The making of Jaws is the stuff of legend. Filmed out on the Atlantic Ocean with nothing but practical effects, a dwindling budget and timeframe, and actors who were at each other’s throats, it was a tough time for all involved, not least for young Steven Spielberg who was just at the beginning of his career. The lack of cooperation the crew got from their various shark puppets is perhaps the most infamous aspect of the movie’s difficult shoot. Mechanics were being tested by the salt water and various elements, cues were missed, the tides worked against them, and the call of “the shark is not working” became a familiar utterance over the crew radios. It was a nightmare. So you’d think that Universal would have learned its lesson, and that when it insisted upon a sequel to this behemoth of a summer blockbuster, they’d provide production with more time, money, and resources to ensure they didn’t encounter such issues again. You’d think.
‘Jaws 2’ Had Its Own Share of Production Issues
Jaws catapulted Spielberg into the movie stratosphere, so he was neither willing nor able to return to make a sequel. The project bounced around a bit before landing in the hands of Jeannot Szwarc, who, to his credit, gave it as damn good a go as one possibly could. But this was not such an enviable task that Szwarc had landed, as he was faced with lengthy shoots with a young ensemble cast, including one child, once again out on the open ocean. At the very least, they headed for a sunnier climate this time around, opting for Florida rather than New England. The Making Of featurette on the Jaws 2 DVD release has Szwarc and his crew detailing the grueling production process. It was cold, it was windy, and everything had multiplied. Three men became a dozen teenagers, one fishing boat became five or six catamarans, and the shark was due an even trickier death sequence in which it would charge into an electrical cable and be set on fire in close-up. Even Spielberg had trouble reining in all the various elements that made Jaws, so poor Jeannot had quite the burden on his shoulders.
‘Jaws 2’s Shark Problems Make It Into the Final Cut
It has to be said that the production deserves much admiration for what it did manage to pull off. But there are a number of now-infamous moments in Jaws 2 that evidence how difficult these practical effects were, simply by the implication that the takes that ended up in the final cut of the movie were the best ones they got. The most glaring blooper is in the shot of Mike Brody (Mark Gruner) being pulled out of the water into one of his friends’ boats as the shark charges towards him with its mouth open. This shot required take after take, as the timing was always off. The shark either bumped straight into Gruner, or he made it into the boat with plenty of time to spare. They needed a near miss, but it just so happened that when they finally got it, the hydraulic innards of the shark were clearly visible through its open mouth. Sure, the 35mm film of the ’70s made it less obvious than it is now in 4K remasters, but this little faux pas rendered a tense scene somewhat laughable.
Another equally obvious case of shark delinquency is in a shot of it charging towards one of the boats, right in the direction of the camera. As its head mounts the side of the boat, its jaws are firmly squeezed together, giving a very amusing visual that can only be compared to a gummy geriatric shark who took his dentures out. It takes a second or two for the right lever to be pulled, and for the shark to open his mouth in the menacing way he always does when eyeing up tasty morsels. The shark attack sequences of Jaws 2 are high octane and have a lot going on, but when these little moments of bad puppetry occur, you can’t help but smile at the silliness of it all.
‘Jaws 2’s Flaws Make the Horror Sequel Endearing
But I’d never say that Jaws 2 is a bad movie, or that the people who made it didn’t know what they were doing. It’s actually a very good movie, and when you take a minute to consider the logistics of what was required to make it happen, you have to admit that it’s a pretty remarkable feat. These moments making it into the final cut not only underpin how hard they were working to get it right, but they also bring you back around to reality for a second. Usually, something taking you out of the action of a movie is a bad thing, one that ruins the immersion and breaks whatever spell it had over you. But in this case, it reminds you that you’re watching a movie, one that was difficult to make and that a lot of talented people put a great deal of labor into. It didn’t come out perfect, but it gives you a little window into the movie-making process and all its many struggles and riddles. They say that it’s our imperfections that make us who we are, and I think the same can be said for movies. Jaws 2 is not perfect, but those crazy kids gave it a damn good go, and in the end, made the only respectable sequel of a franchise that Universal wouldn’t be done milking for quite some time.
