAD to drop Hancock, and they had to get a better director in there before the situation became any worse.
I've worked with Jeannot, so I can see how the situation between him and Scheider could have gone ballistic. Hard for me to imagine him getting into a physical confrontation with anyone (he's 5'3" or thereabouts), but I suppose tempers could have really flared.
The multiple hundred dollar quotes on Amazon for the book are ridiculous.
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AndyDursin
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Interesting, though I never know who's writing what on Wikipedia, so I take it with a grain of salt. From reading the Jaws 2 Log book and the DVD doc, etc. it sounded to me like Hancock was a big part of the problem -- the way the movie was being shot, etc. (being too dark, depressing, etc.) was an issue there. I think Swarzc is the one who brought Jeffrey Kramer back in, in an effort to make the movie more like the original, among other things. Other roles were recast (wasn't Dana Elcar in the movie originally and was axed when Hancock was fired?) too.
The JAWS 2 novelization by Hank Searls is actually interesting too since it's based on Hancock's version of the script (the script credit on the novelization lists Howard Sackler and Dorothy Tristan -- Hancock's wife, whose name was removed from the final credits in favor of Carl Gottlieb who did on-set rewrites again). It's a lot different than the finished film and is very readable on its own terms.
Searls did a similarly strong job on the JAWS THE REVENGE novelization, which I'm guessing he re-wrote on his own terms since it's so much better and involved than the film itself (not that it would take much, lol).
The JAWS 2 novelization by Hank Searls is actually interesting too since it's based on Hancock's version of the script (the script credit on the novelization lists Howard Sackler and Dorothy Tristan -- Hancock's wife, whose name was removed from the final credits in favor of Carl Gottlieb who did on-set rewrites again). It's a lot different than the finished film and is very readable on its own terms.
Searls did a similarly strong job on the JAWS THE REVENGE novelization, which I'm guessing he re-wrote on his own terms since it's so much better and involved than the film itself (not that it would take much, lol).
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DavidBanner
Searls' novelizations made both Jaws 2 and 4 more interesting, and more human.
Jeannot did a bunch of things to fix Jaws 2 when he came on board - most crucially, he sped up the pace of production to something closer to the TV pace he was used to on various Universal series. This inevitably would lead to friction with the cast, particularly Scheider, who didn't want to be on the project in the first place. When the shoot was done, it was pretty clear that Scheider would never do another Jaws movie.
Jeannot did bring back Kramer, and he did everything he could to lighten the movie. But he couldn't get past the problem that the movie wasn't particularly breaking any new ground, and therefore couldn't do more than give the viewers another couple of hours of what they'd already seen.
When you get to the final credits for the movie, it's clear that even John Williams has tired of the exercise, as the closing motif is a distant shadow of the closing Orca theme he used for the first film.
Jeannot did a bunch of things to fix Jaws 2 when he came on board - most crucially, he sped up the pace of production to something closer to the TV pace he was used to on various Universal series. This inevitably would lead to friction with the cast, particularly Scheider, who didn't want to be on the project in the first place. When the shoot was done, it was pretty clear that Scheider would never do another Jaws movie.
Jeannot did bring back Kramer, and he did everything he could to lighten the movie. But he couldn't get past the problem that the movie wasn't particularly breaking any new ground, and therefore couldn't do more than give the viewers another couple of hours of what they'd already seen.
When you get to the final credits for the movie, it's clear that even John Williams has tired of the exercise, as the closing motif is a distant shadow of the closing Orca theme he used for the first film.
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Eric Paddon
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Searls' novelization was always a bit of a puzzle to me when I read it at the time the movie was out, filled with its Mafia plot involving the development of Amity and the fact that Brody doesn't even realize a shark has returned until late in the going.
For Jaws 4, Searls basically made the whole thing as much of a sequel to his Jaws 2 novelization as possible, and the way he beat that over the head of the reader was how he spent a lot of time filling up dead parts of the action with verbatim flashbacks to sequences in the Jaws 2 novelization.
For Jaws 4, Searls basically made the whole thing as much of a sequel to his Jaws 2 novelization as possible, and the way he beat that over the head of the reader was how he spent a lot of time filling up dead parts of the action with verbatim flashbacks to sequences in the Jaws 2 novelization.
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AndyDursin
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I believe that was a key point in very early drafts of the script. The movie was, at one point, supposed to employ a "psychological" element about whether or not the shark was real, if it was in Brody's mind, etc.Searls' novelization was always a bit of a puzzle to me when I read it at the time the movie was out, filled with its Mafia plot involving the development of Amity and the fact that Brody doesn't even realize a shark has returned until late in the going.
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DavidBanner
The idea of the shark just being in Brody's head was carried over in a way into the film, where everyone else keeps telling him he's wrong about what he thinks is happening.
The mafia subplot in Searls' book is I believe a carry-over from Benchley's original, which had the idea that Larry the Mayor is beholden to the Mafia and in big trouble, which is a major part of the reason why he CAN'T close the beaches when there's a shark issue. If he can't come up with the money that the summer dollars mean, he and other Amity officials will also sleep with the fishes, so to speak...
I just remember the opening of Searls' adaptation of 4 at this point, and that it was more interesting and more human than what got inflicted in the theaters. I suppose everyone should have been wary about it starring Michael Caine, given the 80s history with The Island, The Hand, and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure... (I'm willfullly ignoring his later career and his Oscar for Hannah & Her Sisters, of course)
The mafia subplot in Searls' book is I believe a carry-over from Benchley's original, which had the idea that Larry the Mayor is beholden to the Mafia and in big trouble, which is a major part of the reason why he CAN'T close the beaches when there's a shark issue. If he can't come up with the money that the summer dollars mean, he and other Amity officials will also sleep with the fishes, so to speak...
I just remember the opening of Searls' adaptation of 4 at this point, and that it was more interesting and more human than what got inflicted in the theaters. I suppose everyone should have been wary about it starring Michael Caine, given the 80s history with The Island, The Hand, and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure... (I'm willfullly ignoring his later career and his Oscar for Hannah & Her Sisters, of course)