Here’s Roger Ebert’s “Great Movies” Review of Jaws
And his original Four star review.
And his Much less enthusiastic review of Jurassic Park
That pretty much sums it up for me.
OMG! Is Ebert the new Nostradamus? That’s amazingly prescient.
And I liked War of the Worlds 
I love both these movies. But given the choice between a movie with Robert Shaw and a movie without Robert Shaw, I’ll take the “with” any day. So I’d give “Jaws” the edge.
Jaws is the better movie, by far. Nice and dark, and people aren’t as clearly identified with the ‘I’m-a-good-guy-mark-of-invulnerability’
Plus, it has the “Tuuuh-nuh. Tuuuh-nuh. Etc. :D”
Nevertheless, I love dinosaurs too, and the greatness of the CG almost makes up for the difference. Almost.
The reason that the shark was kept off-screen through much of the movie was because the damn thing didn’t work. They built and tested it in a fresh water tank but the salt water was bit tougher on the gaskets and such.
So really the genius there is that Speilberg was able to adapt and continue making the movie without the shark as much as possible. It wasn’t planned from the start not to show the shark. It just worked out that way.
Exactly, Zebra. I watched a (usually) silly show on Animal Planet called “Animal Icons” when it dealt with Jaws.
When you hear how many days Bruce sank, broke down, etc, you are SHOCKED that Spielberg could get the movie done at all. Even he specualted during filming that he would never be trusted with another picture.
They went weeks over schedule and way over budget. IIRC they were filming on Martha’s Vineyard through three seasons!
I’ve got a lot under my belt about Jaws. I own two books on the making of the film. I dunno why, but the process gone through to create that movie is important to me. A few things to start off with.
Arwin, that theme you quoted? John Williams won the Academy Award for the score to Jaws. ( His first Oscar ) It’s a little-known fact that if you watch the frozen lake battle sequence from the 1938 film by Sergei Eisenstein entitled Alekandr Nevsky ( yes, that is the correct spelling according to IMDB ), you will hear the title theme from Jaws. Note for note. It was written by Prokofiev, 37 years before John Williams “created” it. Homage is one thing. Theft is another. But I digress.
Despite the remarks about Bruce The Shark ( so named because at the time, Bruce was Steven Spielberg’s attorney’s first name ), there is some real-live shark footage included in the movie. More than one dive was done off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia by Ron and Valerie Taylor. They had quite the rep as shark divers/hunters/photographers. There is real shark footage. There is real shark footage with a cage in the frame. Even at the time, the quality of graininess of that real footage didn’t quite cut perfectly with the staged shots of Bruce ( and, there were…4 Bruces IIRC ), but in the flow of the scenes and the energy of the moment, I think most audience members bought it as whole cloth. Only cynics or cameramen sat there going, " Shit, that’s either stock footage or live shark footage made for this film, cleverly intercut". Nevertheless, some of the shots are of genuine sharks.
I think Jaws is a better film on most levels. ( obviously I’m a wee bit prejudiced ) I do tend to let my cynicism go when I sit down. I love movies, and go to them begging to be immersed into another world. The shots where Sam Neill and Laura Dern first see the large dinosaurs in the flesh and just a few hundred yards away is remarkable. It requires the leap of faith that all fantasy films require. I get goosebumps every time I see that- because if you buy the story, and buy their characters, then the moment of realization is very gratifying to witness. It is a dream come true- and how many adults toil their lives driven by a belief in something they know in their heart they can never prove absolutely… only to have it handed to them live?
Performances aside, people get killed by sharks. Happened just last week, right? People don’t get killed by dinosaurs. The visceral response to the novel- and the film- are based on real life fears. I know I read the book when it came out. I did not go in the ocean for a few years after that. As of last summer, when I was swimming every day off the Jersey coastline around Seaside Heights, I looked for the telltale fin. I swear. It gets to ya.
The script to Jaws doesn’t feel as sloppy as the script to Jurassic Park. The entire picture has a good classic rhythm to it. ( Verna Fields, no slouch of an editor… cut while they shot on location in Martha’s Vineyard . )
The film ran badly over budget. There was very serious talk of shutting it down and firing young Steven. Good thing they let it ride and waited to see how it went in previews. People screamed. People laughed. People screamed more. The rest, as they say, is history.
Cartooniverse
One other neato tidbit from the books I’ve got on Jaws.
The scene where the townsfolk go out in their boats and kill what they think is “the Shark” and the Chief, Hooper and Quint are on the dock as little Alex Kintner’s mom walks up and slaps the Chief in the face? That is not a prop. That is a real shark, hunted down off the Florida coast and hand-escorted back on a chartered plane by a fellow named Teddy. It reeked and reeked, and was digusting to shoot around since the shark’s guts were piled up into it’s throat. ( The shark was hooked and hung at a sharp angle with the mouth tilted upwards, so the innards really did pile up just out of view of the cameras, but not the actors ).
Teddy got his though. He was a stunt man, and is the man who is killed by The Shark in the inlet and dragged through the water screaming as the Chief’s young son watches in shocked horror. Fake blood gushing out of his mouth and all. 
( God. Maybe I should watch it again tonight. Hmmm… )
Then there is no hope for you.
I did not see Jurassic Park (I stopped seeing Spielberg movies after the loathesome E.T. and the horrible The Color Purple, with lapses for the Raiders movies, until Catch Me If You Can). so I can’t comment on it, but Jaws was and is a brilliant film. That’s part of why E.T. was such a disappointment. Jaws, Close Encounters and Raiders are all so good, and then the shitstain that is E.T. comes along.
And of course, Quint didn’t have to die.
I must be really screwed then. I saw Close Encounters as a Kid and didn’t like it either.
Cartooniverse, you had me at hello…
Seriously, if I wasn’t already happily married, those two posts would have gotten you half way to home plate! 
I didn’t want to re-open that old thread, but I must say I have no idea why you’d say this. Quint was hired to bring in the shark. Brody and Hooper went along as deck hands. At the time they left they dock, they had no idea whatsoever that Quint’s boat wouldn’t be sufficient. Two boats are not better than one, when it would mean that both boats are under-staffed. And of course, two boats are twice as expensive to operate as one. Plus, the reason Brody wanted to go along was because he felt it was his duty to be with Quint. I see no plot hole here whatsoever.
Brody and Hooper were along as the charter party. Hooper was competent to serve as a deckhand; Brody wasn’t (he didn’t even know how to tie basic knots). They should have known that Quint’s boats wasn’t going to cut it because Hooper should’ve known from the bite radius how large the shark was. Hooper’s boat was already set up for a shark hunt; had they taken his boat they wouldn’t have had to transfer all of his equipment over, they wouldn’t have been stranded when Orca got attacked, they have multiple radios so when Quint has his temper tantrum they’re not stuck, etc. Cost doesn’t really enter into it since Hooper owned his own boat.
Since I posted that thread I’ve softened on it a little but I still think not taking Hooper’s boat along with them, while it makes for greater drama, would be a mistake IRL and is a plot hole in the movie.
They didn’t take Hooper’s boat because they hired Quint to do the hunt because of his experience. He’s not about to take another man’s boat. So given that, why would Hooper want to tag along in a second boat? It makes no sense. They’d just all pile into the same boat.
If Quint had caught the shark, just what was Hooper supposed to be able to do from a second boat?
There’s a book my husband really liked, called In Harm’s Way, that tells the story of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the fate of the men Quint referred to.
Jurassic Park has great SCENES:
- The velociraptors hunting the children in the kitchen
- T-Rex’s first appearance
- The dinosaur stampede
- The brachiasaurus “reveal”
Those scenes match the very best Jaws scenes.
However, Jaws really has no weak points as a movie, and has a better structure of characters, with the three main protagonists providing a dramatic triangle of characterization. Jurassic Park is, by comparison, something of a mess in terms of characters, and while they’re all competent thespians nobody matches the triumvirate of Scheider, Dreyfuss, and Shaw.
I also though the other weakness of Jurassic Park was that the body count wasn’t nearly high enough. I mean, let’s be honest; the reason you go to see a dinosaur movie is to see dinosaurs eat people. But the dinosaurs only ate five people in Jurassic Park - Nedry, the game warden, the lawyer, Samuel L. Jackson, and the hapless worker at the beginning.
Why did B.D. Wong the Scientist (the shrink from Law and Order) survive? He was eaten in the book; would it have been that hard to have T-Rex gobble him up? Why did Richard Attenborough’s character, also eaten in the book, survive? The guy who was working on the sick triceratops could have been eaten, too. Five dino-meals was a shamefully low level of carnage.
I don’t think Hoopers boat had the barrels and the whole you go into the cage/cage goes into the water/sharks in the water/our shark plan didn’t work out so well.
Also since Quint is a copy of Captain Ahab, I think that, yes, he does have to die.
And one more thing
Jaws has a naked girl.
Jurrassic Park? No naked girls!
Advatage Jaws.
Oh, come on. Jaws has an even smaller amount of deaths. Chrissy, the kid, Shaw, and the dog. 
I may be forgetting one, but just one.
I agree with the naked chick though.
But in Jaws,
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The shark eats one of the main characters, which counts extra.
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There’s only one shark. I mean, even a big ol’ fish can only be asked to do so much. In Jurassic Park, there are hundreds of dinosaurs, at least a dozen or two of which are dangerous. The dinosaurs are much lazier than the shark.
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The shark’s handiwork is prominently displayed in Jaws. There’s lots of blood, and Quint’s death in particular is fantastically gruesome. Jurassic Park is comparatively bloodless.