“Trying to get retribution against a fish is crazy.” -Peter Benchley, Jaws

[dropcap] J [/dropcap]aws the film and Jaws the book are both considered classics in their own right, but I believe it’s safe to say that more people have seen the movie than read the book. Seeing as the book came out in 1974 and the movie in 1975, there wasn’t much time in between book and movie, and, in the years since, the film has appeared on numerous “Best Movies Ever” lists, been rerun on TV a countless number of times, and spawned a plethora of awful sequels. It’s one of Steven Spielberg’s most popular films, and it still holds up to this day. Jaws is a movie that I’ve seen countless times, and yet, any time I’m changing channels and come across it on TV, I end up watching it– transfixed. It’s the very definition of movie magic.

And while Peter Benchley’s novel is an entertaining page-turner (the ultimate beach read, as it were), it doesn’t contain nearly half the wonder that Spielberg splashes across the screen. For one thing, almost all the characters in Benchley’s book are terrible people. Spielberg has said in interviews that he found the characters in Benchley’s book so unsympathetic that he actually wanted the shark to win.

By now everyone should know what the movie is about, but just in case you’ve never seen it (and if you haven’t, you need to rectify that, post-haste, weirdo), I’ll give you the bare-bones breakdown: in the seaside town of Amity, a young girl is brutally killed by an unseen force in the water (spoiler: it’s a shark!). Police Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) is pretty positive this was a shark attack, but the clueless mayor (Murray Hamilton) doesn’t want to hear it. Brody eventually brings in shark expert Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) to help him prove that a shark is involved. After several shark-deaths and a big old “I told you so” from Brody; The two of them plus local crazy fisherman Quint (Robert Shaw) head out to sea to stop the shark once and for all. On the boat, the three men argue and then bond, Brody says his famous “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” line, and the shark smashes shit up. Quint dies, Brody blows up the shark, and he and Hooper (who conveniently has been hanging out underwater during the big climax) swim for shore. John Williams music is aplenty. Everyone claps.

Jaws is endlessly entertaining. Spielberg’s direction is masterful, and the performances of our three leads—Scheider, Dreyfuss and Shaw—are incredibly enjoyable. All three actors brings their own unique acting styles to these three unique characters, and it’s so damn fun watching them bounce off each other. The shark is one of the all-time great movie monsters; Spielberg wisely keeps the shark hidden for the first half of the film (though originally this was due to budgetary reasons and a faulty mechanical shark), so that when the monster fish finally does pop up it has a greater impact. Jaws is, simply put, one of the best American films of all time and the reigning king of great summer blockbusters.

So how does Peter Benchley’s book compare? As fun as Spielberg’s movie is, Benchley deserves some of the credit for coming up with all this, right?

Well, sure, the skeleton of the story is all there in Benchley’s book. We do indeed focus on these three men as they try to catch the shark, and the shark does indeed wreak havoc. But there is a pretty drastic difference in how the book portrays these guys compared to the movie. Spielberg is the ultimate crowd-pleasing director; for years, he made movies not just for young people or old people, but for everyone. So when he took on Benchley’s book, he was going to have to make some major changes to make sure everyone liked these guys.

Brody in the book is a little similar to his movie counterpart, but he’s also more of a jerk. Everyone is more of a jerk in the book. In the film, Brody and his wife Ellen (Lorraine Gary) get along pretty darn well. In the book, they are constantly at each other’s throats. Book-Ellen resents her life with Brody, and she hates Brody for making her leave her fancy life in New York City to come live on Amity Island. She feels trapped in her marriage, and Brody is somewhat impotent against her anger.

Ellen in the book is so unhappy with the marriage that when Matt Hooper shows up, she begins having an affair with him. It turns out book-Hooper’s older brother used to date Ellen, so Ellen sees having an affair with Hooper as a way of recapturing her old, carefree life. In the film, Hooper is a bit of a blowhard, but in the book, he is a downright nasty SOB. He’s super proud of his Ivy league education (as well he should be, but Jesus, shut up already), and pretty much resents anyone else having opinions other than his. Ellen and Hooper frequently meet in a seedy hotel for their affair, and Brody begins to suspect things. Brody is endlessly pathetic in the book; while the movie makes him something of a schlub, completely out of his element when he’s out on Quint’s boat, the book makes him a man constantly resenting his advancing age and feeling jealous of Hooper. There’s even a part in the book where, when the three men are out on Quint’s boat, Brody actually tries to STRANGLE HOOPER!

The film’s mayor character is a clueless fool, constantly trying to shrug off the shark warnings, because he wants Amity to make money from all those tourists. Him being a dope is perfectly acceptable on its own, but Benchley actually gives the mayor more of a motive for keeping the beaches open: he’s in deep to the MAFIA. That’s right, if you ever were watching Jaws and said, “This movie needs more mobsters,” well, the book is for you. The mafia has sunk oodles of money in real estate on Amity, and if the mayor were to close the beaches, he’d be fitted with cement shoes and sleeping with the fishes. Fuggedabout it! Spaghetti and meatballs!

Quint is also fairly different in his book form. In the film, Robert Shaw’s boozy, loud performance is the stuff of legend, but book-Quint barely speaks at all (he certainly doesn’t give the epic Indianapolis speech he gives in the film). He’s nowhere near as memorable as his film counterpart. He also doesn’t go out being chomped to death by the shark but rather drowns when a rope from his harpoon gets stuck to the great white (similar to how Ahab dies in Moby Dick).

In the film, once the three men are out to sea, they stay there, creating a perfect sense of isolation and later, hopelessness, when the shark is in full attack mode. In Benchley’s book, every night, after the three shark hunters turn up empty handed, they just go home. This feels like it lowers the stakes; in Spielberg’s film, there’s the sense that the men are trapped at sea with the shark. In the book, they just go home when they get bored.

Hooper’s fate in the book differs drastically from the film; like in the movie, he goes into the water in his big shark cage, and like in the movie, the shark is like, “LOL, no, Hooper,” and attacks. Hooper narrowly escapes in the film, but in the book, the shark eats him, and Brody (since he’s a jerk in the book, remember?) is none too upset about this, given his suspicions about Hooper and his wife.

Spielberg knew he was making a big spectacle movie, and he knew he had to end things with a bang. The book’s ending is much more low key. In the book, as Brody floats in the wreckage of the ship, he waits as the shark swims towards him, and he more or less accepts his fate as soon-to-be shark food. It looks like this is the end for Chief Brody!

Then the shark just dies.

OK, it’s not as anticlimactic as that (the shark has been severely injured and dies from its wounds), but it’s a pretty wimpy ending for our great white monster. One minute the shark is swimming towards Brody; the next, it’s dead and sinking beneath the water. Oh, how…exciting…?

When the book is pitted against the film, the film is the winner. That’s not to say Benchley’s book is bad. It’s well written, and it has some interesting themes. Benchley is big on using his great white shark symbolically the way Herman Mellville used his great white whale in Moby Dick. To put it bluntly, Benchley’s book was written “for adults,” and Spielberg’s movie was made for everyone. Sometimes, the movie is better.

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