The JAWS Christmas film trilogy
JAWS, as we all know, is a summer film, it earnt lots of summer dollars upon its release in 1975, so where does the Christmas link come in?
The Steven Spielberg shark classic remains a summer stalwart, not that you can't watch it any time of the year, and it was released in the UK the day after Christmas Day (as was JAWS 2 and JAWS 3D also had a December UK release), but that is still not part of this Christmas Carcharodon Carcharias conundrum.
It's more that JAWS has cameo appearances in a pair of modern Christmas film favourites, and the third element is one of the most derided film sequels in film history, but it is definitely a Christmas film.
Love Actually (2003)
Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Martin Freeman, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth and Rowan Atkinson are just some of the famous faces in this multi-faceted celebration of all things love at Christmas, from the pen of Richard Curtis who also gave us Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill.
Depending how you feel about those films will probably decide if it is Love or Hate Actually for this largely linked episodic romantic comedy, although there is p[probably a story strand for everyone, whether it be Grant’s Prime Minister dancing down to the stairs of Number 10 to Jump by Girl’s Aloud or the wonderful Bill Nighy and his turn as washed up rocker Billy Mack with his novelty single Christmas Is All Around.
And it is his manager – played by the aptly named Gregor Fisher – that brings us the JAWS element as he has the iconic Roger Kastel poster in his flat.
Sure, it may only be a fleeting appearance, but you don’t get that in Miracle on 34th Street or Scrooged. But, if you insist on your JAWS appearances in Christmas films to be bigger, then you are in look with the next festive flick.
The Holiday (2006)
Christmas and love goes transatlantic home swapping romantic comedy that sees Cameron Diaz in snow-filled Christmas card Blighty switching homes with Kate Winslet who ends up in LA, and more importantly in the sights of Jack Black who takes her to Blockbuster (gee, remember those?) and talks up Jaws along with several other classic films in one of the most memorable and funny scenes of the film.
Or you could go the whole hog, or should that be shark, and plump for the Christmas turkey that is JAWS the Revenge.
Jaws the Revenge (1987)
There may be no roaring log fires, but you do get a roaring shark, The Last Starfighter as Mike Brody and Michael Caine dancing as you spend this festive time of the year with the Brody family in both snow-covered Amity Island and the sunny climbs of the Bahamas, perfect for these cold winter nights.
And what I like about the subtle use of Christmas in Jaws the Revenge is that it gives it an uneasy undercurrent, despite Sean's death, it continues. Having experienced loss at Christmas, I know how subverted it can all feel. I've often felt like doing a Michael Brody and running up that beach.
In many ways the film is about grief and Ellen (a returning Lorraine Gary) trying to escape it, by heading to the Bahamas, but - like the shark - it follows. There may not be the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future - but the ghosts of the past are certainly there with Chief Brody's off screen death and Ellen getting echoes of the past with the sepia flashbacks (even if they were events she never saw, I'm sure Martin would have told her about them), the ghosts of the present are her family and her worry that her only remaining son may die because of the shark, and the future is her possible new one with Hoagie.
By the end – whichever version it is you get to see, indeed there are two – you’ll be saying what the Dickens more than Charles Dickens, but I say humbug to anyone who can’t at least forgive a little of Jaws the Revenge at Christmas.
Call it a Christmas miracle if you like, but here are ten reasons to at least love JAWS the Revenge a little bit more than you did before.
Words by Dean Newman
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