Jaws 2

Jaws 2

Starring: Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Joseph Mascolo

Directed by: Jeannot Szwarc

Reviewed by: Conor Flynn






My first introduction as a child to the word ‘sequel’ came with a screening of the first follow-up to Jaws on television. No doubt to the amusement of other film critics, I also thought that ‘sequel’ was a pejorative term which meant ‘inferior’ or ‘second-rate’. This was back in the eighties when sequels were plentiful. You had ‘Grease 2’, ‘Police Academy 2’ or ‘Teen Wolf Too’ and so on. Sure, sequels had bad reputations, though there were one or two terrific sequels, namely ‘Star Trek II’ or ‘Mad Max 2’. Even ‘bad’ sequels such as ‘Halloween II’ and ‘The Fly II’ don’t seem quite as bad in retrospect. For me, ‘Jaws 2’ falls into that latter category…

Police chief Martin Brody (Scheider) again finds the beaches of Amity under threat after discovering the disappearance of a number of locals in the vicinity. His instincts are heightened on seeing the remains of a beached whale with a large bite mark which could possibly have been caused by a great white shark. Brody warns a disbelieving mayor (Hamilton), but soon discovers that a shark is responsible. Things turn much worse when Brody’s sons decide to venture out on a sailing trip against his wishes…

By far the biggest drawback of this follow up is the absence of certain cast and crew. Missing in action are Richard Dreyfuss and director Steven Spielberg, the latter who doesn’t even fill in on an executive producer capacity and would later comment on his regret for not doing so, something he rectified on his “jaws with legs” series ‘Jurassic Park’. With the departure of Dreyfuss, the knock on effect is that this time there is no-one for Chief Brody to draw his character arc from. There is also the problem that this character arc had been fulfilled by the end of the first film, leaving further stories with little elsewhere to go.

The high concept theme of man verses man verses nature remains intact; the first half comprises of Chief Brody’s investigation into a series of possible shark attacks which eventually prove to be true. Instead of being ignored, as in the original, this time no-one believes Brody. But the plot differences between the original and this sequel feels slight. Déjà vu eventually sets in. There are also some laughable scenes, particularly towards the end. Before you can say, “Look at that shark Potsie”, the great white sinks a helicopter! Despite idiotic moments such as this (there are quite a few), the film still remains gripping, with superb underwater photography, a terrific John Williams score and a reliable performance by Scheider (though his pay off line of “say ahhh!” is a real stinker next to the original films’ “smile you son-of-a-bitch!”).

‘Jaws 2’ is an unnecessary sequel, but as sequels go it isn’t too bad and certainly not as dire as the films that followed…