Did Hendricks miss his chance to kill the shark in JAWS?
One of the reasons we love running The Daily Jaws is hearing from fans with questions and threories about the movies. Since TDJ’s creation in 2015, you’ve helped us discover more about JAWS than ever before. One eagle-eyed (or should that be dolled-eyed?) fan, Rodger Sargent wrote to us with an observation that he felt questioned his JAWS sanity but we feel is a legit question…. Did Hendricks miss his chance to kill the shark in JAWS?
Rodger says….
I’m very pleased to hear I’m not going mad, but at the same time somewhat gutted to have it confirmed I’m not the only one to have spotted it!
It was my Jaws guilty secret - just between me and Spielberg. Every time I saw it, I thought no one else was in on it and I was very proud of myself. Not one - of the many - people I’ve watched Jaws with had ever noticed, nor had I seen it mentioned on The Daily Jaws, Twitter or in my many Jaws books. To my knowledge Spielberg has never commented on it. Now I know it's out there, I’d love to hear what fellow fans think.
Is it possible it was an accident; the boys were ‘practising’ with the fin and it happened to be in the shot? Or was Bruce having a test run ready to get up close and personal with the Estuary Victim (my favourite kill, by the way)?
Or maybe, just maybe, it was a real great white that had been attracted in by all the activity - filming Jaws was like ringing the dinner bell for Christ sake, and serving them up as schmorgasboard!
“If Hendricks had better eyesight, it might have been a different movie?!”
It is of course highly unlikely to be an accident, given Spielberg’s genius - what a testament to his confidence and skill as 26 year old to subliminally leave in such a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ moment for the viewer to observe - or not.
Watch our JAWS 2 45th anniversary interview with actor Jeffrey Kramer below.
Words Rodger Sargent
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