Jaws

Jaws is a 1974 novel by Peter Benchley. It tells the story of a great white shark that preys upon a small resort town, and the voyage of three men to kill it.

Benchley was inspired by several real-life incidents, such as the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 that included five attacks over 12 days, four of which resulted in death, and the exploits of shark fisherman Frank Mundus. Doubleday commissioned him to write the novel. Film producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown read the novel before its publication and bought the film rights. They helped raise the novel's profile and when it was published in February 1974 it became a great success, staying on the bestseller list for some 44 weeks.

 

 

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  Jaws Easton Press Edition  

 

Conception

Benchley had been thinking for years "about a story about a shark that attacks people and what would happen if it came in and wouldn't go away." Then, in 1964, he read a news story about a fisherman who caught a great white shark weighing 4,550 pounds (2,060 kg) off the beaches of Long Island. He again did not act on his idea until a discussion with his editor in 1971. Although Benchley himself cites the 1964 incident as the inspiration for his novel, some writers (including Richard Ellis, Richard Fernicola, and Michael Capuzzo) suggest that his inspiration came from Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916, Coppleson's rogue shark theory, and the exploits of New York fisherman Frank Mundus.

Doubleday editor Tom Congdon had read some of Benchley's articles and invited him to lunch to discuss some ideas for books. Congdon was not impressed by Benchley's proposals for non-fiction but was interested in his idea of a novel about a great white shark terrorizing a beach resort. Congdon recalls that Benchley wrote a page in his office, "and I gave him a cheque for $1,000. On the basis of that he did me 100 pages."

Much of the work had to be rewritten as the publisher was unhappy with the initial tone. Congdon recalls that the "first five pages were just wonderful. They just went in to the eventual book without any changes. The other 95 pages, though, were on the wrong track. They were humorous. And humour isn't the proper vehicle for a great thriller." Benchley worked through the winter in a room above a furnace company in Pennington, New Jersey, and in the summer in a converted turkey coop in Stonington, Connecticut.

After various revisions and rewrites, Benchley delivered his final draft in January 1973. According to Carl Gottlieb, who would share with Benchley the credit for the film's screenplay, Benchley had only received a $7,500 advance "for a year's work and a lifetime's preparation." This was far less than what Benchley was used to as a professional writer, and, furthermore, the advance had been paid sporadically during the writing process.

The title was not decided until shortly before the book went to print. Benchley says that he had spent months thinking of titles, many of which he calls "pretentious", such as The Stillness in the Water and Leviathan Rising. Benchley regarded other ideas, such as The Jaws of Death and The Jaws of Leviathan, as "melodramatic, weird or pretentious". According to Benchley, the novel still did not have a title until twenty minutes before production of the book. The writer discussed the problem with editor Tom Congdon at a restaurant in New York.

We cannot agree on a word that we like, let alone a title that we like. In fact, the only word that even means anything, that even says anything, is "jaws". Call the book Jaws. He said "What does it mean?" I said, "I don't know, but it's short; it fits on a jacket, and it may work." He said, "Okay, we'll call the thing Jaws.

Steven Spielberg, who would direct the film adaptation, recalls that the title intrigued him when he first saw the book. He points out that the word was "not in the national consciousness at the time. It was just a word. It was kind of an unusual word." Situating the incident in the era of the explicit film Deep Throat, some retrospectives suggest that upon seeing the title Spielberg asked if the novel was about a "pornographic dentist". 

Jaws movie 

The film adaptation was directed by Steven Spielberg and released in June 1975. Many of the novel's minor subplots were omitted from the movie, which instead focused more on the shark. Jaws became the highest grossing movie in history up to that point, and is regarded as a watershed film in motion picture history and the father of the summer blockbuster film. It was followed by three sequels. 

Cast  

Roy Scheider
Robert Shaw
Richard Dreyfuss
Lorraine Gary
Murray Hamilton  

 

Plot summary

Whilst swimming at night off the shores of Amity, a seaside resort in New England, Chrissie Watkins is attacked and killed by a great white shark. Police chief Martin Brody orders Amity's beaches closed, but is overruled by mayor Larry Vaughan and the town's selectmen, fearing it would damage the summer tourism on which the town's economy is dependent. With the connivance of Harry Meadows, the editor of the local newspaper, the attack is hushed up.

A few days later the shark kills a young boy and a man, and then a fisherman who was hunting it. Blaming himself for these deaths, this time Brody does close the beaches, despite constant pressure from Vaughan to leave them open. Suspicious of Vaughan's motives, Brody has Meadows investigate the people Vaughan is in business with. Meadows uncovers his links to members of the mafia, who are pressuring Vaughan to keep the beaches open in order to protect the value of Amity's real estate. Meadows also brings in oceanographer Matt Hooper to advise them on how to deal with the shark.

Meanwhile, Brody's wife Ellen is dissatisfied with life, and misses the life she left behind when she married Brody and had children. She immediately strikes up a friendship with Hooper, especially after learning that he is the younger brother of a man she dated years before, and they have a brief affair. Though he says nothing, Brody suspects they have had a liason and is haunted by the thought.

After a boy narrowly escapes being attacked by the shark close to the beach, Brody hires Quint, a professional shark fisherman. He, Brody and Hooper set out on Quint's vessel, the Orca, to track down and kill the shark. The trio struggle to get along; Hooper is angered by Quint's methods, such as disembowelling a blue shark they catch and his use of an illegally-fished baby dolphin for bait. Brody and Hooper almost come to blows over his suspicions about Hooper's affair with Ellen.

Their first two days at sea are unproductive, and they return to port on each occasion. On the third, Hooper goes underwater in a shark proof cage to photograph the shark and attempt to shoot it with a bang stick. However, the shark attacks the cage and kills him. When Brody and Quint return the following day, the shark repeatedly rams into the boat, and Quint harpoons it three times. The shark leaps onto the stern of the Orca and the boat starts sinking. Quint plunges another harpoon into it, but as it falls back into the water his foot gets entangled in the ropes and he is dragged under and drowns. Now floating on a seat cushion, Brody spots the shark swimming towards him and shuts his eyes, preparing for death. The shark gets to within a few feet of him, before succumbing to the wounds inflicted by Quint and sinks to the bottom. Using the cushion as a makeshift float, Brody starts to paddle back to shore.