Jaws 2 is the best of the sequels to the Steven Spielberg classic, but it is basically a retread of the first film and not as good.
Spielberg never wanted the sequels to be watered down versions of his classic film, and it’s a lesson that has made him retain creative control over sequels to other films including the right to choose the story and director in his Jurassic Park franchise.
When Jaws 2 went into production, problems soon reared their ugly head like a monster shark coming to the surface. This time, the mechanical shark worked, but the star and the film’s director, Jeannot Szwarc, had heated exchanges on set. Roy Schneider, who played Chief Brody in the first two films, was notoriously difficult on set, lacking respect for the new director, who had taken over from John D. Hancock, who had quit just a month into production.
The on-set problems caught Spielberg’s attention, and he called Universal’s Daryl Zanuck and Jaws producer David Brown offering to write and direct the sequel.
The story was detailed on The Wrap’s “Shoot This Now” podcast.
Spielberg made a deal with both these producers that would have the director return to the Jaws series.
The Jaws director spent the weekend of July 4 and 5, 1977, writing a treatment for a Jaws follow-up film.
Spielberg based his treatment on Quint’s infamous monologue in which he describes surviving the real-life ordeal of the U.S.S. Indianapolis, the ship carrying parts of the atomic bomb to drop on Hiroshima. After delivering the bomb, and on it’s return home, the U.S.S. Indianapolis was sunk, with hundreds of its crew forced into shark-infested seas. The crew huddled together while sharks of different kinds picked off crew one by one.
Quint is one of the few survivors, who unfortunately meets his fate in the jaws of the great white shark in the first Jaws movie.
Quin’s monologue about the fate of crew from the U.S.S. Indianapolis, though he makes one mistake, incorrectly stating the event occurred on June 29th, 1945, when in fact it occurred on July 30th of that same year.
This version could have been the first of Spielberg’s fascination with World War Two stories, though it would likely have taken artistic licence with Quint battling the sharks and trying to save fellow crewmen.
“Shoot This Now” vividly described Spielberg’s Jaws prequel as “Saving Private Ryan, with sharks”.
Apparently, Spielberg wanted to make the film as immersive as possible, mimicking the cameras he put at water level in the original to make the audience feel like they were in the water. No doubt, further innovations would be made to increase that immersive experience, since the director is known, even in his early filmmaking years, for pushing filmmaking techniques into new territory.
Essentially, Spielberg wanted the audience to feel like they were in the same terrifying position as though 300 crewmen (out of 1,200) that survived the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the subsequent feeding frenzy by reportedlyhundreds of sharks.
The rest of the film would be a horrific survival story, while men try to survive in and outside lifeboats, enduring the scorching sun and fending off hungry sharks and their repeated attacks. The survivors—including the young Quint—survive by quenching thirst on a sometimes lethal cocktail of urine, salt water, blood, and oil from the ship’s wreckage.
The only problem was that Spielberg was still shooting Close Encounters of the Third Kind and his new pitch would require Universal to ditch their current production and wait 12 months for the director to be free to film his Jaws prequel.
Tentatively titled Jaws 2: Open Water, the lost epic was canned, but feels like a worthy treatment to bring to the screen. No doubt Spielberg is done with the franchise, though he might be enticed back, since Ridley Scott has recently directedGladiator 2.
Still, Jeannot Szwarc’s Jaws 2 deserves reappraisal as an entertaining sequel that gives the shark a Michael Myer’s teen slasher flick quality. Teenagers are the target this time in Amity Island as we follow Sheriff Brody’s kid Michael in his teenage years. Ultimately, Jaws 2 did well at the box office, being the first Summer blockbuster sequel, proving the viability of film franchises as big budget Summer blockbuster entertainment. That’s right, Jaws 2 proved that sequel like The Empire Strikes Back could make huge money in the Summer, and go far north of their budgets within a few weeks of release.
Unfortunately, the tale of the U.S.S. Indianapolis has only been made as a cheap and almost unwatchable cash grab with the uninspired title, U.S.S. Indianapolis, starring Nicholas Cage, who had to make money on bad films to pay for his extravagant lifestyle that sent him bankrupt. Hopefully, cage’s film has not made the prospect of this Jaws prequel a poison chalice, as it could be a great one-off way to resurrect the Jaws franchise.