From the director of JAWS 2...the films of Jeannot Szwarc
JAWS 2 (1978) was an unenviable task, creating a follow-up to the first film that crossed the $100 million barrier, the former highest grossing film of all time (then recently surpassed by Star Wars), following in the footsteps of Steven Spielberg and the film that became an instant part of popular culture. Taking on that challenge - briefly - was John D. Hancock, before he was fired.
Enter Szwarc who helped deliver an effective sequel that for many never swam out of the shadow from its predecessor, whilst for others gave us an effective shark teen stalk and slash ahead of John Carpenter's Halloween, which was released later that year.
In a world where a JAWS sequel was never needed, but was always going to happen and help give Universal some more summer dollars, it was a film that delivered lots of memorable moments and set pieces, and also great box office.
After all these years, JAWS 2 - adjusted for inflation - is still the highest grossing shark film after the original JAWS, with The Meg (2018) swimming up the rear.
We all know what happened to Steven Spielberg post JAWS, but what about the director of JAWS 2? Paris-born Jeannot Szwarc may not be a familiar name, but you've likely enjoyed some of his post JAWS 2 cinematic outings, and if you haven't then perhaps they are worth seeking out.
Somewhere In Time (1980)
I fell in love with this Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour film when I was little, it just deserves to be seen and to be loved.
In a word it's exquisite. Essentially it is a time travel love story, where a playwright (Reeve, in his first big screen role since Superman: The Movie) who uses self-hypnosis to journey back in time and meet the actress whose portrait hangs in the hotel he is in, and that she used to frequent.
It's a classic story, which is more romance than time travel with impeccable performances by the leads, especially with Reeve on romantic leading man duties. You'll believe a man can cry.
This beautiful film is based on the book Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson (Duel and also wrote a draft of the script for Jaws 3D), with great support from Christopher Plummer and a glorious score by John Barry.
Whether it has been Time After Time (1979) with H.G. Wells (Blue Thunder's Malcolm McDowell) chasing Jack the Ripper (The Island's David Warner) to present day San Francisco, or Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) travelling to 1955 to help from 1985 in Back To The Future (1985), this was the film that lit my love of time travel films. So much so, that when I was little I used to try the self-hypnosis trick with my Dixons tape recorder to travel back and time. I can neither confirm or deny if it worked.
It was only because of the success of JAWS 2 that Time had been greenlit, its director having been promised carte blanche on his next Universal project, and this was it. It remains the favourite film of Jeannot's own.
Enigma (1982)
Martin Sheen stars as a CIA operative who must stop a Russian plot to assassinate five people planning to defect on Christmas Day. The actor leads an impressive cast that also includes Sam Neill, Derek Jacobi and Michael Lonsdale.
A complex old-fashioned spy thriller that sees the actors play Cold War chess with one another throughout
Supergirl (1984)
Think the female superhero movie started with the likes of Catwoman or Wonder Woman? Nope.
We believed a man could fly in Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie, and again in Superman II (1980) and Superman III (1983), turns out not so much with his female cousin, played by Helen Slater.
The flying sequences are great, there is some stellar support from Peter O'Toole, Faye Dunaway and Peter Cook, but the story is more than a little uneven with it bringing in more fantasy elements and witchcraft, which was at least trying something new and different.
Supergirl may not have flown high at the box office, but it is certainly important as the first female superhero to step onto the big screen and is far better than Superman IV: the quest for peace (1987).
Szwarc flew back to the Superman universe on TV, helming several episodes of Smallville.
Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)
You'll believe a bearded man dressed in red can fly! That's right, this festive feature is from the producers of the Superman films.
We get Dudley Moore as an elf, John Lithgow as a dastardly corporate toy manufacture, who is ably assisted by Jeffrey Kramer, who we all know and love as Deputy Hendricks from JAWS and JAWS 2, the latter directed by Szwarc.
It's an always a very busy and colourful film, with plenty of Christmas cheer and festive frolics...when you are little, but seems something of a hot mess when viewed as an adult. It's just noise and a Santa origin story that no one ever asked for.
Lithgow steals the film, but he doesn't turn up until an hour in. It isn't a horrible film, there are far worse Christmas-related fayre, but it is never going to be regarded as a Christmas classic. It just lacks the magic of say a Superman or E.T. - the extra-terrestrial. I did love the reindeer puppets though and it is great to see Kramer in a very different light.
None of the films following JAWS 2 were a commercial success in the US, but all showed Szwarc's diversity in storytelling, so perhaps it was no surprise to see the JAWS sequel helmer surface on television directing everything from Ally McBeal to The Practice, Supernatural, Grey's Anatomy to Designated Survivor. And that is exactly what Szwarc is, over 40 years after delivering sharks and shocks aplenty in JAWS 2.
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