JAWS 2 interview series reignites fan's love for sharky sequel

I’m all 2 grateful to The Daily Jaws for the collection of videos bestowed upon us for the 45th anniversary of the first sequel to Jaws. Although I’ve seen Jaws 2 dozens of times, I’ll admit my interest in it waned over the past decade because the decibel level was rough on my tender ears. But after watching the interviews, I’ve been diving back into the film with renewed gusto.

My two favorite interviews are with the directors – John D Hancock and Jeannot Szwarc. The insight they provide is both interesting and thought-provoking. And Ross Williams treads what could have been treacherous waters with verve and tact. As he says, while we would have liked to have seen Hancock’s darker vision, what Szwarc did with such minimal preparation was an amazing feat.

A couple of Hancock’s scenes – the fin swimming into the Amity harbor at night and the tense parasailing scene in which Mike doesn’t know he’s in danger from the shark – remain in the finished product and they really make us wonder what Jaws 2 might have been if he stayed at the helm. At one point, Ross says Hancock’s original vision should be pitched to Netflix as a mini-series, and wouldn’t that be something worthy of an all-night binge? It fits perfectly into company’s penchant for horror series and probably would do big business.

John D Hancock (speaking with Ross from The Daily Jaws) was the original director on JAWS 2

Hancock fills us in on the politics behind his removal as director, and the ignominy of late wife Dorothy Tristan’s screenwriting contribution being ignored. But their vision of how the post-traumatic Shark City was taken over by a developer looking to revive the town through a dubious connection with some shady characters was largely left off the canvas, although those of us who know about that and/or the subplot in Peter Benchley’s original story probably read that into the final release. We can tell how hurt Hancock feels to this day over what happened, particularly with casting decisions like replacing Ricky Schroder as Sean.

Now my knowledge of Jaws 2 had been largely limited to Michael A. Smith’s engrossing Jaws 2: The Making of the Hollywood Sequel book, and Szwarc’s comments enable us to really get inside the belly of the beast with the 45th anniversary interviews. Coming from the whirlwind nature of directing in television and with just one week of prep time, he learned as a filmmaker to pick and choose his battles (one of which legendarily involved star Roy Scheider). Szwarc was able to impart a vision that came from his talent (with moves like the camera giving the point-of-view of the shark swimming toward victims) and happy accidents (when the shark opened wide against the boat just as the teens pulled an unconscious Mike to safety.)

It's wonderful to hear the classic story of Szwarc’s handshake deal with the studio that centered around the director being able to ask for a favor in the future. That favor wound up being called in a couple years later for a film very close to Szwarc’s heart, the epic romantic film Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.

Ross from The Daily Jaws speaking with JAWS 2 director Jeannot Szwarc

The Joe Alves interview is another treasure. My two favorite films of all time – Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jaws – owe so much to the work that he put in, which might have been unrecognized at the time but has earned him legendary status among fans in the ensuing years. I could sit for hours and listen to him tell stories of these films, and with his 45th anniversary interview, we get some insight that wouldn’t come from any other source, particularly in regard to the firing of Hancock, his hand in bringing Szwarc aboard and Oscar winner Verna Fields’ early involvement.

JAWS legend Joe Alves speaking with Ross from The Daily Jaws

Perhaps the best legacy of Jaws 2 has been the friendships made and carried on to this day by “the kids.” All of these interviews are so heartening, it really lifts the spirits to know that the months of turmoil they went through to get the picture done resulted in something so life-affirming. It’s tough to pick and choose favorite moments among them, but here are some key insights:

--When you want behind-the-scenes stories, go to Gary Springer (Andy). A lot of the actors talked about how their characters wound up just being horrified versions of themselves. And it’s really evident in Springer. He doesn’t quite want to own up to the sending of brandy to frightened actors on the water as hammerheards circled their catamaran, but c’mon – Andy … brandy  -- it’s right there! It’s tough to disprove such a seemingly perfect rhyming circumstance, especially when we hear about how Springer relished his experience on the film.

--Everyone has stories about how much Scheider didn’t want to be on the project. He had lost out on highly touted projects like The Deer Hunter because of his commitment to the sequel, and his displeasure apparently was shown constantly throughout the filming process. Almost all of the interviewees recall Scheider discarding his Martin Brody wardrobe to sit in a beach chair in a Speedo with a reflector to get some sun. 

--But how about this? Despite that unhappiness, Scheider made a key contribution (beyond his forthright performance, of course) in the second film. We all know he ad-libbed “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” – the most famous line in the original. And as Ann Dusenberry (Tina Wilcox) recounted, he also had a hand in perhaps Jaws 2’s most famous line. Scheider was the one who gave the idea of the stutter when Tina cries out “Sh-sh-sh-shark!” upon her rescue by the Brodys.

--Gigi Vorgan (Brooke) says Jaws 2’s true legacy was opening up a whole new resource for the motion picture industry through sequels. That might be considered a bit of a can of worms, since all sequels don’t live up to their origins the way Jaws 2 did, but to draw an analogy – Jaws was the first summer blockbuster and Jaws 2 became the first monumental sequel. For better or worse, it may occupy just as an important a niche in the history of film.

--Billy Van Zandt (Bob – and his tale of why his revamped character got the name is a hoot) points out how screenwriter Carl Gottlieb and Szwarc delivered the goods under the proverbial gun. To this day, he marvels at how Gottlieb typed up script pages at night that needed to be filmed the next day, and how Szwarc literally picked up the pieces to deliver a film that would satisfy the studio and the fans.

--Everyone was asked to quickly pitch a new Jaws movie, the one I liked the best came from John Dukakis (Polo) about a family of great whites menacing a particular town. The threat wouldn’t just come from one source, and that fact alone could make it even more suspenseful.

Jeffrey Kramer aka Deputy Hendricks spills the tea about some classic JAWS 2 stories!

I’ve saved one of the best for last – Jeffrey Kramer, who has been such a great ambassador for the first two films for so many years. Even if we can’t get a satisfactory answer to why he was Lenny in the original and Jeff in the sequel, he really gets the fondness that fans have for these films after all these years. He’s the link to virtually everyone on the canvas: he’s brothers from another mother with Szwarc, he’s one of the gang to the “kids” – yeah, he probably was in on Andybrandygate -- and he’s Jeff … or Lenny to the rest of us. Kudos for his callback to the police code 908, giving us an Easter egg to cap off his anniversary interview.

One hundred and eighty-eight million thanks to Ross for conducting all these great interviews and Dean Newman for providing the research and support that enabled him to do so. I just might be ready for the anniversary commentary now, with the volume turned down a couple of notches. Oh, and if you want my Jaws pitch … and even if you don’t … it would be for Jaws 5, People 0. It just might be the right time for the original concept for Jaws 3 to get its time in the sun … and the water.

Words by Paige Schector

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