Joe Karlosi wrote:
Hollywood Gothique wrote:
The shark stuff is pretty good, but I think the LA Times nailed it when the called the film "a bore ashore."


What a joke! For one thing, there's barely much time spent ashore in the original when you consider the whole film. And no, I don't think any of it is boring. Maybe they were thinking ahead to JAWS 2 .

Dare I suggest that your memory is playing tricks regarding the amount of time spent ashore? And no, the review was in regards to the first JAWS.

There are other things about the film that are wrong. In the book, Hooper advises the mayor that the shark is likely long gone after the intial attack, so it makes sense that the town would re-open the beaches. In the film, Hooper invents this theory of "territoriality" and says the shark is probably still out there, waiting to eat someone else - and the mayor opens the beaches anyway.

The whole Mafia subplot in the book was...well, I don't know what to call it, but at least it provided a motivation for why the mayor was so desperate to keep the beaches open. In the movie, the mayor is just stupid.