JAWS
Special Edition
My cut of JAWS treats Spielberg's film as a 'what-if' he did a George Lucas and dared to update the movie in the same way that Lucas did his Star Wars trilogy. I chose that poster with a famed shot of a lost unfilmed scene because JAWS was once considered one of the scariest horror films of all time. It's not tame by comparison considering today's tastes have changed. But back then, JAWS was the ultimate horror film and the movie that launched the b-movie as high art blockbuster revolution that Steven Spielberg and his buddy George Lucas practically invented.
So one goal is to make JAWS more of a horror film. Also, for fans of the book, people forget how well-regarded the book was BEFORE the movie. A real page turner that was this ultimate hangout story where you wanted to stay for a while and chill with the characters. So, using footage from JAWS 2 as if it were deleted scenes from the first movie, I found creative ways to make the movie feel more like the novel-- which had these great subplots that just made the story more lived-in and epic.
+++HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE+++
-More victims of JAWS. (see above)
-Improved FX where I could. Quint talks about "the white of shark's eyes" as they bite down. Details like that.
-Fun easter eggs here and there. Like a shot of two from many other shark movies, and even a nod or two to Spielberg's "The Fabelmans".
- As bad as JAWS 2 was, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino points out the good of that film, as we get more Martin Brody, which you can't get enough of, and was this great character that Roy Schneider created. So repurposed some scenes into this. Spielberg regretted not guiding future sequels to this film, so this fan edit seeks to right that wrong in its own way using footage from Jaws 2. Watching my fan edit almost feels like "JAWS PART 2".
-Fixed some little things that always bothered me personally. For instance, like the one-liner at the end. Which awesome as it was, didn't pay off as well because it wasn't properly set up earlier in the movie. Added some scenes to make that moment pay off better.
-And other fun changes!
+++FINAL THOUGHTS+++
With the tragedy that was the 2024 election, a movie like JAWS hits differently now. The irony couldn't be more striking: with a lone voice in the minority begging the masses and the elites to confront reality before tragedy forces them too, and the monster of pig-headness and macho-thinkiing creating more problems for our flawed heroes than any mutant shark does, which is WHY Jaws is this great Hitchcockian movie of sorts that is at once a fun monster film AND a serious character study about the folly or manly men. Critic Pauline Kael wrote the definite review of "Jaws" pointing out how it was this great secret Woody Allen comedy in style and spirit if you looked closely enough. And so additional scenes of Brody injecting his bullets with cyanide, and other fun touches tip the hat to that. Hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed editing this!
