There were also a lot of changes from the book that bothered me. Not that the book was great or that the film should have been faithful. But there were several points made in the book about things that the shark hunters shouldn't do because they wouldn't work - like stay out in the boat at night or tie harpoon lines to cleats.

So what do they do in the film? Stay out at night - and the shark attacks the boat in the dark. And they tie the harpoon lines to the boat - and the shark rips them out, just like Quint (in the book) said they would. It made the characters (especially Quint, the supposed expert) look dumb.

And I think I detect a certain snooty attitude on Spielberg's part toward working class people like Quint. The college egghead character played by Dreyfuss is rewritten to be more sympathetic, and of course he survives for a happy ending. Quint, of course, makes the mistakes mentioned above and dies a horrible bloody death. (The expert hunter dies again in JURASSIC PARK - a recurring motif?)

Oh, and I just want to say I'm shocked - and pleasantly surprised - that the first response to my post was a favorable one. I expected to come back to a batch of hate mail!