Jaws – 30th Anniversary (DVD & Novel)

The DVD:

“When I first heard the word Jaws, I think of a period in my life when I was much younger than I am right now and I think because of that, I was more courageous... or I was more stupid. I’m not sure which. So when I think of Jaws, I think about courage and stupidity. And I think of both of those things existing underwater.” — Steven Spielberg

When Jaws came out on June 1, 1975, it was phenomenal hit. It was the first modern summer blockbuster, grossing over $100 million in ticket sales. It did for the ocean what Psycho did for showers. And, it put director Stephen Spielberg on a wave of commercial and critical success that he’s still riding today, some thirty years later.

The story is simple, but powerful: A great white shark with a voracious appetite for human flesh terrorizes the sleepy New England town of Amity one summer, clearing the beaches and ruining the tourist trade; it’s up to three brave men to track the shark, hunt him down, and — hopefully — kill him. But that’s not as simple as it sounds.

The characters have become iconic over time. Who can imagine anyone but Roy Scheider as Police Chief Martin Brody? Or another actor playing Richard Dreyfuss’s Hooper, or someone other than Robert Shaw as the grizzled Captain Quint? (Actually, someone is imagining those roles with others in them even as I type… a remake of Jaws has recently been announced.)

The original score for Jaws has become as indelible as any; perhaps even more so — after all, it’s the only one that’s become part of our everyday slang: When you go, “Da-dum, da-dum, da-dum…” everyone knows what you’re talking about.

If you’ve seen Jaws on commercial television, then you haven’t seen Jaws. If you’ve seen it on cable in full-screen, then you’ve been cheated. Jaws is a film meant to be seen in widescreen format, completely uncut. With commercial interruptions, the building suspense is ruined. With its amazingly vast masters cut off at their 35mm knees, the picture is puny.

The widescreen, uncut DVD features the movie along with a boatload of extras (all of which are aided with optional captions and subtitles – great move, for those who are hearing impaired, or work out on a noisy treadmill while watching the television), which actually have a much longer running time than the movie.

There is a lengthy and greatly detailed Making of Jaws Documentary, produced and directed by Laurent Bouzereau. With a running time of just over two hours, this documentary (originally produced for the Jaws laserdisc, and heavily edited), is one of the best I’ve seen. Covering nearly every aspect of the production, this feature has engrossing interviews and insightful tidbits from folks ranging from the author of the Jaws novel Peter Benchley, to Jaws’ very first victim, stuntwoman-turned-actress Susan Backlinie.

There’s also a shorter (about 10 minutes) featurette originally produced in 1974.It’s hosted by Iain Johnstone, and features on-the-set footage, as well as soundbites from Steven Spielberg and other members of the cast and crew.

The Jaws Archives on the second disc includes a slideshow presentation of a poster gallery, plus The Jaws Phenomenon, which is a brief look at marketing and promotional material from around the world. There are also deleted scenes, outtakes, storyboards, and much more.

To entice you further, there's a limited edition 60-page Commemorative Photo Journal included alongside the DVD, which has several rare pics, movie lines, trivia, and quotes from the cast and crew.

The Book:

“I had no interest in writing a one-note horror story: Shark eats people. I concentrated on what would actually happen if a huge predator laid siege to a resort community… I’ve derived great gratification over the years hearing from readers that Jaws was the first grown-up book they had read and it taught them that reading could be fun.” — Peter Benchley

Although not included in the DVD package, fans might also want to pick up Peter Benchley’s landmark novel, also simply entitled Jaws. (There’s a funny interview segment on the DVD about the publisher scrambling to find a name for the book just before it had to go to press.)

The book, available for the first time in years in hardcover, is well-worth reading for fans of the film. For one thing, it ends differently. Another interesting plot device used in the novel is having Hooper romancing Brody’s wife — they actually have a great dislike for one another in the original telling of the story. Also, unlike the movie, one of them is killed by Jaws… “Da-dum, da-dum, da-dum…”

To commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the film, Benchley has written a brand-new introduction to the book and it’s specially priced at $15.95 (as the cover boldly proclaims, in an annoying non-removable way).

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson