Bloomsbury
Published: September
2022
Paperback
288 pages
29 B&W
illustrations
ISBN:
978-1-5013-7386-2
RRP: £26
Review by Adrian
Smith
In the summer of 1975,
a much-anticipated film adapted from a bestselling novel called Jaws,
directed by a little-known newcomer named Steven Spielberg, was unleashed on
the public- and visiting the beach would never be the same again.
The stories about the
making of Jaws have been told many, many times: the shark didn’t work, they
ran over budget and schedule because just a few seconds of usable footage was
shot each day, the studio wanted to fire its young director, etc. The myths and
legends around Jaws have become almost as popular as the film itself,
with dozens of books and documentaries, as well as the three sequels, serving
to keep Jaws firmly lodged in the public consciousness.
So what else can
there possibly be to say about this legendary film? Well as this book’s
subtitle suggests, new perspectives have been found and reveal new ways of
thinking about Jaws and its place in popular culture and film history. The
contributors to the book take several different approaches, questioning myths
(was Jaws really the first summer blockbuster? Cinema Retro’s own
Sheldon Hall tackles that one), analysing themes and looking at its legacy, or
‘cultural footprint’.
Verna Fields rightly
won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing, and one chapter here focuses
specifically on the editing, highlighting technical innovations and analysing
why some of those classic scenes work so well. A similar level of in-depth
analysis is applied to John Williams’ iconic score. It may well be one of the
most well-known scores in cinema history, but musicologist Emilio Audissino
brings his understanding of music theory here to explain exactly why the music
works so well.
Another chapter sees
a consideration of the influence of Steven Spielberg’s Jewishness on Jaws,
whilst Linda Ruth Williams looks at the way children are often used as bait in
his films. Matthew Leggatt focuses specifically on that Indianapolis
speech from Quint, exploring the atomic legacy as evidenced in Jaws. Is
it a coincidence that the shark is killed with a massive explosion?
The ongoing influence
and legacy of Jaws is delved into in the fascinating final section of
the book, which, as well as exploring the sequels, also looks at the many
documentaries about the making of the film, the ‘Sharksploitation’ edit of Jaws
(a strictly unofficial fan-edit which incorporates footage from Jaws and
its sequels as well as from deleted scenes and shark documentaries, and also
replaces the score with contemporary rock songs), and even a discussion of The
Discovery Channel’s annual Shark Week.
This is a terrific
collection of essays that genuinely brings new insight, and with a foreword
provided by Jaws’ screenwriter and supporting actor Carl Gottlieb
himself, The Jaws Book is highly recommended for any fan of Jaws,
or for anyone with even a passing interest in this crucial moment in film
history.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/jaws-book-9781501347535/
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